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Speaker 1: Hey, their listeners. In the past ten episodes, we've told

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Speaker 1: you the story of Steve Patterson and how Franklin Floyd's

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Speaker 1: impact on his family continues to echo today. As you

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Speaker 1: know from this series, there are several people in law

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Speaker 1: enforcement who tried to bring Floyd to justice, who worked

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Speaker 1: hard to unravel as trail of lies. This was the

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Speaker 1: work of many Some you met, like Agent Scott lab

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Speaker 1: many you didn't. In this bonus episode, we're going to

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Speaker 1: hear more from Mark Ynsey, who prosecuted Franklin Floyd and

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Speaker 1: the kidnapping case of Michael Hughes and his principal, James Davis.

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Speaker 1: He has some pretty incredible memories about what went down

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Speaker 1: at Floyd's trial in Oklahoma City. He'll tell us about

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Speaker 1: what it was like when Floyd finally faced consequences, how

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Speaker 1: law enforcement finally caught Floyd for Ceryl Comesso's murder, and

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Speaker 1: what the memorial was like when they changed the name

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Speaker 1: on Susi Sevega's headstone.

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Speaker 2: To reflect her real name.

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Speaker 1: I recommend listening to episodes one through ten before diving

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Speaker 1: into this one. He talks a lot about Franklin Floyd

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Speaker 1: and his many crime I should also give a warning

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Speaker 1: some of the things Mark taught about our graphic and

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Speaker 1: discussed both murder and sexial abuse. My producer, Kate Michigan

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Speaker 1: spoke with Mark Yancey.

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Speaker 3: This is chapter thirteen, Mark Yancey on Floyd's trial. I

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Speaker 3: want to start with your time at the US Attorney's Office.

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Speaker 3: Can you tell me what attracted you to that work.

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Speaker 2: When I got out of law school in nineteen eighty six,

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Speaker 2: I actually immediately joined the FBI as an FBI Special

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Speaker 2: Agent and they sent me to Oklahoma, and I was

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Speaker 2: an FBI Special Agent and legal advisor for about four

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Speaker 2: and a half years, and I presented cases to the

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Speaker 2: US Attorney's Office for prosecution. Worked very closely with the prosecutors,

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Speaker 2: and I liked being in court. I liked seeing what

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Speaker 2: the prosecutors are doing. I want to do that.

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Speaker 3: And what year was this when you started with the

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Speaker 3: US Attorney's Office.

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Speaker 2: I started with the US Attorney's Office in nineteen ninety one, Okay.

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Speaker 3: Three years later. I kind of want to take us

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Speaker 3: back to that point. At this point in our story,

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Speaker 3: SUSU se Vegas had been killing the hit and run

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Speaker 3: Michael's put into the care of Merle and earnest being

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Speaker 3: and then in September of that year, Franklin Floyd kidnapped

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Speaker 3: both Michael and Principal James Davis from the elementary school

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Speaker 3: and left with Jess Michael, what was your first touch

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Speaker 3: point with the story?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, this case got legs from early on,

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Speaker 2: and there's just so many twists and turns and unsolved

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Speaker 2: issues that it just is. Yeah, it was an honor

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Speaker 2: or work on something like this, notwithstanding the fact that

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Speaker 2: there's so many tragedies involved. My first touch point was

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Speaker 2: with one of my former colleagues at the FBI, Joe Fitzpatrick.

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Speaker 2: We had worked together as agents and he had been

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Speaker 2: assigned this case that afternoon and he called me at

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Speaker 2: home that evening. I had not heard about the kidnapping,

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Speaker 2: and he explained the situation to me, and to me,

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Speaker 2: initially what he was describing is it sounded a little

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Speaker 2: bit like more of a domestic type kidnapping. So I

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Speaker 2: was hopeful that, you know, Michael was safe. And he

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Speaker 2: explained the situation to me and wanted to know what

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Speaker 2: we could do if we happened to find Franklin Floyd

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Speaker 2: for it to be a federal kidnapping and a federal offense,

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Speaker 2: the victim would have to be taken across state lines

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Speaker 2: in interstate commerce. So I did not think we had

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Speaker 2: a viable federal kidnapping charge at that point. However, Agent

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Speaker 2: Fitzpatrick explained to me that Franklin Floyd had a long

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Speaker 2: criminal history and that he had taken Michael in the

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Speaker 2: principle at the endpoint that day. But the next day,

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Speaker 2: as we started to delve into Franklin Floyd's background, that

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Speaker 2: is when I really became concerned about Michael in his

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Speaker 2: well being, because this just didn't look like a case

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Speaker 2: where some he really wanted the child. I concluded pretty

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Speaker 2: quickly based on Franklin Floyd's background, He's probably a sociopath,

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Speaker 2: lacked empathy, incapable of love. So I knew he's not

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Speaker 2: doing this out of love for the child. This is

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Speaker 2: just another possession for him, and people can discard possessions

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Speaker 2: pretty easily sometimes.

