THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 24, 1995 TAG: 9506240349
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
A jury convicted Joshua M. Johnson Friday of first-degree murder, rejecting his testimony that he stabbed Joey Garcia to protect a girlfriend.
The Circuit Court jury recommended that Johnson, 18, spend the rest of his life in prison.
The verdict and sentence recommendation were small consolation for Garcia's parents, who wept outside the courtroom. Their son was a 17-year-old student at Salem High School.
``It's been a long time and we got what we wanted, I guess,'' Joseph Garcia said sadly. ``But Joey is not going to return.''
The Garcias must endure one more trial, that of Johnson's girlfriend, Kelly Anne Dara, 18, who also is accused of murder in the March 6 slaying.
As Johnson's verdict was read aloud, his family watched from the front row. His mother and grandmother wept; his father looked on stoically. Johnson showed no outward reaction.
``I think the trial has been fair,'' the father, Mitch Johnson, said while awaiting the verdict. ``He's had his day in the sun. He's had his chance to say what he wants to say. I'm glad he got to take the stand. . .
``To be honest with you, I don't know what happened (when Garcia was killed). I don't know if what he said is the way it happened. . . I think some wrong has been done. I'm not so naive as to believe nothing should happen.''
About 20 friends of the Garcia family, including many Salem High School students, attended the three-day trial. Many of those classmates were witnesses who helped seal Johnson's fate.
Prosecutors said Johnson and Dara lured Garcia to Dara's home in Rosemont Forest to kill him, steal his sporty red car and drive to Florida. Garcia was stabbed four times in the back and chest.
After the slaying, Johnson and Dara fled to North Carolina. Police found them the next day in an Outer Banks motel.
Several teenage friends testified against Johnson, recalling conversations in which Johnson said before the stabbing that he wanted to kill someone to steal a car.
On the witness stand, Johnson denied this. He said Garcia just happened to show up at the house. He admitted stabbing Garcia but said Garcia was banging Dara against a wall. He said he thought Dara was pregnant.
If the jurors had believed Johnson, they would have found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter.
Instead, the jury convicted him, after two hours of deliberation, of murder, attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.
Prosecutor Albert Alberi asked for a sentence of life in prison. He said Johnson is ``no fit subject for any kind of rehabilitation.''
Alberi stressed Johnson's ``utter lack of remorse, utter lack of concern'' on the witness stand.
Some observers thought Johnson's testimony left a bad impression on the jurors. For 50 minutes on the witness stand, Johnson scowled at prosecutors, showed no sorrow and contradicted the testimony of witnesses before him.
``I thought he was somewhat more glib than I expected him to be,'' Alberi said after the trial.
Johnson's father said his son may have rubbed jurors the wrong way.
``His personality is such that he's kind of defiant. You know, `You're not going to get anything over on me,' '' Mitch Johnson said. ``That came across yesterday (Thursday). . . Obviously he didn't make a good impression.''
He said Johnson dropped out of school and left home when he turned 18 in January.
``I kind of disagreed with his lifestyle. He was kind of going from house to house,'' Mitch Johnson said.
After the sentencing, Judge Frederick B. Lowe lectured the teenagers in his courtroom. He asked them to take a lesson from the trial to school.
``It's not a happy day for anyone,'' Lowe said. One life has been taken; others have been changed forever, the judge said.
``The court urges you to learn from the experience. . . Violence, for whatever reason, doesn't solve problems. It only creates more and makes them worse,'' Lowe said.
Outside the courtroom, Garcia's father agreed.
``We lost and, as Judge Lowe said, a lot of people lost,'' Joseph Garcia said sadly. ``There is no win-or-lose situation here. Everybody loses.''
Johnson will be formally sentenced Sept. 6. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Joshua M. Johnson showed no outward reaction when the guilty verdict
was read aloud.
Judge Frederick B. Lowe
KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL CONVICTION by CNB