MAN CHARGED WITH HOMICIDE
The Lorain Police Department has charged 50-year-old Frank Honaker of Lorain with the Thursday night homicide of 37-year-old Chris Betts of Columbia Township.Honaker turned himself into the Lorain County Sheriff’s Department less than two hours after shooting Betts at an apartment building on West Erie Ave in Lorain. Police say that Honaker killed Betts after an argument while he was dropping his children off to his estranged wife and found Betts there.
It is believed tha Honaker took his 15 year old daughter and 10 year old son on a surprise visit to the apartment where his wife, Lori, was supposed to be staying with realatives after a seperation from Honaker. The children called their mother from the front security door asking her to open the door so they could come enter the building. Lori Honaker then directed Betts to leave through the back door saying that she did not want any confrontations between the two men. When Lori Honaker opened her door only the children were standing there, moments later they heard a popping noise. Frank Honaker then appeared from the rear of the apartment building saying; “There, how do you like that.”
Lori Honaker first told 9-1-1 operators that Betts had been assaulted, it wasn’t until 3 minutes into the call that 9-1-1 was told that Betts had in fact been shot.
LifeCare Ambulance Paramedics treated Betts at the scene and transported him to Community Health Partners Emergency Room where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
Honaker is being held in the Lorain County Jail on a one million dollar bond and will be back in Lorain Municipal Court on Thursday December 20th at 1:30 p.m.
posted by TMC NEWS at 1:07 AM
26 Comments:
This guy gets what he deserves. I worked with Chris and he was a good guy always smiling. Jealousy got the best off him and hope he pays for what he did
-JLM
My thoughts and prayers are with Mrs. Honaker and Mr Betts family. Patsy
What do you mean jealously got the best of him? It was his wife for Christ's sake.
Does it really matter..the point is there is no reason to kill someone. There are two children whose father was taken away from them and two children who probably feel responsible for the murder of this man by their own father!!! Tragic and senseless and these poor children our left to deal with it all!!~!!
Hate to be a hater...but Mr. Betts' obit says he is survived by a "wonderful" wife????? Any reason he was out skanking this Honaker broad? Sounds like another Springer episode gone REAL bad.
It can always be said that there is no reason to kill someone. And yes the man is dead, and it is a tragedy. But, the reason he is dead is because he was screwing someone else's wife. Permitting him to take the role as a victim ignores the violence that both Mr Betts and Mrs Honaker caused to the life of Frank Honaker. Truth be told, I don't sympathize with Betts at all. I don't care that Honaker shot him for fucking his wife. I recognize, however, that permitting a person to take the law into their own hands would be a slippery slope. I feel that Honaker should not be convicted of murder, but of something lesser like manslaughter.
Additionally, both Betts and Mrs Honaker knew that there were children involved on both side as well. They continued their behavior notwithstanding this fact. It’s unfair to put all the blame on Honaker. At very least there was going to be a divorce here. The children would have been subjected to that. At very worst, common sense tells you that fucking someone else’s wife could get you killed.
Excuse me but manslaughter??? How about premeditated murder??? You don't show up for a "surprise" visit to the residence of your "estranged" wife, with a gun, knowing the person who you have been threatening to kill would be there and call it manslaughter!!!! You are fucking nuts!!!!!!!
I have known these two families for a time. Really nice families when things were going good. But Chris and Lori decided they couldn't be apart and I might add Chris was the biggest aggresure in this whole relationship. Chris pushed his wife to get their divorce moving (was filed December 12, Chris was dead December 13th). This relationship only started 2 1/2 months ago. and you know now Lori has nothing no house, relationships with her children, a future of knowing her actions in front of her children. I'm sorry but Chris had such a hard ass attitude towards Frank that he thought he was invinseable and it cost him death which Lori and Chris helped pull that trigger!!!!!! But the most important thing their our four children and a perfectly good woman (who loved her husband Chris) that now somehow they have to go on with life under these awful circumstances.
I've known and worked with Frank for a few years. No one that knows him would have ever expected something like this. I know him as a hardworking, honest, level headed family man. He is not a coldblooded killer. There is more to this story than has been in the media. I don't believe that he went there intending to kill the man. This was not the first time this man snuck out the back door and I don't believe it was a suprise visit either from what we have been told. Frank made a horrible mistake and will have to pay for what he did. But the other 2 people involved share a portion of the guilt. Unfortunately the children will end up paying the most.
It really makes me extremely angry to read what some of you have written. Chris did not put a gun to Lori's head to leave her husband. People do NOT know what goes on behind closed doors. Frank may have seemed like a nice guy and a hard worker at work but sooo many times people are different at home than at work. How many other times do you see quiet people go mad and kill?
