Arrest doesn’t answer ‘Why?’ in man’s death
Family struggles with ‘why’ after arrest in Jamal Francis’ death.
Ruby Martinez, who said Jamal Francis (left) accidentally shot himself, held on manslaughter.
Jamal Francis was always his sister’s best friend. Tjnoi Francis said that growing up, they had the usual sibling relationship: He teased her, and she teased back; she was an introvert; he was an extrovert; “we were frick and frack,” she said.
As they grew up, the jokes remained, but he was also there for her. One November she had to fly home to New York from Florida, and he knew she hated flying. So, he told her to take his pillow with her.
“Any time you feel like you’re
going to have a panic attack, just hold the pillow,” she remembered him saying. “And just think of me laughing at you (for being scared).”
Jamal Francis, 26, died March 11, 2017, from a gunshot wound to the head. He was sitting in a car with Ruby Martinez outside her West Palm Beach area-home just before midnight. She told 911 dispatchers he accidentally shot himself.
She said he was “jokingly” putting the gun to his head.
More than a year after his death, and a thorough examination of evidence including blood spatter at the scene, investigators determined Jamal Francis could not have shot himself.
“From day one, we knew something was wrong,” Tjnoi Francis said.
Martinez, 28, was arrested March 22 on one count of manslaughter and one count of evidence tampering.
Tjnoi Francis, who still lives in New York where she and her brother grew up, said when the arrest came, she felt numb, then angry.
“I don’t have my best friend anymore. I can’t even say that I’m happy that the person was arrested,” she said. “What other happiness can I find, because he’s not here.”
Laura Francis of Palm Bay, Tjnoi and Jamal’s mother, said her son was such a loving person and that it may have been his trusting nature that got him killed. The night he died, she said, two detectives were at her door, and the only thing she wanted to know was whether her baby was OK.
As she dealt with her own grief in the moment, she said she didn’t know how she was going to tell her daughter that her brother, her best friend, was dead.
Laura Francis and her daughter said they are still waiting for the “Why?” to be answered: Why is Jamal Francis gone?
“What I miss most about him is his silliness,” she said. “We always said he was the clown of the family.”
She said it didn’t matter how upset she was with him, her son could always make her smile. On top of his joking nature, he was caring.
A few years ago, one of Jamal’s friends had a fire at home. The friend’s kids were the same age as Jamal’s younger brother at the time. One morning, Laura Francis went to the bedroom of the family’s youngest brother, Jakwaune Williams, and saw most of his clothes were gone.
“He got all of our brother’s clothes just to give to her, so she could just make it,” Tjnoi Francis said.
But his sharing nature ended when it came to his mother’s mac and cheese, the family joked. It didn’t matter whether it was his friend or his girlfriend at the time, his mom’s macaroni was not up for negotiation.
“He said, ‘We share everything, but not the food my (mom) cooks,’” Laura Francis said, laughing.
“He left a legacy of love,” she said of her son, who lived in Royal Palm Beach. “The void he has left is irreplaceable.”