Alameda County DA dismisses charges against former corrections officer in Fremont man’s shooting death

OAKLAND — Just days before the trial was scheduled to start for a retired corrections officer accused of fatally shooting his ex-wife’s neighbor, Alameda County prosecutors dismissed the entire case against him, court records show.

The momentous development in the case of 78-year-old Franklin Lynch came April 27, just four days before Lynch was set to go on trial and face murder charges in the death of Fremont resident Karthick Soundararaj. In Lynch’s 2022 preliminary hearing, he made the rare move of testifying in his own defense, claiming that he killed Soundararaj — who was unarmed — in self-defense after the mentally ill man shoved his ex-wife and threatened to kill members of Lynch’s family.

A spokeswoman for the Alameda County District Attorney’s office said she would look into the matter, but didn’t respond to subsequent requests for comment. Lynch’s attorney didn’t return phone calls seeking comment.

Soundararaj, 34, was shot and killed March 15, 2022. Lynch, a Colorado resident who worked as a corrections officer in Los Angeles County in the 1960s, had traveled to the Bay Area to help his ex-wife move. At some point during the day, Soundararaj began accosting the family, scaring Lynch’s stepson so much, the man testified, that he backed into his vehicle and drove away, leaving his mother and Lynch at the home.

Lynch’s ex-wife testified that Soundararaj appeared to be suffering from a delusion and began screaming at her, then shoved her.

“I have never seen a face like that. I was scared to death. I was thinking I truly would die today,” she testified.

Lynch testified he told Soundararaj twice to leave or he would shoot, and fired two shots aimed as his chest after Soundararaj walked toward him. He said he recalled his training as a law enforcement officer and aimed at Soundararaj’s “center mass,” striking him in the chest.

The defense called it a justified shooting, arguing Lynch had a reasonable fear that Soundararaj would harm his ex-wife. Prosecutors argued that Soundararaj having a mental illness couldn’t be used as an excuse to kill, and that the unarmed man didn’t pose a deadly threat to Lynch or his ex-wife.

Judge Thomas Stevens, who presided over the August preliminary hearing, said the prosecution’s case met a low bar to advance the murder charge past a preliminary hearing, but also indicated that it seemed more like a potential manslaughter case. Despite his ruling, Stevens later lowered Lynch’s bail to $400,000, allowing him to be free while the charges were pending.