People don't always wait for their divorce to go through before dating, They are not the first couple in this world going through divorce and to be seeing someone else. They are HUMAN, HUMANS are NOT perfect. But they fell in love and unfortunately there are more people involved but you don't MURDER someone to stop your estranged wife from moving on and being happy. This sick bastard told his children they were going to go surprise their mom. I didn't know surprise visits to mom meant carrying a gun, having your children call mom to let you in and run around to the back of the complex....Then after shooting him several times saying "There how do you like that" ???? what the hell is that? Those of you speaking poorly of Chris and Lori have the NERVE to say this wasn't pre-meditated???? Take your freaking blinders off... I'm sorry your darling friend or family member Frank is going to go to prison but if you agree with what he did, You need to join him in prison, your just as guilty. If you don't have the story all the way around, you need to keep your mouths shut!!! Chris is no longer able to tell his side and that's why those of us who know him are telling you.
Sure Frank may have been nice, & I have also known Chris's wife as well but who are we to say how Chris and Lori should live their lives.
Divorce is never easy. It's the trials of everyday life, but you can take your anger out in other ways other than murder. If your spouse chooses to move on and if you are a truly good person than you do your best to move on and dont settle yourself short on what you deserve. It's going to hurt and not be easy but now this bastard left his estranged wife with a lifetime of guilt and pain knowing that your estranged husband took the life of 2 beautiful boys dad away, he involved his own children in his pre-meditated murder,she's left knowing the man she was in love with was taken away as well as Chris's family having to suffer the pain and loss. He may have been getting divorced and i know his wife is now left to raise two boys on her own and unless your a young widow like myself you can't even imagine what its like to be the only parent. At least when they would've gotten divorced she would've still had help and support from their father. Divorce wasn't going to be easy on her either but do you see her packing a gun and planning a murder?
I am extremly angry at those of you who say that this was ok for this man to do and that it was NOT pre-meditated murder.
Chris did not take a gun to Lori's head and tell her to get divorced.
They are also not the first set of couples to go through divorce in this world and date someone before their divorce was final. They are human and the last time i checked, Humans are not perfect and I didn't realize those of you bad mouthing Chris were in charge of how Lori lived her life and made her decisions for her. You live your life the way you want and they were living their lives the way that they felt was right.
Frank may have been a really nice man and hard worker at work but how many times have we seen the people we thought were quiet out there murdering? Maybe because instead of dealing w/ their problems or getting help they let it build up and take care of matters on their own. Remember the saying everyone talks of.... He's gone postal!
Frank was such a nice guy that he's threatened Chris's life before and that when he had his children Chris would be with mom. He told his children they were going to go surprise mom. Looks like he surprised the kids too because last i checked I didn't realize surprising mom meant taking a gun with you to see her. Let alone after you get your mom to come to the door to let you in, your surprise is to run around to the back of the complex?? Guess the surprise was for the poor children he involved into his pre-meditated plan for them to have to see mom's boyfriend on the ground and you putting your gun away and then telling mom; "There, How you like that"?
If chris has ran out the back door before, maybe it was keep from confrontation, which is more mature than fighting or screaming in front of the children.
For those of you who have your blinders on.....take them off!!! If you agree with what he did, than you need to be behind bars and go to prison with him.
Frank may have been a nice man but he was SELFISH, his marriage was over and i'm sorry for both spouses that were being left for someone else, but there is always more that happens behind closed doors that all parties have not told people or those of you left behind don't want people to know the real truth. Your hurt so hell, let's just bash Chris and Lori because they left me. My goodness, we are all adults, grow up. Divorce sucks!!! , it always has, its never easy and you may not want it or you may not want your other partner to ever be happy... This is what happens in life unfortunatly. But be a mature adult.There are other ways to let out your anger. Now 4 children are haunted. Two of them knowing their dad used them to kills mom's boyfriend, two of them knowing someone murdered my dad and why or how could anyone ever do this. Their are grieving families, children, wives/ partners who will only wish they had done this or that differently and there is not a darn thing anyone can think or do that's going to change or bring Chris back. That bastard was selfish when he left two young boys without a dad and a mom who will have to try to raise them on her own. Unless your a young widow like myself, you have no clue what its like to raise them and hope that you do a great job and there is no good answer for your children when they tell you they wish and pray for their dad to come back but it doesn't work.
Chris and Lori are not the first couple in this world to make the choices they made, but it never is justified by MURDER.
I feel bad for Franks family who have to live knowing their son is a murderer because nobody wants to think their loved ones are capable but he knew darn well what he was planning to do and going to prison is not even justice enough for what he did to Chris and ALL of those who loved him.
Take your own advice, you clearly don't know the whole story either.There is much more to this than two people simply "falling in love". None of what you said is FACT, other than frank shot chris. It is all speculation on your part. I don't see anyone saying what he did was right and yet you are making excuses for a MARRIED man fucking a MARRIED woman. Guess what- just as you lost chris, the people close to frank lost him. Chris was(to those who knew him) a good guy- THAT WAS FUCKING SOMEBODY'S wife. The same as Frank was a good guy who made a horrible choice that night and killed a man.
