A Former District Attorney and Atlanta lawyer who arranged the murder of his wife 18 years ago has died in prison.
Fred Tokars had been found guilty of his wife’s murder in 1997 but had been convicted of his involvement in a cocaine distribution ring four years earlier, when he reportedly invested the proceeds from illegal drugs in various Atlanta nightclubs.
Tokars also was found guilty of conspiring to distribute cocaine, money-laundering and causing the kidnapping, robbery and murder for hire of his wife. He had been working for various drug dealers and representing white collar criminals, described in one report as a ‘self promoting lawyer”.
Sara Tokars and her two sons, then ages 4 and 6, were kidnapped from the couple’s home two days after Thanksgiving in 1992. The kidnapper was a drug addict recruited to kill Sara Tokars by an associate of her husband. Testimony at trial said she was seeking a divorce that could have revealed her husband’s money-laundering activities for Atlanta drug dealers. Tokars also had insured his wife’s life for $1.75 million before she was killed.
Sara Tokars was shot in her SUV in front of her sons.
Tokars’ attorney said his client had helped federal authorities solve six murders, including of three federal witnesses, a witness’ girlfriend and her young daughters.
Attorney Jerry Froelich said Tokars’ brother was notified of his death last weekend. Froelich said he has not been told of the precise cause of death, although he said Tokars had a form of multiple sclerosis that had left him unable to walk for the past decade.
Froelich said Tokars was enrolled in the federal witness protection program when he died, although he remained incarcerated.
Breaking Bad
Tokars also apparently assisted in providing evidence permitting the the prosecution of Dustin Honken, (pictured right) the apparent basis for the hit TV show “Breaking Bad,” and Honken’s girlfriend, both of whom received the death penalty as a result of Tokars’ help.
Former Cobb County District Attorney Tom Charron, who unsuccessfully sought the death penalty for Tokars, said Wednesday, “I still to this day feel that this certainly was a death penalty case. If you don’t seek the death penalty in a case like that, when do you?”
Charron said he believed that when the jury came back unable to convince two jurors to vote for death. “I still feel that way,” he said.
“The way people languish on Death Row, Fred, even if had gotten the death penalty, might still be there,” he added. “Who knows?”
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