WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Injured wife says she killed husband in self defense

Injured wife says she killed husband in self defense

(Newberry) January 27, 2007 - A domestic dispute left one dead and another seriously injured in Newberry County Friday night. The wife says she shot her husband to protect herself.

"If it happened the way I have been told it happened, he needed what he got," says neighbor Talmadge Ellisor.

Ellisor is talking about his next door neighbor, 63-year old Dennis Franklin. He was found shot to death inside his Newberry home Friday night.
    
Investigators say his wife, 59-year-old Cynthia Franklin, fired the shots that killed him. When officers responded to the home, they found her suffering serious wounds to her head, face, and upper body.
    
She had been hit several times with a large stick similar to a handle on a wooden tool.

"Her husband was a good-sized man. Cynthia had heart problems, and as far as I know she had to do it in self defense," Ellisor told News 10.

Residents on Pine Hill Circle are upset by what happened last night, but they're not surprised. That's because this is not the first time law enforcement has been called to the home of Cynthia and Dennis Franklin.

"A couple neighbors told us law enforcement had been there before and that there had been domestic disputes there before but, that as a general rule they would keep to themselves," says Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster.

"I would say they both were loner type people, they didn't mingle very much," says Ellisor.

The Newberry County Sheriff's Department is still reviewing the case to determine what action should be taken. Cynthia Franklin is still in the hospital and her condition is listed as stable.
    
Her neighborhood, however, is not.

"I'm sure if I would do my wife that way, that I would deserve what happened," Ellisor says.

Reported by Trey Paul

Posted 6:11pm by Logan Smith