He is a cold blooded killer and a coward. Sneeking up on a defensless person and shooting him, is that not cowardly?
First of all, my thoughts and prayers go out to the betts family, Lori and her two children. I can't even begin to think about what they are all going thru. I am sickened by all of this, especially for all the idiots out there that are sticking up for the moron that stole a dear friends life from us. for those of you who think that chris and lori helped pull the trigger, pull one on yourself. you are just as sick as skank. oh i mean frank. even if one of my friends was in the same situation, i would never defend him. using your children to kill someone, give me a break this frank guy is better off dead than behind bars. i've known chris for a long time now. we went to the same school and was my brothers best friend. he treated me like his brother. when ever i came back to ohio to visit, if he had time he made sure to stop by and visit. chris is the type that would do anything for anybody. he really loved his boys and was very proud of them. i'm sure chris wasn't everybodys favorite person, but who is. i'm sure he acts like a hardass to some, but who doesn't. everybody has friends and everyone has enemys. that does not mean you have to go and kill someone.
i'm sure chris's wife was not very happy of his decision to move on, but you don't see a gun in her hand. and obviously it wasn't going well with lori and frank since they weren't living together.
its just sad that frank was selfish and didn't grow up. two children lost there dad because of murder. two other children lost there dad because of a murderer. i hope that all four childrens lives can turn out for the better. i hope that family and friends will be there for the mothers and the children since there can be no help for the fathers.
on exit i would like to say that i hope that frank gets butt raped in prison for every remaining day of his life by someone who is well in doubt, and doesn't like lube
I don't care what anyone here says except for the simple fact that Frank shot a man in cold blood for no other reason than his wife (or EXwife from what I've heard) wanted away from him.
Obviously it was with good reason! Any "man" and I use the term loosely here that can take his kids to "surprise" their mom with a gun in his belt... let them go inside and PURPOSELY go around to the rear of the building WITH the gun only cares about himself!
You will NEVER convince me that his was NOT premeditated!
You can NEVER convince me that it was justified!
ANY of you that think it was, belong in jail right next to this sick bastard!
His kids will have to live the rest of their lives knowing he used them to kill the person their mother loved.
One of Chris' kids will have to live with the fact that Frank has hung out with them at Cedar Point even and STILL pulled a gun out and shot his father.
If you would have seen his son standing at his casket tonight NONE of you sick assholes would ever open your mouth again about whether Chris and this woman had a "right" to be together.
You would realize that this Frank deserves what HE gets not the other way around!
Ironic that Chris was trying to keep away from a confrontation for the sake of Franks kids isn't it?
He cared more about them than their own father.
You convinced me...great family men cheat on their wives with someone else's wives. Noone is saying what frank did was right, why are you guys hung up on that? But to in any way justify the destruction of two families by Lori and Chris, and absolve them of ANY responsibility for this situation, is equally absurd. And no Julie-it was not his exwife. Frank did not believe his marriage was over. He was a man who had his life ripped from him and unfortunately DID NOT HANDLE IT THE RIGHT WAY.(remember that last part before you go on another holier than thou rant). And you talk of Chris's kids having to deal with being around Frank-what of Frank's kids having to deal with their mom fucking their 4-h instructor? I'd say get the whole story, but it doesn't matter, a man's dead. In the end Frank will be punished. That doesn't change the fact that some people KNEW HIM to be a good person, not a murderer- just as some people knew chris to be a good person, not an adulterer.
You know what amazes me?
That some posters on here actually believe that being an adulterer is just as bad if not worse than a MURDERER!
I'm not saying its right or its wrong (the way things happened between Chris and Lori). From what I know, Chris' wife also had someone else. And noone but Lori knows her side of why she decided to leave Frank. Just because she was seeing Chris does NOT mean that it was his fault. Maybe she finally just saw that there was a chance at happiness for her with him and it was the final thing that made her decide to divorce, maybe she decided BEFORE Chris. Only she knows this.
So Frank didn't think his marriage was over. Does he think it is now? I hope so.
For the person who said they hoped Frank gets raped in prison? That would be too good for him in my opinion. Why should he live after he took someone's life in cold PREMEDITATED blood?!
I totally believe in the dealth penalty and I pray he gets it!
OMG! God forgive of all for this gossip. Does anybody realize that there are two teenager's lives that are involved? Don't you know that they and their friends are all reading these blogs and spreading even more rumors! I can't imagine being a teen and having to deal with this. Have some common sense and keep your opinions to yourselves for the children's sake if nothing else. This is a pure tragedy all the way around.