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Speaker 3: And so where was Floyd arrested? Where they find him?

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Speaker 2: Well, he was arrested, you know, months later. So this

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Speaker 2: happened in September, arrested around Halloween. I think it was Louisville, Kentucky,

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Speaker 2: and Joe Fitzpatrick fought that Franklin Floyd may try to

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Speaker 2: use one of those old aliases to get some type

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Speaker 2: of state credential like a driver's license. And that's exactly

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Speaker 2: how we found him. He had slipped up by trying

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Speaker 2: to get an ID under one of his old aliases.

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Speaker 3: And how were you able to inject him on kidnapping charges?

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Speaker 3: How to line up for that to work?

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Speaker 2: Well, a lot had to line up the other charges

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Speaker 2: that I think we had charged five federal crimes at

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Speaker 2: the time. One was kidnapping, one was using a firm

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Speaker 2: during a relation to the kidnapping. Of course, the carjacking

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Speaker 2: statute was applied because he had taken James Davis's truck

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Speaker 2: at gunpoint, and we also charged a interstate transportation of

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Speaker 2: stolen property, that being the truck because we had found

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Speaker 2: the truck later and it Texas in the parking lot

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Speaker 2: of a Wonderbread bakery. All the charges were very straightforward

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Speaker 2: with the exception of the kidnapping. And the kidnapping was

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Speaker 2: a little more problematic because one we didn't find Michael.

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Speaker 2: Since we didn't have Michael, we had to prove that

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Speaker 2: element of the crime circumstantially, so you could draw some

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Speaker 2: reasonable inferences that if he left the next day on

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Speaker 2: a bus from Dallas to Atlanta, Georgia, that it makes

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Speaker 2: since that he probably took Michael very quickly, knowing that

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Speaker 2: police would be in Oklahoma would be swarming looking for

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Speaker 2: that vehicle, probably left the state very quickly and drove

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Speaker 2: straight to Dallas, Texas, which is only about three and

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Speaker 2: a half hours from Oklahoma City, abandoned the truck there,

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Speaker 2: and then of course took the Greyhound bus to Atlanta.

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Speaker 2: So that was the theory of our case and how

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Speaker 2: we established circumstantially that he had taken Michael in interstate commerce.

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Speaker 3: I wonder if you can take him back to the

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Speaker 3: trial and set the state here, like, where's it being held,

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Speaker 3: who's representing him, who shows up to the courthouse every day,

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Speaker 3: what's this all like.

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Speaker 2: The trial actually started in April of nineteen ninety five,

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Speaker 2: ten days before the Oklahoma City bombing, which actually occurred

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Speaker 2: right across the street from the courthouse where we tried

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Speaker 2: Franklin Floyd. We had a very senior judge assigned to

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Speaker 2: the case, Judge Wayne Alley, very experienced, and the trial

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Speaker 2: became a little interesting because Franklin Floyd decided to waive

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Speaker 2: his right to a jury trial, and we don't know why,

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Speaker 2: but I can speculate his thinking was, since this case

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Speaker 2: involves a child, that a jury may not give me

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Speaker 2: a fair shape. Because it involves a minor victim, people

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Speaker 2: may be automatically biased, especially when we hadn't found Michael yet.

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Speaker 2: There was another interesting twist to the case. He really

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Speaker 2: wanted to represent himself. He very much wanted to be

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Speaker 2: able to question witnesses and make arguments to the court.

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Speaker 2: You typically can't have a lawyer and argue the case yourself.

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Speaker 2: It's one or the other. Judge ally allowed some form

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Speaker 2: of hybrid representation to placate Franklin Floyd. I don't know

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Speaker 2: why he did that. I can speculate that he thought

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Speaker 2: that we might have bursts in court. He was represented

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Speaker 2: by Susan Otto, who was the public defender in Oklahoma

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Speaker 2: City at the time. I believe she still is the public.

