On a Sunday morning in August 2015, Donte Woodson, a 26-year-old male, entered a QuikTrip convenience store on the 2700 block of Dunn Road in St. Louis County. He proceeded to the restroom, but shortly after, the sound of gunshots echoed through the store. Woodson emerged from the restroom and collapsed in the parking lot, having sustained a fatal gunshot wound to his left side.
He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The man responsible for the shooting was Silver Franklin, a 63-year-old businessman who owned an ATM service company. Franklin suspected Woodson of robbing him of $20,000 seven weeks prior to the shooting. On the morning of the incident, Franklin followed Woodson into the QuikTrip restroom and shot him. After the shooting, Franklin left the scene but turned himself in to the authorities the following day. He was subsequently identified from surveillance footage and his own admission to the police.
Initially, Silver Franklin was charged with first-degree murder and held on a $1,000,000 cash-only bond. However, the case did not go to a full trial. In a controversial decision, the first-degree murder charge was dropped, and Franklin pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree involuntary manslaughter. This plea deal resulted in a sentence of three years of probation, meaning Franklin would not serve any time in prison for the killing of Donte Woodson.
The outcome of the legal proceedings was met with anguish and frustration from Donte Woodson's family. His father, Robert Beene, expressed his belief that Franklin's wealth influenced the lenient sentence, stating it demonstrated that 'if you've got money, you can take the law into your own hands.' The death of Donte was a further tragedy for his mother, Ithiwa, as he was the third of her sons to be killed by gun violence in St. Louis. The case and its resolution left many in the community questioning the fairness and equity of the justice system.
