For the second time in his life, a Texarkana man has been acquitted of murder and other charges connected to the robbery and killing of a drug dealer.
A Miller County jury found Justin Damone Johnson, 29, not guilty Wednesday of capital murder and two counts of aggravated assault stemming from the Nov. 19, 2015 death of 22-year-old Trevon Staten at the Beacon Point Apartments in Texarkana, Ark.
In 2012, a jury in Albuquerque, N.M., acquitted Justin Johnson of two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and abuse of a child causing great harm or death in a drug-related case, according to New Mexico court records.
Justin Johnson's jury in Miller County was unaware of the prior New Mexico case. Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Black had hoped to put on testimony Wednesday morning concerning it, but Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson ruled the evidence was too prejudicial to be heard during the guilt or innocence phase of trial in light of the New Mexico jury's verdict of acquittal. Had Judge Johnson permitted the testimony and had Justin Johnson been convicted, the testimony could have provided fertile ground for an appeal.
Two witnesses, Sharlysa Gulley and Rashod "Gucci" Rushing, testified that Justin Johnson, also referred to at trial as "Real on real," and "J Drank," was positively among the group of three or four men who rushed into Staten's second-floor unit shortly before midnight with guns blazing.
Justin Johnson's defense attorney, Jeff Harrelson, argued that the evidence just wasn't there for a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Harrelson commented on the unreliability of witness identifications and the desire for justice likely felt by those who survived the shooting.
Witnesses, including Devario "Spider" Lewis, testified that Staten had well over $1,000 in cash, a sizable quantity of marijuana and a substantial number of Xanax and "mollies"-a street name for an amphetamine-before the shooting, which were missing afterward. Crime scene photos showed bags of marijuana, digital scales and other drug paraphernalia scattered on the stairs leading up to Staten's apartment.
In the grass near the apartment building, crime scene investigators photographed the body of Julian Bolton, a man who was shot in the abdomen during the shooting in the apartment, probably by accident by an accomplice. Rushing testified at trial this week that he ran out of the apartment after grabbing a .40-caliber pistol from Staten's bedroom and shot Bolton, whose face was covered with a bandana, twice in the head after finding him crawling on the ground.
Arkansas State Crime Lab Chief Medical Examiner Charles Kokes testified Wednesday morning that Bolton probably would not have survived the gunshot wound to his gut, as that bullet damaged a kidney and Bolton's aorta. Rushing is being held in the Miller County jail on a charge of second-degree murder in Bolton's death. Rushing could be the only person to serve time in connection with the drug-related, home invasion robbery.
Black argued that Rushing, who implicated himself in Bolton's death when interviewed by police the morning after Staten's murder, had no reason to lie to the jury about seeing Justin Johnson among the gun-wielding men who stormed Staten's small apartment where he lived with Gulley and their young daughter. Since the shooting, Gulley has given birth to Staten's son.
Rushing testified that Staten expected to purchase codeine cough syrup-called "drank" on the street-the night of the shooting. Justin Johnson's phone number appeared in Staten's phone under the name, "J Drank," and phone records show Justin Johnson called Staten just minutes before the shooting and that Bolton had spoken to Justin Johnson by phone earlier in the night.
Mistie Houff, Julian Bolton's live-in girlfriend, testified that she saw Justin Johnson in her driveway in the early hours of Nov. 20, 2015, not long after the shooting. Houff said Justin Johnson was closing the door to Bolton's SUV, which had been parked at home all night. Houff said Justin Johnson just shook his head when she asked about Bolton. Bolton's cousin, Courtney Aubrey, testified he had helped Bolton buy the SUV and that a payment was due the following day.
"If we could have gotten to the penalty phase, the jury would have heard from a witness who would have testified that Justin Johnson admitted to him in jail that he committed two murders, one of which was a 15-year-old boy, and to shooting a third person, a female, five times in an identical robbery of a drug dealer in New Mexico," Black said.
"This witness wrote several letters to the Albuquerque Police Department and district attorney. However, those letters were not received until two weeks after the trial, which ended with his acquittal there. The jury would also have heard his criminal history, which includes illegal possession of cough syrup," Black said.
"Apparently the Miller County jury did not find the eye witnesses who identified Justin Johnson credible, just as the New Mexico jury did not find the eye witness who was shot five times credible. History has repeated itself. My office will continue to fight for justice and to protect the citizens of Miller County," she said.