State v. Johnson, No. WD 70392 (Mo. App. 5/25/2010)
| Decision Date | 25 May 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. WD 70392.,WD 70392. |
| Parties | STATE OF MISSOURI, Respondent, v. HARRELL L. JOHNSON, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, The Honorable John M. Torrence, Judge.
Before Thomas H. Newton, C.J., James Edward Welsh, and Gary D. Witt, JJ.
Harrell Johnson appeals the circuit court's judgment convicting him of murder in the first degree.1 Johnson contends that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt for murder in the first degree because the State failed to produce evidence that Johnson knowingly caused Erica Michelle Marie Green's death after deliberation upon the matter. We affirm the circuit court's judgment.
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence established that, in April 2001, Johnson and Michelle Johnson2 were living in Kansas City in a house that belonged to Johnson's cousin. Two children lived with the Johnsons: three-year-old Erica Green3 and six-month-old Markeshia Johnson.
In the latter part of April 2001, the family arrived home one evening around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. At some point after they arrived home, Michelle Johnson went into the back room and saw Erica and Johnson standing in the bedroom. At that time, Johnson was high on PCP and alcohol. Michelle Johnson told Erica to go to bed. Michelle Johnson then left the room and took a bath. According to Johnson, Erica was "being bad" and was resisting their efforts to get her to go to sleep. Johnson believed that the victim was not obeying, and, after he told the victim five or six times to go to sleep, he became agitated.
When Michelle Johnson came back to the room, Erica was again out of bed and standing up. Michelle Johnson asked Johnson, "What is [Erica] doing standing up?" Johnson told Michelle Johnson that he told Erica to stand up. Michelle Johnson said that she then told Johnson, "Well, that's my kid, I control her; that's your baby over there" (referring to Markeshia Johnson)." Michelle Johnson then again told Erica to lie down. At that time, Michelle was sitting on the bed, and Erica was standing a few feet from her, with Johnson behind her. According to Michelle Johnson, at that point, Johnson raised his foot up and kicked Erica in the head.4 Erica collapsed to the floor and immediately lost consciousness. Michelle Johnson picked up the unconscious Erica and took her to the bathroom. Michelle Johnson placed Erica in some cold water and tried to revive her. Erica was unresponsive: she did not move her arms or legs, and her eyes were rolled back into her head.
Michelle Johnson knew that something very serious had happened, and she knew that Erica was in need of medical assistance. Despite Michelle Johnson's efforts in the bathroom, Erica did not respond or wake up. After about ten or fifteen minutes, Michelle Johnson took Erica back to the bedroom and laid her on the floor. Erica remained unconscious and unresponsive but her eyes were no longer rolled completely back into her head.
Johnson and Michelle Johnson knew that Erica was in serious medical trouble, and they discussed whether they should obtain medical assistance for her. They did not seek medical treatment for her because they both had outstanding warrants. They feared that, if they got help for Erica, their warrants would be discovered, and they would go to jail. Therefore, they decided not to get medical assistance for Erica. According to Michelle Johnson, she agreed not to call an ambulance, even though she thought that Erica would die without medical attention.
For the next ten to fourteen hours, Erica remained unconscious and unresponsive. The next morning, Michelle Johnson and Johnson attempted to feed Erica, but Erica died without ever regaining consciousness and without responding in any way.
After Erica died, Johnson and Michelle Johnson decided to get rid of Erica's body. They waited until it got dark and then took Erica's body out through a window of the house. They took hedge clippers with them and took Erica's body to a nearby wooded area. Johnson took off Erica's clothes and gave them to Michelle Johnson. Johnson then severed Erica's head with the hedge clippers, put the head inside two garbage bags, and dumped the head into a dumpster at a nearby church. Johnson left Erica's naked, decapitated body in the woods.
After Johnson threw Erica's head into the church's dumpster, Michelle Johnson told Johnson that people at the church would smell the head and find it. So, Johnson and Michelle Johnson retrieved the head, walked down the street, and threw the head into the wooded area where they had left the body. Johnson and Michelle Johnson then returned home and climbed into their room through the window.
