People v. Franks CA4/2

FACTS

A. The Offense and Trial

On July 24, 2022, appellant, Jeremy Charles Franks, his pregnant girlfriend, and

their two young daughters were stopped at a stop sign in Victorville when a Jeep passed

in front of them. Franks’s car may have been protruding into the intersection a little. The

Jeep’s driver, Brock Moore, honked and made an obscene gesture as he passed. Moore

then pulled past the intersection, stopped his vehicle, leaned over for something, and got

out of the Jeep. Moore looked agitated.

Franks turned right and found Moore standing in the road. Franks stopped a little

behind and to the left of the other vehicle. Franks got out of his car with a gun in his

hand, and asked Moore if there was a problem. He stood behind his car door and seemed

fairly calm. Franks’s girlfriend said she heard Moore say, “Don’t make me kill you” and

2 saw Moore put his hands in his sweater. Franks responded by shooting Moore in the

head, killing him.

Police who responded to the scene found a partially opened folding knife next to

the Jeep. They later found Franks’s firearm under the passenger seat of his car. Franks

told police he was afraid of Moore. He said Moore had said…