Scott Sessions Murder: Eastman Trial, Verdict, and Missed Warrant

The Scott Sessions murder was the February 2020 killing of a 53-year-old Greeley, Colorado trumpet player by Kevin Eastman, the jealous on-again, off-again boyfriend of the woman Sessions had recently begun seeing. Eastman ambushed Sessions at the door of Heather Frank’s apartment, then killed Frank days later to keep her quiet. In July 2022 a Weld County jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder and related charges, and he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus 27 years in prison.¹

Who Scott Sessions Was

Sessions was a house painter and a fixture of Northern Colorado’s music scene. He played trumpet in the horn sections of George Gray and the Elvis Experience, an Elvis Presley cover group, and The Movers & Shakers, a rhythm and blues act that reached the semifinals of the International Blues Competition in Memphis in January 2020.² Friends described him as generous with other musicians and known for arriving early to every gig. That habit is part of what raised the alarm: when he missed a sold-out show at The Candlelight Dinner Playhouse on February 10, his bandmates knew something was wrong.³

How Sessions Met Heather Frank and Crossed Kevin Eastman

Sessions met Heather Frank on January 22, 2020, at a Wednesday night blues jam. They bonded over music and continued talking on Facebook.⁴ Frank, 48, was a waitress at Doug’s Diner in Loveland and a divorced mother of three.

For more than five years, Frank had been in a turbulent relationship with Kevin Eastman, one both the prosecution and defense described as toxic and shaped by substance abuse and violence.⁵ Eastman had already pleaded guilty in 2015 to third-degree assault against Frank, and in 2019 she reported to Denver police that he had punched her three times in the ribs at a hotel. A warrant was issued on that report but never assigned to an officer for execution; a Denver Department of Public Safety representative later said the unit prioritized violent felony warrants over misdemeanors. Eastman remained free.⁶

The Night of the Killings

On the evening of February 8, 2020, Sessions and Frank exchanged Facebook messages arranging to meet at her apartment in Greeley. Sessions called his father at 6:12 p.m. and said he was heading to Fort Collins to see friends. At 7:59 p.m., Frank sent a final message asking, “Hey where you at…?”⁷

Prosecutors said Eastman was waiting inside. He attacked Sessions at the doorway with a large knife. A large pool of suspected blood near the front entryway, along with DNA evidence, supported the ambush theory.⁴ Sessions’ cellphone stopped transmitting near Frank’s apartment around 5 a.m. on February 9. Cell records then showed phones belonging to Frank and Eastman traveling together toward Poudre Canyon and back. At 3:21 a.m. Frank had texted her boss that she wouldn’t be coming to work because she was “throwing up.”⁷

Sessions’ body was dumped along Old Flowers and Pingree Park roads, about 40 miles west of Fort Collins in Larimer County. A snowplow driver found it smoldering on February 10. It had been wrapped in plastic, bound with duct tape, and set on fire. An autopsy determined the cause of death was sharp force injuries to the back of the neck, inflicted with enough force to nearly sever the head.⁴ Surveillance footage from the nearby Mishawaka Amphitheatre captured a vehicle matching Eastman’s traveling toward the canyon and returning within three hours, caked in red mud matching the soil at the dump site.⁷

Prosecutors argued that Eastman then killed Frank to prevent her from going to the police. She died from two .22-caliber gunshot wounds to the chest fired at close range.⁵ Her body was found wrapped in plastic and baling wire, hidden under a pile of lumber on a rural property in Kersey, Weld County, belonging to Troy Bonnell, Eastman’s former employer.⁸

How Investigators Identified Eastman

Stanley Sessions reported his son missing on February 11, and police soon matched the burned body to him. Investigators located Sessions’ Ford Escape in a King Soopers grocery store parking lot in Greeley, keys in the ignition, a floor mat placed underneath, and surveillance footage showing an unidentified person walking away from the driver’s side.³

After gaining access to Sessions’ Facebook Messenger account, detectives identified Frank as the last person he had planned to meet, which led them to Eastman. They placed surveillance cameras across the street from Frank’s townhome and GPS trackers on vehicles associated with both her and Eastman. On February 15 and 16, investigators followed their movements to the Kersey property, where Eastman was observed tending a large fire. He was arrested on February 16 at a gas station in Kersey. Deputies then searched the property and found Frank’s remains in the burn pit.⁹

The Trial

Delayed by COVID-19, Eastman’s trial began in July 2022 in Weld District Court before Judge Marcelo Kopcow. He faced six counts: two of first-degree murder after deliberation, two of tampering with a deceased human body, and two of tampering with physical evidence.¹

