Trial begins for Arizona biker accused in 2014 Phoenix killings
Miguel Torres Arizona Republic October 21, 2025
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2025/10/21/franklin-clifton-murder-trial/86803994007/
• An Arizona biker is on trial facing the death penalty for a 2014 attack that killed one woman and left another raped and wounded.
• Franklin Clifton, 39, is charged with the first-degree murder of Olivia Hernandez and the attempted murder and rape of another woman.
• The defense argues the events were tragic and reckless but not premeditated, which would distinguish first-degree from second-degree murder.
An Arizona biker facing the death penalty went on trial this week, charged with killing one woman and raping another who was left bleeding on a deserted Phoenix street in 2014.
Franklin Clifton, 39, sat in court on Oct. 20 and watched a prosecutor lay out her case against him, built on firsthand accounts from the victim, DNA, forensics and a motorcycle vest.
He was charged with the first-degree murder of Olivia Hernandez, 23, and attempted murder of Tiana Robinson, who was 31 on Oct. 17, 2014.
“This case is about power,” said Maricopa County Deputy County Attorney Kristin Larish. “Eleven years ago this past Friday, Franklin Clifton had all the power.”
Clifton, who belonged to a motorcycle club called the Wheels of Soul, drove his motorcycle to an area near the intersection of Interstate 17 and Camelback Road, Larish said.Hernandez and Robinson were working as sex workers near 26th Street and Campbell Avenue when a man held them up at gunpoint.
Larish said that Clifton was the man holding a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun, threatening the women.
She described what happened next as a depraved chain of crimes: Hernandez was shot and killed, and Robinson was shot and raped as she was bleeding out.
“The defendant brought death and destruction to those streets,” she said.
Robinson survived her attack and described to police a man wearing a leather vest with patches and symbols that fit a motorcycle vest belonging to Clifton, Larish said.
Police stopped Clifton near the crime scene. He told police he had recently been in a fight at a nearby 7-Eleven. Later he told them that he had been robbed of his vest.
“He is absolutely fine — no cuts, no scratches, no bruising. … The defendant was never assaulted, never attacked, and never had anything stolen from him by anyone,” Larish told the jury.
Larish said that 7-Eleven surveillance video never showed him in a fight, instead showing him riding his motorcycle away, still wearing his vest, which was later found on the ground near the crime scene.
“He was the only one armed to the teeth. He brought the violence,” she said.
Victoria Washington, Clifton’s attorney, described the violence that Larish outlined as “chaos” that “spiraled into tragedy.”
She told the jury the evidence will show that what happened that night was violent, tragic, and reckless, but not planned.
“The law draws a line between the killing that happens in cold blood and one that happens in the heat of the moment. That distinction matters. It’s the difference between first-degree murder and second-degree murder,” she explained.
The prosecution has charged Clifton with first-degree murder and felony murder, which is a killing committed in the process of another felony crime. Clifton was also charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery and sexual assault.
Washington argued that the evidence does not support the charges.
“There was no kidnapping, there was no robbery, there was no sexual assault connected to Ms. Hernandez’s death,” she said.
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