An Oklahoma dentist charged with the murder of his mistress’s child has been accused of arranging to have the mother murdered before she could testify against him.
Bert Franklin, 36, was charged with the beating death of 19-month-old Lincoln Von Henry Lewis in July 2016, KTUL reports.
Franklin is accused of slamming the child’s head into the ground, which ultimately killed the toddler. The suspect had been in a relationship with the child’s mother for over a year when the death occurred, but he was married at the time.
After assaulting the child, Franklin allegedly laid him on a bed where his mother later found him sleeping with his eyes open, making a snoring noise. She rushed him to the hospital where he died from his injuries the following day.
Home surveillance video allegedly shows Franklin kicking and slamming the child into the ground, but a wall dividing the video obscures the child. He claims it was a dog that he was kicking, according to News OK.
Franklin was set to go to trial for the murder on Monday, but it was postponed after the dentist was accused of arranging to have his mistress killed to prevent her from testifying against him.
He allegedly used a cell phone from jail to offer a man $300 dollars to kill the mistress. He manipulated his wife into supplying the $300, though he told her the money was for “spirituality related reasons.”
The inmates Franklin conspired with were informants, and those men uncovered the plot to police.
He is now charged with first-degree conspiracy to commit murder.
[Feature photo: GoFundMe/Lincoln Von Henry Lewis]
