FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: January 20, 2008 Dominic Guadagnoli, Public Affairs Officer (850) 554-6602   Man Arrested for Capital Felony Charge Surrounding Sexual Assault on Child: Wife, also Wanted for Aggravated Child Abuse, Arrested as Well   Houston, TX - The U.S. Marshals North Florida Violent Fugitive Task Force announces the arrest of a man wanted in Escambia County regarding charges involving sexual battery and child abuse. Jowhar Jasiri Franklin was being sought for Sexual Battery by a Custodian on a Child Under 12 Years Old, Child Abuse Causing Great Bodily Harm and Failure to Appear for Child Abuse charges. Tracy Nicole Franklin, 37, was also wanted for Failing to Appear on the child abuse charge and Aggravated Child Abuse, as well as several other misdemeanor charges. Jowhar Franklin was originally arrested in Pensacola by the Marshals Task Force in June of 2005 on charges of child abuse and child neglect but he never appeared in court to face those charges. While he was on the run, the same victim told authorities that Franklin sexually abused her. The Task Force believed that Franklin was in New Orleans and contacted the US Marshals office there on Monday. On Thursday Deputy Marshals and Task Force officers in New Orleans attempted to arrest Franklin and his wife, at an apartment complex. It was then that investigators learned from family members that the two fugitives had recently fled to Houston. With that new lead, the North Florida Violent Fugitive Task Force contacted their counterparts there. Early Friday morning, the Marshals Gulf Coast Fugitive Task Force in Houston arrested Jowhar Franklin without incident at an apartment complex located at 1415 W. Gulf Bank Drive. Tracy Franklin had fled the night before when she supposedly had heard the Marshals were tracking her and her husband. It was unknown as to why Jowhar Franklin stayed behind. The Marshals in New Orleans then revisited the relatives in New Orleans and told them to contact Tracy Franklin and advise her to surrender. The relatives were also told that they too may face charges of Aiding and Abetting a Fugitive as well as False Statements to a Law Enforcement Officer, when the deputies learned that one of them had tipped the Franklins off. Late, Saturday evening, the Marshals Crescent Star Fugitive Task Force in New Orleans contacted the Marshals in Pensacola and told them that Tracy Franklin took a bus to New Orleans and was placed into custody by the Marshals at the bus depot. Jowhar Franklin waived his extradition from the Harris County Jail in Houston and his wife remains in the Orleans Parish Jail pending her return to Florida.