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Speaker 3: Defender, and Floyd himself in the courtroom. I read that

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Speaker 3: he I think he tried to marry a witness. I

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Speaker 3: understand that he was belligerent. What do you remember about

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Speaker 3: all that?

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Speaker 2: He was more constrained than I thought he would be,

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Speaker 2: And I think the only reason he was more constrained

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Speaker 2: is because the judge allowed him to sort of blow

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Speaker 2: off steam. I think that diffused the situation.

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Speaker 3: Did he ever take the stand?

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Speaker 2: He did not take the stand. He presented his defense

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Speaker 2: generally through cross examination or arguments to the court.

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Speaker 3: Who did the prosecution called as witnesses.

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Speaker 2: Ed Camiga was my trial partner. He was lead counsel ed,

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Speaker 2: and I called a number of witnesses as you can imagine.

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Speaker 2: We started with the deputy sheriff that actually responded to

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Speaker 2: the kidnapping and found James Davis had been handcuffed to

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Speaker 2: a tree in the woods behind the elementary school in Chalkhaw, Oklahoma,

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Speaker 2: in a wooded area. One of the defenses to federal

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Speaker 2: kidnapping is that a parent cannot be guilty of kidnapping

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Speaker 2: their child, and it's very clear in the statute, and

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Speaker 2: of course that was one of Franklin Floyd's key defenses

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Speaker 2: is I can't be guilty. I am the father of

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Speaker 2: Michael Hughes. So we put on DNA evidence to disprove

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Speaker 2: that he was the biological father of Michael Hughes. And

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Speaker 2: of course he countered by suggesting that he was sort

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Speaker 2: of the de facto father or grandfather.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I would think you'd pick one.

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Speaker 2: A father is actually the tact he took, which we

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Speaker 2: thought was an odd tack to take, because obviously he

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Speaker 2: always claimed he was Sharon Marshall's father and Michael was

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Speaker 2: Sharon's child, so how could you be the father of both.

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Speaker 2: We had the Beans testify, obbo, so they had to

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Speaker 2: identify photographs of Michael and be able to talk about,

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Speaker 2: you know, dropping him off at the elementary school that morning,

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Speaker 2: and of course that they had been the foster parents

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Speaker 2: and that he had been in their care.

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Speaker 3: What's your recollection of their emotional state?

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Speaker 2: Very distraught and troubled. I think they had genuinely grown

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Speaker 2: to really love Michael. He had become part of the family.

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Speaker 2: Michael had really started to thrive under their care, and

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Speaker 2: he had, you know, step siblings who were much older,

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Speaker 2: and they had grown to like him and love him

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Speaker 2: as well. So I think it was very traumatic for

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Speaker 2: them as well.

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Speaker 3: It seems hard to talk about everything he's done without

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Speaker 3: talking about Susie Sebacas. Susie Serbakas, whose alias was of

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Speaker 3: course Sharon Marshall. Did anyone talk about her in the

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Speaker 3: court room or to what extent was she brought up.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we talked about her a lot because to refute

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Speaker 2: the fact act that he was Michael's father, we had

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Speaker 2: to talk a lot about Lloyd's relationship with Sharon and

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Speaker 2: how he basically held himself out as her father those years.

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Speaker 2: So we called one of her best friends from high

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Speaker 2: school talk about that relationship. We knew he wasn't the

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Speaker 2: biological father. If anything, he was Sharon's de facto's stepfather.

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Speaker 2: Therefore he could not be Michael ste facto stepfather. So

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Speaker 2: all of that was done to try to negate this

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Speaker 2: defense that he was somehow Michael's parent. We called a

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Speaker 2: number of other witnesses. Greg Higgs, who was actually Michael's

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Speaker 2: biological father, we called him to the stand. Obviously we

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Speaker 2: had his DNA to confirm that he was Michael's biological father.

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Speaker 3: What was he like?

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Speaker 2: Very normal, married and had his own children and knew

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Speaker 2: nothing about Michael. He did not know that he was

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Speaker 2: Michael's father, and had noted to us that if he

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Speaker 2: would have known that there was this whole custody dispute

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Speaker 2: and that Sharon had died, he would have gladly adopted

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Speaker 2: Michael as his own son. Wow.

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Speaker 3: I know that his mental health issues that he struggled

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Speaker 3: with came up a lot in his Florida case, and

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Speaker 3: that's the reason why he's never apparently put to death.

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Speaker 3: Did this come up at all in this case.

