Terry Froman was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for two murders
According to court documents Terry Froman would go to the home of his ex girlfriend Kimberly Thomas, 34, and murder her seventeen year old son Michael Eli Mahoney.
Terry Froman would kidnap Kimberly Thomas and when police attempted to pull him over he would fatally shoot Kimberly
Terry Froman would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Where Is Terry Froman Now
Terry Froman is incarcerated at Chillicothe Correctional Institution
Terry Froman Case
Froman and Thomas were in a romantic relationship, and Froman lived with Thomas at her home in Mayfield, Kentucky during the relationship. Thomas ended the relationship in August 2014 and asked Froman to move out. Froman eventually moved out but persisted in involving himself in Thomas’ life. For example, Froman one day showed up at Thomas’ workplace and entered her office. A supervisor, knowing about their troubled relationship, told Froman that Thomas had to go to a meeting. Before leaving, Froman told the supervisor, “Kim has made me lose everything, now I will make her lose everything no matter the cost.” Also, after moving out, Froman twice texted a neighbor to ask if any men had been at Thomas’ house.
{¶5} On the morning of September 12, 2014, the evidence showed that Froman entered Thomas’ home with a gun and forced her out of bed. Thomas’ son Eli was in the home and came to his mother’s aid. Froman shot and killed Eli. Investigators later found gunshot wounds on Eli’s abdomen, right forearm, and the back of his head. Froman forced Thomas outside and into his vehicle and drove away.
{¶6} Froman stopped at a gas station in the nearby town of Paducah, Kentucky. While he went inside to pay, video surveillance shows that Thomas, naked, escaped from Froman’s vehicle and began running away. Froman rushed out of the store, grabbed Thomas by the hair, and forced her into the backseat of his vehicle.
{¶7} Froman then fled, with Thomas still in the vehicle, to Ohio. During the long drive, he spoke on the phone with his friend, David Clark, multiple times. Clark cooperated with police in real time, and police recorded some of the phone calls. During these conversations Froman confessed that he had killed Eli and kidnapped Thomas. Clark later tried to persuade Froman to let Thomas go, but Froman refused:
[Clark]: Have you thought about letting her go?
[Froman]: Have I thought about it? No, not at all. * * * It's too late. I mean it ain't too late, but, I just can't, I can't, I can't. I just got to. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
* * *
I mean, I know you're trying to talk me down, baby I appreciate it and all. But like I said, I mean it's just not going to happen. It's just not going to happen.
[Clark]: There's still good stuff to live for, Fam.
[Froman]: Man, I already took one life, and I'm about to go ahead and take two [more]. Clark referred to Froman as “Fam” several times during their recorded telephone conversations.
{¶8} During a later phone call, Froman informed Clark that the police were following him and that he intended to kill Thomas. He refused Clark’s request that he stop:
[Froman]: I'm gonna kill her dude.
[Clark]: Don't do it Fam. Don't do it. * * * [J]ust pull over.
* * *
[Clark]: Well just, man, just pull over. Don't do nothing.
[Froman]: I can't do it man. {¶9} The call disconnected. When Clark called Froman again, Froman stated, “She dead. I shot myself.” He added, “I shot myself, and I shot her three times.”
{¶10} Police had been tracking Froman by working with his cell phone provider, which provided police with updates on his location by periodically sending a “ping” to his cell phone. Around six hours had passed since the abduction began when two Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers pulled Froman over on I-75 in Warren County, Ohio. The officers heard gunshots upon exiting their cruisers.
{¶11} A brief time later, two tactical teams approached Froman’s vehicle and apprehended Froman, who was sitting in the driver’s seat with a gun in his hand. Froman had a bullet wound in his left upper chest near his shoulder. First responders transported Froman to a hospital for treatment.
{¶12} The troopers found Thomas in the back seat of Froman’s vehicle, deceased. She had bullet wounds in the back of her head, her right upper chest, her right breast, and her right upper abdomen. She had also suffered blunt force trauma to her torso, inner thighs, and extremities, a laceration on her upper lip, three lacerations on the top of her head, and abrasions on her forehead and right cheek. She also had a broken jaw and one of her lower teeth had been knocked out.
{¶13} Authorities tried Froman in Kentucky for killing Eli and in Ohio for killing Thomas. Ohio bifurcates capital trials into guilt and penalty/mitigation phases. State v. Thompson, 141 Ohio St.3d 254, 2014-Ohio-4751, ¶ 147, citing R.C. 2929.03(D); R.C. 2929.04(B) and (C). The jury initially determines a defendant’s guilt. If the jury convicts the defendant of aggravated murder and at least one death specification, then the trial proceeds to the second phase. Otherwise, the second phase never occurs. Id. At the end of the guilt phase of Froman’s trial, the jury found Froman guilty of all the counts and specifications in the indictment. The state elected to proceed to the penalty phase on the first count of aggravated murder and its accompanying death-penalty specifications.
