Investigators Try To Determine Why Woman Was Killed

Thursday, April 12th 2007, 6:29 am

By: News On 6

WYNNEWOOD, Okla. (AP) _ Investigators are still trying to determine what led to the fatal shooting of a businesswoman and how the man accused of killing her gained access to a gun. Franklin Green pleaded not guilty on Wednesday during an arraignment on a first-degree murder charge. A Garvin County judge denied bail for Green, a convicted kidnapper who was on federal probation.

The 61-year-old is accused of shooting his wife of less than two weeks, Gloria Hunter, to death Tuesday on a downtown Wynnewood street.

Green was worried that Hunter, 60, was going to turn him in to his probation officer after she called police on Saturday to report threats he had made against her, authorities alleged.

Green removed an electronic monitoring device required by his probation over the weekend, and Wynnewood police officers began searching for him, according to federal probation officials.

Hunter was preparing to open her business, Ye Ole Wynnewood Barber Shoppe, about 8:30 a.m. when Green came into the shop, threatened Hunter with a gun and forced her out the back door into the alley, according to an investigators statement filed with the court.

Green was holding Hunters hand as they walked along Dean A. McGee Avenue when Hunter bolted, according to the report. Green followed his wife around a parked van and shot her as horrified motorists and other business owners looked on, authorities said in the report.

He allegedly emptied a .38-caliber revolver into Hunter, then walked to the police station about a block away and was arrested without incident, Undersheriff Steven Brooks said.

Hunter and Green married on March 27, just months after meeting at Hunters barber shop. On Saturday, Hunter called Wynnewood police, saying Green had threatened her. Green also admitted to planning to harm Hunter since Saturday, according to the court papers.

``She did not want to press charges. She just told officers they had a small confrontation and he had left,'' Brooks said. ``Wynnewood police officers were looking for Mr. Green to question him about what took place.''

Green was released from an Oklahoma City halfway house after spending 26 years in a federal prison for kidnapping and stolen-car convictions.

Vanessa Thurman, chief probation officer for the Western District of Oklahoma, said the company that monitors the tracking device alerted federal authorities that Green had removed his ankle bracelet. The federal parole commission was then alerted, Thurman said.

Officials are also trying to determine how Green got a gun, which violated terms of his probation.

Investigators are working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to find out the origin of the gun, Brooks said.