THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506230494
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Murder suspect Joshua M. Johnson insisted Thursday that he did not stab Joey Garcia to steal his car on March 6, but to stop Garcia from hurting Johnson's girlfriend, whom he thought was pregnant.
For 45 minutes, Johnson withstood angry and occasionally sarcastic questioning from prosecutor Albert Alberi and stuck by his story in Circuit Court testimony.
Scowling at the prosecutor, Johnson repeated over and over his claim that other witnesses - friends and police officers - were wrong when they recalled incriminating statements that he supposedly made to them before and after the killing.
He acknowledged that he and his girlfriend, Kelly Anne Dara, then 17, did plan to run away that day to Florida, but he said they were going to steal Dara's mother's car, not Garcia's.
Dara and Garcia, who was 17, were classmates at Salem High School. Johnson is an 18-year-old Salem dropout.
``I did not plan on taking his (Garcia's) car, nor did Kelly,'' Johnson testified.
His attorney, Richard Clark, asked Johnson point-blank, ``Did you want to kill him?''
``No,'' Johnson replied.
The prosecution and defense ended their cases Thursday. The jury will deliberate today.
Johnson is charged with first-degree murder, attempted robbery and conspiracy. Prosecutors say he and Dara lured Garcia to the girl's home in Rosemont Forest to kill him, steal his sporty red car and drive to Florida.
Johnson admitted stabbing Garcia but said he did it because Garcia was holding his girlfriend and banging her against the wall. He said he found them engaged in a fight after hearing Dara cry out, ``No, stop it!''
After the stabbing, Johnson and Dara fled to North Carolina. They were found the next day in an Outer Banks motel.
Dr. Leah Bush, a medical examiner, testified Thursday that Garcia was stabbed three times in the back and once in the front. He also had a shallow ``defensive cut'' on his left thumb. One back wound was fatal, puncturing Garcia's lung, Bush said.
In two days of testimony, six of Johnson's friends said he told them before the stabbing that he was going to kill someone, but they did not take him seriously.
Some friends testified that Johnson said he specifically wanted to kill someone and steal a Honda CRX, the kind of car Garcia owned, because Dara liked it.
One friend - Darrell Smith, 18 - testified Thursday that Dara called him the morning of the killing and asked if he had a gun or knife. Smith said he told Dara no, then asked why she wanted them, but Dara wouldn't say.
Another friend - Tina Brown, 14 - testified Thursday that Johnson told her the morning of the killing that he was going to find someone with a CRX, stab him in the back and take his car. She said Johnson even described where he would stab the victim, between the fourth and fifth ribs, so the victim couldn't scream. That is exactly where Garcia was stabbed.
But in his own defense, Johnson testified that Garcia just happened to show up at Dara's house that day, while he and Dara were inside cutting school and watching television.
He insisted, under intense questioning, that Dara had not called Garcia to her house, or if she did, he was not aware of it.
The prosecutor was incredulous. ``By mere chance,'' Alberi said sarcastically, ``Joey Garcia came over to the house on the 6th of March? By mere chance?''
``I don't know,'' Johnson replied. ``He just showed up.''
In closing arguments, Johnson's lawyer told jurors that his client acted in the heat of the moment, which means he should be acquitted of murder.
If the jury believes this, Johnson could be convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
``There is just one issue in this case,'' Clark said. ``What was the intent, what was in the mind of Joshua Johnson on March 6?''
Alberi called Johnson's story pure fiction. ``It's a wonderful story,'' he said.
``It makes him out to be a hero, a defender of his lady love. But it doesn't wash.''
Johnson could be sentenced to life in prison with no parole, under Virginia's new parole policy, if convicted of first-degree murder. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Joshua Johnson is charged with first-degree murder and attempted
robbery.
KEYWORDS: MURDER STABBING AUTOMOBILE THEFT
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