The next day, when Johnson's cousin asked about Erica, Michelle Johnson told her that Betty Brown had come and taken Erica to Oklahoma. This was not viewed with suspicion because Erica had been living with Brown shortly before Michelle Johnson brought her to Kansas City.
At about 6:45 p.m., on April 28, 2001, a police officer found Erica's decapitated body in the woods. A search of the immediate vicinity did not reveal the location of Erica's head. On May 1, 2001, Erica's head was found in a garbage bag in the wooded area. Thereafter, the police began their investigation to determine the child's identity. At first the police believed that the child would be quickly identified as a missing local child, but when no one came forward, and when the victim's identity could not be established, the victim became known in the community and the media as "Precious Doe."
The police continued searching for the child's identity and investigating the circumstances of the child's death for over four years. During this time, Johnson and Michelle Johnson lived in various places. When asked about Erica, they would say that she was living with some other family member. Johnson and Michelle Johnson continued to hear media reports about "Precious Doe," but they never came forward. At some point, Johnson's grandfather accused Johnson of the murder, and Johnson told him that Erica's death had been an accident.
On April 30, 2005, the police received a tip about the child's identity. On May 3, 2005, two officers traveled to Muskogee, Oklahoma, and, on the morning of May 4, 2005, they talked to Johnson's grandfather. Johnson's grandfather told the officers that he "wanted people to know the truth about who Precious Doe was before he should die." He then identified "Precious Doe" as Erica Green.
Both Johnson and Michelle Johnson had been arrested on some warrants in Oklahoma and were in the Muskogee County Jail, so the police proceeded to the Muskogee Police Department to question both Michelle Johnson and Johnson. When questioning Michelle Johnson, the police showed her a photograph of the victim, and Michelle Johnson identified her. On the back of the photograph, Michelle Johnson wrote, Michelle Johnson then agreed to tell the police what had happened. After Michelle Johnson made her statement, she asked to meet with Johnson. Michelle Johnson then told Johnson that it was "over," that she had "come clean," and that he "should do the same."
Johnson started to cry, became upset, and told Michelle Johnson that he was "going to do the right thing to get her off." Johnson then made an oral and videotaped statement, describing how he had kicked Erica, withheld medical assistance, "disconnected" Erica's head, and discarded Erica's body and head in a wooded area. Johnson also identified a photograph of the victim, and on the back of the picture he wrote:
An autopsy revealed that Erica had suffered multiple injuries to her head.5 There were several oval-shaped defects and some slit-like defects in various areas of her scalp and face. In the frontal scalp, on the top of the head, on the back of the head, and in the right temporal area, there was hemorrhaging, and in the right temporal area, there were also "areas of injury from blunt impact." The skull was intact, but inside the skull there was a small amount of subdural hematoma (a small blood clot) and large areas of subarachnoid hemorrhage. The subdural hematoma is an indicator of brain injury where the brain is moving rapidly and stopping within the inside of the skull.
According to the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, the subdural hematoma and the subarachnoid hemorrhage were caused by a closed head injury or a blunt force head injury. He said that the injuries he found on Erica's head were consistent with an act of severe kicking. He noted that the head bore multiple points of impact on different surfaces and said:
We have a situation in which there are areas of deep scalp injury that are on the front of the head, they're on the top of the head, they're in the back of the head, and they're also in the right temple part of the head. These are areas that are just not simply on one surface, but there are areas of impact on multiple different surfaces indicating more than one impact.6
Further, on cross-examination, the forensic pathologist testified that the injuries to Erica were consistent with "a kick or kicks" to her head.
Dr. Gregory Horning, a pediatric neurosurgeon, examined the autopsy report and the deposition testimony of the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy. Hornig agreed with the forensic pathologist's determination that the cause of Erica's death was a closed head injury. Horning said that Johnson's and Michelle Johnson's descriptions of Erica's initial symptoms — immediate loss of consciousness and immobility — were...
To continue reading
Request your trial