Scapegoat
It should have been a good day for Samira.
Dr. Adam Frasch often took the children so that his wife could run errands, get her hair and nails done or go to the spa for a massage, waxing and facial. It was something they did when they were at home or travelling. Dr. Frasch would take the two girls to the park or library or Chuck E. Cheese. And as the girls got older, he would take them to the beach house. Sometimes Samira would meet them later in the day and take the kids so that her husband could get a massage or run some errands or if either of them wanted to use one of their sports cars or motorcycles that weren’t baby-seat compatible.
Despite that they seemed to share the ideal life, three years later Dr. Frasch was charged with his wife’s murder and sentenced to life in prison.
The bias in the case was present right from the start. Two weeks after Samira’s death, The Washington Times reported that Adam was already a person of interest for the simple reason that, “The husband always is,” said Maj Michael Wood of the sheriff’s office.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/8/tallahassee-womans-strange-death-raises-questions/
Dr. Frasch experienced a 16-hour interrogation on the day of his wife’s death when his children were taken from him and he was told that he was just being asked to clarify a few things.
Gerald Gardner, the odd jobs man who ‘found’ Samira - and who Dr. Frasch believes killed her - made the 911 call the day Samira died. His words were that she was “completely gone.” However, at the trial, firefighter Todd Watkins, who was one of the first-responders who helped get Samira out of the water, said, “If rigor had set in we would have not started life-saving measures.” No first-responder observed pruning on her fingers or toes.
Gardner was seen arriving at the entrance to the gated-community at 10:52 am and made his 911 call shortly after 11 am. A disturbing element of Gardner’s testimony was that he said it took him five or six minutes to go from the gate to the Frasch home. In fact, it is only a minute drive.
Even more damning to the prosecution’s case, the Tallahassee Democrat reported on February 21, 2015 that, “A neighbour on a walk reported seeing a woman who resembled Samira outside the house after Frasch was gone.” The neighbour, Matthew Christiansen and his daughter Lauren Nichols, passed the Frasch house somewhere between 10:25 and 10:45 and said they saw a tall, slender, long dark-haired, black model-looking woman come out of the house, go to her Hummer SUV, open the passenger-side front door, get something out and return to the house.
At the same time as Mr. Christiansen and his daughter passed by his home, Dr. Frasch and his children were seen on Bank of America security video in Panama City Beach three hours away making a withdrawal.
The article went on to quote Dr. Frasch’s lead defense attorney, Clyde Taylor.
“Lawyers say all the time that their client is not guilty. (But) I’ve been practicing criminal defense law for over 35 years, and truly am looking forward to Dr. Frasch’s day in court.”
Despite his lawyer’s optimism, Dr. Adam Frasch’s day in court went horribly wrong.
On the day of decision, the speedy verdict surprised even the Assistant State Attorney, Georgia Cappleman. The Tallahassee Democrat reported her saying “I felt like I had some obstacles to overcome,” referring to the “conflicting testimony and imperfect medical findings during the trial.”
Dr. Frasch’s attorney, Clyde Taylor, was disappointed as the prosecution’s case had been built on circumstantial evidence and speculation.
“I think the time of death is absolutely critical,” Taylor told reporters following the verdict. “She wasn’t in that pool for more than an hour. If it was less than an hour or even two hours or three hours, my client was in Panama City. He wasn’t here. He couldn’t have hit her in the face. He couldn’t have hit her with some ridiculous golf club, and he darn sure couldn’t have thrown her in the pool.”
Anyone concerned with justice will find this case alarming. Gardner told a story of arriving at the Frasch house at approximately 11:00, of ringing the doorbell and it not being answered, then going around to a side entrance and discovering Samira in the pool.
His reaction to finding Samira was bewildering. Initially, everything about it would have looked like an accident. One sandal was under a hose that had been left out; the other sandal was with her at the bottom of the pool. Mrs. Frasch didn’t know how to swim.
But in his 911 call he told the dispatcher he came to do some work and found a lady “laying in the pool.”
“OK,” said the dispatcher. “Is she awake?”
Samira was in the deep end and without making any effort to check if she could be revived, Gardner said, “No ma’am. She, she, she dead!”
“Is there any way you can jump in and get her?”
“No ma’am. She, she been in there I don’t know how long, she, she, she completely gone. And I want y’all to come take the pictures of it before I take her out.”
“I’ve got somebody coming I just wanted to make sure that, you know, we could try and get her help if we could, but you said, she’s completely gone?”