The papers have so much wrong I dont know where to start. First, he did not plan a surprise visit - he got called into work on an emergency. That will come out in the trial. He didnt know he was going over there until work called. He got a gun to protect himself from the threats he got from Betts - he had told many people that. He was afraid for his life. People will testify to that. Lori has put Frank and the kids through hell for years with financial, legal and drug issues. This is not their first separation or her first boyfriend and Frank never ever was violent before. And she doesnt have anything?? She now has the house that Frank saved despite her embezzling fiasco at her job and she is pushing to sell it fast for the money - money she would not have otherwise seen. She now has the kids who did not want to be with her. She put this man through hell for almost two decades so do not feel sorry for her. And Betts was a 4-H advisor??? He got kicked out of that for inproper conduct in front of the children with Lori. Only together a couple of months? They have been doing this alot longer than that. Did he deserve to die? Of course not, but to say he was an angel is revisionist history. Betts and Lori were two messed up people who caused alot of good folks on both sides pain and misery. When the histories and backgrounds of these three are compared, alot of people are going to be surprised. Frank has a history of being a good tolerant loving man who would not hurt a fly who protected and raised his kids practically on his own and cleaned up Lori's messes and always took her back. Dug his way out of the debt she put him in, paid off her bills and still put food on the table for his kids. This last affair was scarey - he was being threatened by this man.
to the last comment.
protecting himself from chris? PLEASE
Chris didn't have a gun on him. and i suppose he went to the back door to avoid chris with his gun loaded and in his hand. i guess just staying in the car wasn't an option.
one thing to say to you... YOUR AN IDIOT AND JUST AS DUMB AS FRANK.
To the "anonymous" that spoke of what frank was dealing with and the hell his wife had put him through- thank you. So much has been assumed about this situation and frank that it makes me sick. I am NOT saying what he did was right, but the circumstances are much different than what was put in the papers. You are right, it was NOT a suprise visit and betts did not leave out the back to avoid confrontation. Frank is a friend and a coworker and I can agree with everything you said about him as a person. That is what makes this so shocking and unbelievable.
How do you know he did not leave out the back to avoid confrontation? Were you there?
I knew Chris and I doubt that you could convince me that he got a gun to protect himself from Chris. Sounds like a story fabrication for the defense. So his story is he got called into work, dropped off the kids and went around to the back door for what? How convenient that Chris is not around to defend this fable.
Here are some FACTS for the people who need them:
1 - Chris & his wife were getting divorced (filled on the 12th, Chris murdered on the 13th - I would hope all of you are bright enough to realize that for the papers to be filed it takes more then 24 hours, so obviously this was in the works for some time)
2 - Lori & the premeditated murderer were separated, and had been a few times before only this time LORI left the premeditated murderer (sounds like someone can’t take rejection and obviously has control issues)
3- The premeditated murderer went to the back of the apartment to MURDER Chris (why else would you have a gun in your pants? Don’t think he wanted to play cards!)
4 – Chris is dead, the premeditated murderer is in jail, that asshole will get visitation with his children, but what about Chris’s boys? They get a grave to visit, not quite the same is it!
Some of you say Chris threatened the premeditated murderer, sounds like a good line that a premeditated murderer would use when planning his defense don’t you think?! I mean seriously, why would he be carrying a gun around especially in front of his children!! Where was Chris’s gun, oh wait he was UNARMED!!! I can only pray that I will get to stand outside the jail the day the needle is placed in the premeditated murderer’s arm and he makes his way to burn in hell for all of eternity! To those of you that are/were the premeditated murderers’ friends/family, I am sorry for your “loss”, but please understand it pales in comparison to the loss we, Chris’s family & friends are suffering. We have to live with the pain of knowing how he was taken from us and there is only one person to blame – FRANK! You will never be able to justify planning and following through on Chris’s death no matter how hard you try, noting can justify murder, nothing!!!!
Rest in peace Chris.
Rot in hell Frank!!!!
anyone hear of the ten commandments? both murder and adultery are mentioned. And the wages of sin is death. Both these families are suffering because of sin. Nothing more and nothing less.
Isn't it a shame that we choose our own devices and allow ourselves to hurt innocents. Perhaps if we all listened to God, our Father, there wouldn't even be any gossip found here.
Turn your grief over to a mighty Savior. Allow Him to comfort your soul. Only He can fill the hole left by this horrendous tragedy.
Ask Jesus to comfort you and remember that He is just and vengence belongs to Him.
Ask yourself, if your children or loved ones were going to read this...would it bring them any comfort? Doubtful.
Pray for those who use you, bless those who curse you (Frank), do good to those who despitefully use you.
There is nothing that can be done for Chris now...but the other family members on both sides have chances at healing and redemption...Leave your anger at the altar and trust that God will control the rest. He is merciful and loving and I am sure that this blog grieves His very heart.
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