Article by: JAMES WALSH and PAUL WALSH , Star Tribune Staff Writers
A violent ex-convict from Duluth was sentenced Monday to 30 years in federal prison for abducting a 13-year-old girl in Duluth, stuffing her and her dog into his car trunk, sexually assaulting her and leaving her duct-taped to a tree in Wisconsin.
U.S. District Judge Donovan W. Frank sentenced Todd R. Franik, 42, who had pleaded guilty last year to interstate transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
"Children are one of our community's most precious assets," Donald E. Oswald, special agent in charge of the FBI in Minneaapolis, said after the sentencing. "Child predators like Mr. Franik can always be assured that the FBI will give them its fullest attention to ensure that they are brought to justice."
In arguing for the 30-year sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Steinkamp wrote to the court this spring, "The nature and circumstances of the crime are nothing short of horrific."
Franik "prowled the residential neighborhood ... looking for a vulnerable person to kidnap," Steinkamp added. "When he saw her approach, he took advantage of her kindness and willingness to help him."
The prosecutor called what Franik did "every parent's worst nightmare."
Steinkamp then outlined Franik's extensive criminal history in Minnesota: beating and robbing an elderly man during a home burglary, armed robbery of a convenience store, unlawful weapons possession.
According to court documents:
Franik admitted that at around 3 p.m. on Aug. 2, he approached the girl as she walked her dog past his parked car. He asked her for directions to the zoo, then grabbed her and the dog and put them in the trunk.
He crossed back and forth between Wisconsin and Minnesota before stopping in the woods. He removed the girl and the dog from the trunk and sexually assaulted her.
Afterward, he used duct tape and strapped her to a fallen tree in Superior, Wis., allegedly stuffing a piece of cloth from his shirt into her mouth before covering her mouth with more tape. Police said he taped the dog's mouth shut, too.
After Franik left, police say, the girl chewed and twisted her way free. She made her way to a business in Superior, where police were called.
As law enforcement officers recovered evidence from the woods, they saw a car repeatedly drive past on a highway. It matched the description of the car used in the crime. Authorities traced its license plate and found the car in a Duluth parking lot.
A search of Franik's home revealed shoes with tread patterns that matched prints in the woods where the girl was bound, police said. Franik was arrested without incident.
Jim Walsh • 612-673-7428
Please get it right. He did not rape her. He stopped and said he couldn't go through with it. I know because I'm his sister. If you tried to understand...he has never been in the world prison is all he knows he had already done 27 years. Far less than the serial murderer. Like Couture who only got nine years. You need to write the truth.
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