Prosecutors framed the case around “power, control, coercion, and revenge.” Deputy District Attorney Yvette Guthrie told the jury that Eastman murdered Sessions in a jealous rage after learning about the new relationship and then killed Frank to silence her. “He didn’t want to lose Heather Frank, and because of that, two people lost their lives,” Guthrie said.⁵

The state’s evidence included cellphone location data placing Sessions, Frank, and Eastman together on the night of the killing; surveillance video of Eastman’s vehicle traveling to and from the canyon; the bloodstain at Frank’s doorway; Sessions’ blood and DNA on a pair of jeans at Eastman’s property; and a box of .22-caliber ammunition in Eastman’s garage missing six rounds, with two spent shell casings recovered from his pockets.⁸

Defense attorney Samantha Deveraux argued the case rested on assumption. No murder weapon was recovered, and no forensic evidence placed Eastman at the moment of either death. Seven stains found in his vehicle tested negative for blood, and duct tape from Sessions’ body contained Frank’s DNA rather than Eastman’s.¹⁰

The defense pursued an alternate-suspect theory built around Troy Bonnell, whose property held Frank’s body. Bonnell’s DNA was found on a pack of cigarettes on Frank’s body, and .22-caliber shell casings matching the ammunition used to kill her were recovered from his pocket during a police search. Bonnell said the casings came from shooting at coyotes on his property. Under cross-examination he repeatedly answered “I don’t recall” and gave conflicting statements about his employment history with Eastman, his whereabouts, and whether he knew Sessions. The defense also showed that Bonnell had communicated with Eastman on the encrypted messaging app Signal on February 16, contradicting his earlier statements. Bonnell invoked his Fifth Amendment right on a pending weapons charge arising from the investigation, as a prior convicted felon barred from possessing firearms.¹¹

Conviction and Sentence

After a three-week trial, the jury convicted Eastman on all six counts on July 20, 2022. The next day, Judge Kopcow sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences plus 27 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. “You are going to spend the rest of your natural life in prison based on your vicious acts of violence and jealousy,” the judge told him.¹²

Stanley Sessions addressed the court before sentencing. “He started a chain reaction that I’m sure he doesn’t know anything about,” he said of Eastman. “What he did was he caused our family the most anguish that you can ever impose on a family.” He added that he had worked to forgive the defendant so he would not have to carry that burden for the rest of his life.¹ Frank’s oldest son, Alexander McLaughlin, told the court, “My mom was more than just my mom. She was my best friend.”¹³

The Warrant That Was Never Served

Frank had reported Eastman to police repeatedly over the years, and the case drew national attention in part for what it exposed about how those reports were handled. His 2015 conviction produced probation, a $106 fine, and a one-year jail sentence served on work-release, but did not end the abuse. When Frank reported the 2019 hotel assault, the resulting arrest warrant was classified as a misdemeanor and never assigned for execution, so Eastman was still free when Sessions walked to Frank’s door in February 2020.⁶

Guthrie later told ABC’s 20/20 that Eastman’s prior pattern of violence was itself evidence at trial. “This case was about domestic violence, and we wanted to make sure that the jury understood that power and control ultimately was what killed Heather Frank and Scott Sessions,” she said.¹⁴

Where the Case Stands

Eastman is serving his sentence at the Fremont Correctional Facility in Colorado.¹⁵ He is appealing his conviction.³

1
Weld County District Attorney. Judge Hands Down Two Consecutive Life Sentences to Man Convicted of Double Homicide
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NBC News. Scott Sessions Colorado Murder Trumpet Music
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ABC News. 20/20 Explores Murders of Scott Sessions, Heather Frank
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Coloradoan. Months After Murder of Greeley Musician, Details Emerge in Case
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Complete Colorado. Greeley Love Triangle Double Murder Trial Begins
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ABC News. Heather Frank Killing Exposes Cracks in System
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Oxygen. Kevin Eastman Killed Scott Sessions and Heather Frank
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Greeley Tribune. Prosecutors Focus on Physical Evidence in Greeley Double Homicide Suspect’s Trial
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Weld County Sheriff’s Office. Frank Homicide Arrest Press Release
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Greeley Tribune. Prosecutors Call Victim’s Father to Testify in Greeley Double Murder Suspect’s Trial
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Greeley Tribune. Defense Examination Reveals Inconsistent Statements by Alternate Suspect in Double Homicide Case
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Greeley Tribune. Greeley Double Homicide Suspect Kevin Eastman Found Guilty, Sentenced to Life in Prison
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CBS News Colorado. Kevin Eastman Sentenced to Two Life Sentences in Murders of Scott Sessions, Heather Frank
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Yahoo Entertainment. Dateline Colorado Trumpet Player
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Yahoo Entertainment. Dateline NBC: Where Scott Sessions