Retarded man get death sentence
Joewith...@school.com
Associated
Press news wire:
Johns' attorneys argue for life sentence rather than death
Associated Press
January 21, 1999
WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (AP) -- The path that brought Alis Ben Johns to an
Ozarks
courtroom where he faces the death sentence began more the 20 years ago,
jurors
were told Wednesday, when the convicted killer suffered a near-fatal
seizure
that damaged his brain and destroyed his life.
The seizure, which struck Johns at age 4, left him unconscious for up to
an
hour, his mother said. His family kept him alive with mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation while rushing him to a country doctor. But he was never
the same
again, she said, and a psychiatrist who spent hours with Johns said that
the
seizure left him brain damaged and with only borderline intelligence.
Thus, he was acting with such diminished mental capacity when he shot
Tommy
Stewart to death on Oct. 1, 1996, that he should not be sentenced to
death, his
attorneys argued.
Johns was convicted Monday of first-degree murder for the death of
Stewart. The
same jury that convicted him is now considering whether to recommend the
death
sentence or life in prison without parole. The defense rested in the
penalty
phase Wednesday with closing arguments scheduled for Thursday.
The second day of the sentencing phase began Wednesday with Johns'
elderly
mother, Alberta, testifying in a videotaped deposition from her nursing
home.
She said that her son led a tragic, troubled life as one of eight
children from
an impoverished and violent family.
The normally taciturn Johns blinked often and appeared to struggle to
keep his
emotions in check during his mother's deposition.
She was followed by Dr. Dorothy Lewis, a defense psychiatrist who
examined
Johns after his arrest. She testified that her extensive research into
Johns'
history showed someone who appeared to be developing normally until the
seizure.
``Following that incident, he regressed,'' she said. ``He began to wet
and soil
his pants and he couldn't speak. ... He had to be retaught just about
everything.''
To this day, she said, Johns functions at the mental level of about a
6-year-old.
After testimony was completed, Circuit Court Judge Douglas Long called a
brief
recess and Johns was returned to his cell in the Pulaski County Jail.
When Long called the trial back into session, Johns refused to return to
court.
``I think he was upset by his mother's testimony,'' Johns' attorney
Chris
Slusher said, adding that he didn't know when the defendant might agree
to
return.
Both Lewis and Johns' mother talked of an often brutal childhood in
which
Johns, who was small for his age, was bullied at school, savagely beaten
by an
older brother and saw his parents constantly fighting.
In one confrontation when he was 10, Mrs. Johns shot her husband in the
arm and
then refused to take him to the hospital after he had accused her of
cheating
on him.
He died about a year later of the effects of alcoholism.
In the years that followed, Mrs. Johns said, the family moved constantly
--
relocating in Ohio, Florida and all over Missouri.
``Wherever we could find a house that would rent to us,'' she said.
Money was so tight that she said Johns often hunted, fished and foraged
for
food.
Meanwhile, he dropped out of school in the eighth grade because he could
not
read or write.
Johns suffered from headaches, nose bleeds and hallucinations --
sometimes
saying he saw the devil, other times an old Indian spirit who protected
him.
As a young man he married and had three children, but was imprisoned for
burglary when his wife, Becky, was killed in a car accident.
Prison, Mrs. Johns said, turned her son mean.
``He says they raped him in the correctional center,'' she said. ``He
was mad
all the time after he got out of prison. It took awhile before we could
get him
out of that.''
-----------------------------------------------------------
Defense: Johns was 'mentally retarded, damaged man'
01/21/99
By JOHN ROGERS Associated Press Writer
WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (AP) -- Jurors were asked today to take mercy on a
``mentally
retarded, brain damaged man,'' and spare convicted killer Alis Ben Johns
the
death penalty.
In her closing argument, defense attorney Nancy McKerrow said a sentence
of
life without parole would be more than adequate punishment for Johns
killing
Tommy Stewart of Dixon in October 1996 in a dispute over a woman.
``Joe Johns will die in prison,'' she said, whether it's on death row or
in a
cell no larger than a bathroom. That being the case, she said, she
pleaded with
jurors to take into account Johns' tragic upbringing.