“Yes, she, she, she dead, she dead, she drowned. Somebody, somebody had to kill her.”
There was no reason at that point to think that Samira had been killed. And there was every reason to think that she hadn’t been in the pool for long. In addition to the lack of pruning on her fingers and toes, EMT personnel confirmed that she had no rigor mortis, the stiffness that begins shortly after death. She had no livor mortis, the settling of blood from gravity to the outer skin layers causing blotchy patches that start appearing shortly after death.
As the first-responders continued to perform CPR on Samira, the trauma from starting an IV line caused bruising and bleeding, the accu chek to test her blood sugar levels with a finger prick caused bleeding, she had bruising on her chest from chest compressions and bruising on her neck and in small areas of her muscle tissue from what the defense’s expert witness, Dr. Arden, said most likely came from intubation and being placed in a C-collar that holds the neck straight and tilts to open airway and prevent injury. If someone has been dead for more than a few minutes their blood begins to coagulate and thicken and cool down so they don't bleed or bruise during CPR. (This evidence was not brought out in the trial and when he questioned his second-chair lawyer, Clyde Taylor III, Dr. Frasch was told that his lawyer’s job was not to prove how his wife died, just to prove that he had not caused her death.)
It was never determined during the trial exactly when Samira had died or how long she had been in the pool. And the Tallahassee Democrat reported that, “Neither Cappleman nor her co-counsel Assistant State Attorney Adrian Mood ever produced the definitive murder weapon.”
But one thing is certain, as his wife lay at the bottom of their swimming pool in Tallahassee, Adam Frasch was at the family’s Panama City Beach house calling Samira, frustrated that it was going directly to voicemail.
A contradictory picture of Samira was created by the prosecution and law enforcement officials in a documentary aired at the time of the trial.
It was mentioned several times that Samira spoke limited English yet in the same documentary we hear her speaking English to her children and in the trial, a friend of the family, Kendall Lindsey, testified that she spoke good English.
Detective Anthony Geraldi of the Leon County Sheriff’s Department said about her, “She would confide in multiple friends that Adam had threatened to kill her.” But Georgia Cappleman, Assistant State Attorney, said that she didn’t have friends and connections. “She was very much alone in this country, she and her kids. She didn’t understand the system. She didn’t know how to get a lawyer, how to get custody, she was completely reliant on him.”
Minutes later Cappleman created a whole different picture, “You really kind of have to look at the big picture of the relationship how she really was getting the upper hand as far as getting possession of the house, the custody of the children, alimony, the tide had turned and I think that was not acceptable to Mr. Frasch.”
At this blog, Dr. Frasch will share the real story of what was going on with the family in the last days of Samira’s life.
Dr. Frasch says their last weeks together as a family were not anything like the picture the prosecution and law enforcement created. The Fraschs were spending time together working toward a reconciliation. They travelled to Las Vegas for a week and then to Miami South beach the week before Valentine’s Day. He has family videos to prove it, including one of the family in bed the night before the murder with their daughter, Hyrah, singing Frère Jacques.
This video also shows the small scratch on Dr. Frasch’s nose under his eye that was supposedly caused by Samira in her final moments with her ‘killer’ husband but that Dr. Frasch told law officials was from his daughter, Skynnah, caused either by her fingernail or a little toy fish that had sharp plastic teeth.
These videos were never shown in court.
It was, however, admitted by the prosecution in court that the couple had had consensual sex that night.
The prosecution continued to create a lurid picture, calling Dale Folsom, career snitch, to the stand. A 40-time convicted felon and confessed drug addict, he testified that he had shared a cell with Dr. Frasch for six or seven months in the county jail.
According to his testimony, Dr. Frasch told him he had hit Samira in the head with a golf club, hadn’t meant to kill her, and had thrown her in the pool and ran. Dr. Frasch says he only told Folsom that he played golf. He never discussed the case.
Dr. Lisa Flannagan, the medical examiner, testified that it didn’t appear as if a golf club had caused Samira’s injuries since a golf club would have split the skull and there would have been blood. Samira’s injuries were more consistent with a blunt object.
Even more troubling, the golf club that was supposed to be the one used by Dr. Frasch to kill Samira appeared in his home, leaning against a wall, AFTER his father had cleaned out the house and put it up for sale. Alvin Frasch, a passionate golfer, is certain he left no golf clubs behind.
