THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 2, 1995 TAG: 9509020442
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Jeannette Johnson was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Friday and sentenced to 12 years in prison for the deaths of her two daughters in a burning car she had parked on a dark highway.
Johnson, whose daughters, Erika Morgan, 6, and Saralisa Danielle, 9, died on May 15, 1994, also was convicted of felony death by motor vehicle by a Superior Court jury of five women and seven men.
As a courtroom clerk read the panel's verdict - reached after about an hour of deliberations - Johnson, 33, avoided looking at the jurors, just as she had throughout much of the three-day trial.
Wearing the same blue print dress she had worn on the opening day of her trial, with her long blonde hair held securely in a ponytail, Johnson sobbed and shook when Judge Herbert Small issued the sentence.
``I know you'll live with this the rest of your life. So will many of us,'' Small told her. ``But society requires that something be done so that people will be cautious and observe the law in an effort to avoid tragedies such as this.''
Small then sentenced Johnson to six years in a North Carolina prison for each of two involuntary manslaughter convictions. He deferred sentencing on the death by motor vehicle charge.
The judge also set a $30,000 bond, pending an appeal by Johnson's attorney, Charles Busby of Edenton.
Testimony during the trial indicated that Johnson and her boyfriend, Juan ``John'' Estaban, 37, were coming from a party about 1:20 a.m. when Johnson stopped her 1984 Chrysler New Yorker on a dark stretch of U.S. 17, a heavily traveled, five-lane highway, in front of the Pine Lakes Country Club.
The two got out and apparently were arguing, with the girls still in the vehicle, when a Ford Mustang hit the rear right end of the New Yorker. The gas tank exploded.
The driver of the Mustang, William E. Smith, 21, of South Mills, told the jury he did not see the other car until the impact. He was not charged.
Attempts to save the children failed.
A blood sample taken more than two hours after the crash showed that Johnson had a blood-alcohol level of 0.09, above the legal limit of 0.08.
A prosecutor successfully argued that it was Johnson's ``reckless'' actions and alcohol-related impairment that caused the two girls' deaths - not Smith's driving, as Busby had contended.
``He's been living through hell,'' Assistant District Attorney Robert Trivette said of Smith, a Ford Motor Co. employee who attended the trial.
Johnson's ex-husband, Mark Johnson of Highfalls, sat with his wife, Laurie, through most of the proceedings. The couple left only when a graphic videotape of the wreckage was shown one morning.
Johnson was the last person to testify against his former wife.
Johnson said he married the former Jeannette Collier, a Northeastern High School graduate, when both were serving in the Coast Guard in Elizabeth City in 1984.
While on the witness stand, Johnson began crying uncontrollably when he was shown a picture of his daughters.
Several other witnesses, including Smith and an Elizabeth City policeman, also broke down in tears during the trial.
Johnson, who came to court each day with her parents, never testified. She was silent during her sentencing.
``What can she say?'' Busby said just before the sentence was imposed. ``What can she tell this court or anyone else that will make any difference in the fate of these children?''
Busby offered only two, last-minute witnesses, who said Smith told a volunteer firefighter he'd bent down to pick up something from the floor of his car when he hit the New Yorker at about 55 mph.
Johnson wore a diamond ring during the trial and said one morning that she and Estaban planned to wed this month.
The couple became engaged in May, she said - almost a year to the date of the girls' death. Estaban, a car salesman in Elizabeth City, never appeared in court.
Outside the Pasquotank County Courthouse, several jurors remained after the sentencing hearing ended.
``It was a tough decision to make,'' a male juror said.
``We didn't make it on our feelings,'' he added a minute later. ``We felt bad that the children did die, and she's gonna have to live with that the rest of her life.'' by CNB