Drug dealer is convicted of murdering Francke Former area man was head of Oregon prisons.

Author: The Associated Press

SALEM, Ore. - Prosecutors say they will seek a death sentence for Frank Gable, the small-time drug dealer convicted of murdering Oregon Corrections Director Michael Francke, who was a former Prairie Village, Kan., resident.

Jurors returned the verdict Thursday, finding Gable guilty on all charges, six counts of aggravated murder and one of murder.

Gable, 31, chose not to be in the courtroom when the verdict was read.

"My attorney dump-trucked me," he shouted as he was led from the courthouse to a waiting car after the verdict was announced.

The Marion County jury of nine women and three men deliberated 17 hours over two days. Jury selection began in February. Testimony began May 1. The penalty phase of the trial begins Monday. The jury can decide whether Gable should be put to death, be sentenced to life in prison without parole, or to life in prison with a minimum term of 30 years.

Tom Bostwick, Marion County's chief deputy district attorney, said the state will argue for the death penalty.

"We decided that a long time ago," he said.

A custodian found Francke's body early on Jan. 18, 1989, slumped on a porch of the Dome Building, which houses Corrections Department headquarters in Salem. Francke, 42, had been recruited from New Mexico in 1987 to take charge of Oregon's seriously overpopulated prison system.

When he lived in the Kansas City area, Francke was a football star at Rockhurst High School and received a full scholarship to the University of Virginia's law school.

Kevin Francke of Salem, brother of the slain corrections director, said he was shocked at the verdict.

"I'm totally surprised," he said. "I'm floored. I didn't think they had a case. I still don't think they have a case. " Kevin Francke has claimed all along that his brother had uncovered corruption in the Corrections Department and was killed in a cover-up.

Kevin Francke said he still believes it was a conspiracy and he will continue his own investigation of the case. He said the state gave up looking for the real killers a long time ago.

The case drew national attention after Kevin Francke and another brother, Patrick Francke of Kansas City, said they thought their brother was killed because he had uncovered high-level corruption within the prison system. The NBC-TV program "Unsolved Mysteries" suggested Francke was kidnapped before he was murdered.

Prosecutors Tom Bostwick and Sarah Moore argued that Gable killed Francke during a car burglary. They suggested Gable wanted to steal information about police informants, but was caught.

Francke apparently stumbled back to the building after he was stabbed in the heart.

The state relied on incriminating statements by Gable and the testimony of five methamphetamine users. Four said Gable told them he killed Francke. The fifth, Cappie "Shorty" Harden, said he saw Gable stab a man.

Gable's lawyers, Abel and John Storkel, emphasized the lack of physical evidence linking Gable to the killing. They brought in drug addicts and others who called the prosecution's witnesses liars.

Police crime experts agreed the state's explanation of the killing was not the only plausible theory.

Court-appointed defense lawyer Bob Abel refused to comment after the verdict.