Three years later, on January 26, 2017, a jury of six decided Dr. Adam Frasch was guilty of killing Samira. Taylor spoke to the press afterwards.
“Probable. Maybe. Coulda. Shoulda. Woulda,” said Taylor, who added he would be appealing the verdict. “Not proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Despite this, an appeals court upheld the conviction in 2019.
And a killer who could tell the real story of what happened in the last moments of Samira Frasch’s life continues to live in freedom.
Gerald Gardner had a motive. Dr. Frasch says he was stealing from the couple and believes his wife confronted him that day and was killed for it. Despite what Gardner told the court, he had not been invited to work at the Frasch home that day.
Dr. Frasch tells the story of their on-again, off-again relationship with Gerald Gardner.
“I had fired him at least 5 times under suspicions of stealing from us many times over. Over 5 years, items were going missing, mainly from the garage. I had proof one time. He stole my car battery and returned it for a cash refund at Battery Source where I had purchased it. They told me my handyman had returned the $230.00 battery just the day before with my cash receipt that I put in the receipt pouch on the back of battery.”
At the trial, Gardner said he was at the Frasch’s home the day before Samira’s death to pressure-wash the house. Dr. Frasch says that Gardner never pressure-washed their house. He had a different man for that. (Gardner revealed his ignorance of the whole mechanics of pressure-washing when he said in court that he was there for six or seven hours that day and had to come back the next day to finish it up. It takes only two hours to pressure-wash a 5000-square foot home with thirty minutes for assembly and packing-up.)
Gardner often did odd jobs around the house. Shortly before her death, Samira noticed items missing from the house and the Fraschs knew it was Gardner. (Easily proven by video surveillance and eyewitnesses.) On the day Samira died, he was at the house unannounced and uninvited.
In court he said he called Samira the day before she died. Phone records showed it wasn’t true. Only one call was made on her phone and that was at 10:00 am to her husband on his way to Panama City Beach. Since there was poor cell reception, he didn’t get the phone call and she did not leave a message.
Unfortunately, important expert witnesses, including the one who would have testified about the phone records, were never used by Dr. Frasch’s lawyers. Nor were character references who would have testified for him.
Even without them, Dr. Frasch should have won his case. As was brought out at the trial, neighbour, Matthew Christiansen, and his daughter passed by the Frasch house at around 10:30.
Jason Newlin, State Attorney Investigator, talked about this in the documentary. Regarding Matthew Christiansen and his daughter he said:
“He is adamant he sees a black female alive in this driveway. There’s never been anybody at this house before, this house with all the cars. And I just think the neighbours got the wrong day.”
Dismissing this evidence that would have exonerated Dr. Frasch who was nearing Panama City Beach at that time, Newlin blithely continued throughout the documentary to tell viewers his opinions, saying, “I think” and “I believe…” putting a negative spin on everything. For example, in the Bank of America footage in Panama City Beach that should have contributed to Dr. Frasch’s exoneration, he is seen withdrawing five thousand dollars. Newlin is asked by the interviewer, “Do you know what he was planning to do with that money?”
“No, but I believe he was planning to run.”
The documentary had chronicled the lavish lifestyle of the Fraschs and it was brought out in the trial that they had multiple houses, cars and boats. Five thousand dollars was spending money not a nest egg. Particularly since back in Tallahassee, investigators went through Mrs. Frasch’s purse laying by the bed and also found over five thousand dollars in it.
If it wasn’t Samira in the driveway, asked the interviewer, is it the real killer?
That’s why for two years the case wasn’t charged, Newlin admitted. But when it came to Mr. Christiansen’s testimony, “I just think he’s wrong… wrong day,” Newlin said again.
Even Cappleman said that when the case landed on her desk she said, “Oh crap.”
In the trial itself, important details were ignored. DNA had been found on Samira’s robe and sandal under the hose that didn’t match her husband’s, her children’s or any of the first-responders. Neither the prosecution nor Dr. Frasch’s lawyers treated this as important.
Another one was that Gardner entered the gated-community that day by tail-gating. One thing is certain, the only two people at the Frasch house around the time of Samira’s death were Samira and Gardner.
In a horrible irony, it was Samira Frasch who always stood up for the odd jobs man and gave him second chances. And yet when he ‘found’ her dead at the bottom of the pool and called 911, she was just “a lady laying in the pool” that he didn’t even try jumping into the water to save.
Guilty as hell. Don't drip the soap, arrogant prick
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