Alleged gang leader gets 10 years

By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI

The courtroom in Wyandotte County was eerily silent on Friday, except for the metallic rustle of ankle chains as Jose Franco Jr. shifted slightly in the defendant’s chair.

The rows of wooden benches behind him were empty. No family or friends had come to support the 20-year-old as he faced 10 years in prison for his involvement in a fatal shooting last year. Prosecutors allege that Franco was a leader in the Familia Loca gang, whose “soldiers” fired into the home of a rival gang member on April 3, 2007. Instead of hitting their intended target, though, they killed 2-year-old Yelena Guzman.

In August, Franco was found guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied building.

On Friday, before Wyandotte County Judge John McNally handed down his sentence, Franco awkwardly explained to the court some of what he told me when I spoke briefly with him in jail this past summer.