On the evening of May 27, 2016, 20-month-old Alexandria Francis was shot in a bedroom of a home in Huntsville, Alabama, and later died at a hospital. First responders found her lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to her forehead; a forensic expert testified the evidence was consistent with the gun being placed directly against her head when it was fired. The child’s mother, Ashley Ross, was distraught at the scene, while the father, Lionel Rory Francis, sat outside on the curb and was later identified as the sole suspect.The prosecution charged Lionel Francis with capital murder.

At trial jurors heard a recorded phone call in which the mother dismissed Francis’s claim that the shooting had been accidental. In May 2019 a jury convicted him of capital murder and recommended the death penalty; a Madison County judge sentenced him to death. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals later overturned the death sentence, finding the prior North Dakota conviction used to seek death was a misdemeanor and ordered resentencing to a maximum of life without parole.

Does anyone have information about Alexandria’s last hours or the circumstances in the home that night?