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Speaker 2: Not really. We had a psychiatric exam conducted by a

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Speaker 2: local psychiatrist, doctor Donica. He was a sociopath. Doctor Donaga

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Speaker 2: just told his point blank that he doubted very seriously

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Speaker 2: whether Michael was alive, which we already knew. We didn't

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Speaker 2: have a body, but we knew when Franklin Floyd was

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Speaker 2: arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, and Michael was not there, and

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Speaker 2: Floyd gave a number of different excuses, crazy excuses as

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Speaker 2: to what hypened to Michael in conflicting statements. We knew

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Speaker 2: that he was dead.

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Speaker 3: When was he sentenced and what was that sentence?

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Speaker 2: It was months later. Essentially got fifty two year sentence

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Speaker 2: because we have federal sentencing guidelines, so he got the

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Speaker 2: maximum he could get into the federal sentencing guidelines. And

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Speaker 2: I think at the time he was fifty six, and

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Speaker 2: there's no parole in the federal system. So when you

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Speaker 2: get a fifty year plus sentence. It's effectively life without parole.

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Speaker 3: Something that just continues to stand out to me in

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Speaker 3: this case is just how he got away with so

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Speaker 3: much for so long. I mean, to not even be

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Speaker 3: charged in that homicide. I understand why not. He's just

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Speaker 3: a fugitive for so long. How do we explain this?

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Speaker 2: Good luck for him and bad luck for law enforcement?

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Speaker 2: He was smart enough to move frequently and change names frequently,

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Speaker 2: rather than just you know, going to one area, assuming

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Speaker 2: one alias and keeping it for decades. He just seemed

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Speaker 2: to always stay one step ahead of the law, picked

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Speaker 2: the right time to just move and flee.

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Speaker 3: So Floyd stole the principal's pickup truck in nineteen ninety

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Speaker 3: four during the kidnapping, and incredibly, it was only discovered

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Speaker 3: years later in the parking lot of the Wonderbread Baking factory.

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Speaker 3: At what point was that found in Dallas?

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Speaker 2: That was found quite a bit later, But it was

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Speaker 2: obvious that it had been parked for a long time

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Speaker 2: because of how dirty it was and how there was

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Speaker 2: you know, debris underneath the truck as well. So the

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Speaker 2: truck was found and interior of it I think was

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Speaker 2: searched months and months after the truck had been repurchased

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Speaker 2: by someone. The gentleman who bought it took it in

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Speaker 2: for some repairs. They put it up on a lift,

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Speaker 2: and that's when it was just governed that there were

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Speaker 2: a number of photographs taped to the gas tank of

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Speaker 2: that truck.

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Speaker 3: Can you kind of walk me through what happened after that?

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Speaker 2: Obviously law enforcement was notified. There was some very disturbing

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Speaker 2: photos that they found taped to the gas tank. We

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Speaker 2: eventually were able to take custios and look through them,

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Speaker 2: and it was pretty obvious to me and all of

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Speaker 2: us when we saw those photos that these were sort

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Speaker 2: of Franklin Floyd's trophies, because there was a lot of

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Speaker 2: incriminating photographs, including photographs of Sharon Marshall was a little

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Speaker 2: girl inappropriate type poses. Essentially it was child pornography, which

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Speaker 2: confirmed our suspicion that he was a pedophile, and this

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Speaker 2: confirmed that he had essentially been probably sexually abusing Shurant

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Speaker 2: Marshall since shortly after he came into possession of her.

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Speaker 2: There were photographs of her dressed and clothes as a teenager,

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Speaker 2: but and for a provocative type of clothing. There was

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Speaker 2: also some pretty disturbing photos of a woman who was

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Speaker 2: bound and gagged, and it looked to us like we

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Speaker 2: had some type of victim of a climb there, which

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Speaker 2: was again consistent with what we knew of him, and

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Speaker 2: obviously we were very concern that we had salt victim,

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Speaker 2: maybe a homicide victim, and we needed to find out

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Speaker 2: who that was.

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Speaker 3: This was Cheryl Comeasso.

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Speaker 2: There were also another photo or two of women that

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Speaker 2: we never identified. They did not appear to be in

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Speaker 2: any type of distress, but we had concerns that these

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Speaker 2: were sort of his trophies. These trophies are precious to

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Speaker 2: these type of offenders and predators. I mean, these are keepsakes.

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Speaker 2: I assume he was hoping he could maybe somehow get

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Speaker 2: to those later. Yeah, these were polaroids and he was

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Speaker 2: very clear not to show himself in any of them,

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Speaker 2: although there was one good thumb photo in one of

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Speaker 2: the photographs that the police in Florida used to their

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Speaker 2: advantage to try to identify him.

