Testimony reveals new details in murder of PDHS teacher
An Indio man slit his girlfriend’s throat, ran her over with her car and dumped her body at an Indio golf course, a prosecutor said Monday, but his attorney said the defendant was a regular drug user who was in a
meth-induced “psychosis” at the time of the killing, meaning he is at most guilty of manslaughter.
Read: New Details released in the murder of popular Palm Desert High School teacher Jill Grant
Michael John Franco, 46, is accused of killing Jill Grant, a Palm Desert High School math teacher whose body was found at the Golf Club at Terra Lago in the early morning hours of Dec. 23, 2013.
Michael Franco pleads not guilty to murdering girlfriend
Franco faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of murder and special circumstance allegations of inflicting torture and committing the murder in the commission of a kidnapping. He also faces one felony count each of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and carrying a loaded firearm, along with sentence-enhancing allegations of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.
In her opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Kristi Kirk told jurors Franco confessed to the killing to a fellow inmate in 2014, saying he and Grant had gotten into an argument at their home, prompting him to slit her throat with a box cutter, then running her over with her Toyota Prius when she wouldn’t die.
“The human body is resilient,” Kirk said, quoting alleged statements Franco made to the inmate. “It is difficult for someone to actually die.”
Franco’s attorney, Dante Gomez, countered that the inmate’s statements were “fabricated” and that he made a plea deal with the District Attorney’s Office to offer the alleged statements in exchange for a sentence of probation on a vehicle theft charge.
According to Gomez, Franco struggled with addiction since his teenage years and was also high on methamphetamine on Dec. 23, giving him little recollection of the night due to his altered state of mind. “This case is about sex, drugs and a crime of passion,” said Gomez.
Defense witnesses will include character testimony regarding Franco’s lack of violent proclivities and expert witnesses testifying on “methamphetamine-induced psychosis.” Grant’s body was found by golf course employees, who told Indio police that a vehicle sped off, leaving tire marks along the course.
Shortly after the body’s discovery, a man who “strongly resembled” the defendant was seen on surveillance footage driving Grant’s Prius to an am/pm convenience store in Indio, according to Kirk. The prosecutor said Franco spent considerable time inspecting the car’s front bumper and removed a “large stick/brush” from the bumper area, then wiped something off the wheel with a rag.
Detectives would later find shrubbery and grass in the car’s front grill and under the wheel well, according to a prosecutor’s trial brief.
He also used Grant’s ATM card to withdraw $400, Kirk said, which echoes statements he allegedly made to investigators following his arrest. He allegedly claimed to have drained his bank accounts and was poised to flee to Mexico.
Franco was arrested Dec. 24, 2013, at a home in Palm Desert where Kirk said he had to be Tasered after he allegedly reached for a gun inside Grant’s Prius.
“You’re going to have to (expletive) shoot me,” Kirk said Franco told Indio police when they came to apprehend him.
Friends of the couple became suspicious on the night of Dec. 23 when a Christmas party they were scheduled to host at their home was abruptly canceled, with guests being turned away at the Terra Lago gated community. One of the guests phoned Franco, who Kirk said told them that Grant had left angry the previous night following an argument.
Investigators said a search conducted the following day at the residence in the 84-400 block of Onda Drive in Indio revealed blood on several items throughout the house and shoe prints consistent with impressions found at the crime scene, according to court records.
Prosecutors also allege that a longtime friend of Franco’s told police he received a recorded message on his phone from Franco’s phone at 12:26 a.m. Dec. 23. He heard what sounded like “a female begging for her life” on the call, which he thought had been made inadvertently.
In the recording, Grant appears to be telling Franco that they should call police and report that she was attacked by someone else, according to the court document. He allegedly responded that he would take her to the hospital and call 911, at which point Grant responds by saying, “Wait until I can think of another idea. What if I drive the car someplace and call myself and say I was attacked? Would that work (inaudible).”
Grant grew up in the Santa Rosa Mountains above Palm Springs and attended Palm Desert Middle School and Palm Desert High School, graduating in 1990.
She attended College of the Desert, then transferred to Cal State San Bernardino, where she majored in mathematics. She taught math at Palm Springs High School for three years, starting in 1995, then began teaching at her alma mater in 1998.