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Speaker 3: So you put his thumb in the photograph, which is

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Speaker 3: just a stupid okay, many people often do via accident,

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Speaker 3: and this happened to be a really stupid mistake for him.

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Speaker 3: That's really interesting.

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Speaker 2: When we sat down with Agent Fitzpatrick about this, Agent

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Speaker 2: Fitzpatrick was, I think the office's ViCAP representative. The acronyms

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Speaker 2: VIICAP stands for the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program and this

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Speaker 2: was a system set up by the FBI to try

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Speaker 2: to connect serial offenders who may travel from state to

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Speaker 2: state commit crimes of violence. So Agent Fitzpatrick immediately put

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Speaker 2: these photographs into the system, asking, you know, law enforcement

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Speaker 2: nation wide if anyone recognized these photos in this particular victim,

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Speaker 2: and sure enough to detectives in Saint Petersburg Police Department,

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Speaker 2: Bob Shock and Mark DeSario working a Jane do homicide case,

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Speaker 2: they immediately recognized the clothing that the victim was wearing.

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Speaker 2: They had found a body, the skeletal remains of a

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Speaker 2: woman a few years earlier in Saint Petersburg area. They

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Speaker 2: were able to take the clothing and wash it. And

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Speaker 2: when you look at the photos they uploaded, and you

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Speaker 2: saw the pink or the purple bikini and the striped

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Speaker 2: shirt and compared it with the photos that we found,

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Speaker 2: you could tell us the exact same clothing, and they

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Speaker 2: were able to identify the victim as Cheryl Comesso. This

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Speaker 2: absolutely connected the due cases. They did not have a suspect.

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Speaker 2: Then this immediately made Franklin Floyd a suspect, since he

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Speaker 2: was in custody of those photos when she's wearing the

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Speaker 2: same clothes, and it was probably the very night she

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Speaker 2: was murdered. She was shot one or two rounds to

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Speaker 2: the head.

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Speaker 3: Did you follow the shehl Comeso case in Florida?

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Speaker 2: I did. I almost got called as a witness because

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Speaker 2: we convicted him first, and of course a lot of

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Speaker 2: the evidence we had was their key evidence. We shared evidence,

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Speaker 2: and we made a trip down to Florida to present

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Speaker 2: what we had found in our case to them.

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Speaker 3: And I know that you'd asked for life in prison.

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Speaker 3: How do you react to seeing him sentenced to death?

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Speaker 2: It was very satisfactory and appropriate.

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Speaker 1: If you've listened to her podcast, you know if Floyd

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Speaker 1: was sentenced today, but not actually put to death. He

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Speaker 1: died of old age behind bars. Next up, Kate Tosty

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Speaker 1: Yancy about a very special memorial service he attended for

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Speaker 1: Susie Sevegas.

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Speaker 3: I understand that you were at the burial service in Oklahoma.

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Speaker 3: Can you tell me how that all came to be?

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Speaker 2: You know, I don't know who initiated that, but we

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Speaker 2: had a ceremony in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Sebakas is buried

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Speaker 2: actually under the name Sharon Marshall, and you know, someone

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Speaker 2: thought it would be fitting to get all the family

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Speaker 2: together and have the name Suzanne Sevakas her real name

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Speaker 2: on the headstone instead of some alias that she had

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Speaker 2: been living under, and that's what we did. So that

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Speaker 2: was the first time we got to meet mister Sebakas

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Speaker 2: who came down, and different family members and you know

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Speaker 2: agents that work on the case, friends of Sharon's who

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Speaker 2: knew her, and Tulsa her high school friend from Georgia,

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Speaker 2: her best friend from high school in Georgia. So, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it was just a way to honor her and correct history.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds like it would have been a very

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Speaker 3: very heavy day.

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Speaker 2: It was heavy, but fulfilling I think at the same

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Speaker 2: time that we could again put a true name to

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Speaker 2: this person, sort of show to the world who she

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Speaker 2: really was and that she did have a family. It

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Speaker 2: was sad, but again at the same time, I think

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Speaker 2: people had a lot of the mixed emotions and we're

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Speaker 2: just in some ways relieved and happy, that we're able

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Speaker 2: to put finality to this unsolved mystery.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and thank you to Mark Nancy for

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Speaker 1: taking the time. This is our last bonus episode. Many

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Speaker 1: thanks to our listeners. Please spread the word about this

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