``I don't believe executing a mentally retarded, brain damaged man will
serve
any purpose,'' she said in the Pulaski County Circuit Court. Her
argument came
a day after members of Johns' family talked about his problems since he
was age
4.
But in his closing argument, prosecutor Robert Ahsens asked jurors to
``do your
duty'' and issue the harshest penalty possible for a man he
characterized as a
serial killer and a one-man crime wave.
As he showed the jury gruesome pictures of the bodies of Stewart and two
others
Johns is charged with killing while hiding from authorities after the
Stewart
slaying, Ahsens reminded them that Johns also was linked to several
burglaries
and an abduction while he was on the run.
The Ozarks fugitive eluded as many as 400 law enforcement officers for
nearly
six months after killing Stewart
``If this massive evidence doesn't warrant the death penalty, I don't
know what
else I can do for you,'' Ahsens said.
While he agreed that Johns had a troubled life, one that McKerrow said
had
involved growing up in a family of ``too many kids and too little money
and too
much alcohol and way too much violence,'' Ahsens said other people had
overcome
such harsh surroundings.
``There are a lot of people who were poorly educated and raised rough,
starting
with Abraham Lincoln, and they never killed anybody,'' he said.
Following closing arguments, Stewart's mother, Betty, who has been in
court
every day for the trial, said she would be satisfied with either
penalty.
``I was a little nervous in the other verdict,'' she said of Monday's
decision
to convict Johns. ``That I had to have,'' she added.
``Today? Whatever they bring back, it's OK with me.''
On Wednesday, Johns' mother, sister, daughter and others -- some with
tears in
their eyes -- testified in an effort to have Johns sentenced to life in
prison
without parole.
His mental problems began at age 4, his mother, Alberta Johns, testified
Wednesday, when he suffered a seizure that rendered him unconscious for
perhaps
as long as an hour.
``He was out of it and I had to kind of breathe in his mouth to keep him
going,'' she said in a videotaped deposition taken from the nursing home
in
Dixon where she lives.
``Following that incident, he regressed,'' said Dr. Dorothy Lewis, a
defense
psychiatrist. ``He began to wet and soil his pants and he couldn't
speak. ...
He had to be retaught just about everything.''
He never could learn to read or write and he quit school after the
eighth
grade. Today, at age 37, he functions at the mental level of about a
5-year-old, Lewis said.
Relatives painted a life that was a living hell, as Johns grew up the
sixth of
eight children in an impoverished family led by a chronically unemployed
alcoholic father who constantly beat Johns' mother until one day she
shot and
wounded him with a rifle.
Such behavior would drive Johns, who was remembered by his school
librarian,
Thea Dodge, as a shy, polite boy, to leave home and fend for himself in
the
woods for a day or more at a time when he was as young as 7, said his
sister
Arizona Chavez. And at 16, she said, he began to drink heavily and to
suffer
hallucinations as his father had.
The family doctor issued a statement that was read into the record in
which he
told of treating the youngster for such things as epilepsy, seizures,
anxiety,
nosebleeds, fainting spells and a number of head injuries Johns was said
to
have suffered when he ran into a steel door, fell off a horse, fell off
a hay
wagon and was hit by a truck.
Lewis testified that her investigation determined many of those injuries
were
actually the result of beatings.
AP-CS-01-21-99
--------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of today's Associated Press news wire:
Jury wants death sentence for Johns
by John Rogers, The Associated Press
WAYNESVILLE, Mo. – A jury recommended Thursday that former fugitive Alis
Johns
be sentenced to death. The jury ruled that he acted with “depravity of
mind”
when he shot Tommy Stewart of Dixon to death in October 1996.
Jurors deliberated for just about three hours before announcing they had
reached a verdict at about 1:30 p.m. to recommend that Johns be
sentenced to
death rather than life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jurors had
to find there were extenuating circumstances. Among those, they said,
were that
Johns had previously been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and
the
circumstances of Stewart’s killing. Stewart was shot seven times,
including
once in the back of the head at close range.
“The murder of Thomas N. Stewart involved depravity of mind,” the
jury
said in issuing its recommendation.
Johns was not in court. He refused to return since watching his
mother’s
videotaped testimony asking for life imprisonment on Wednesday morning.
His
attorney, Chris Slusher, said Johns was still distraught over the
testimony, in
which Alberta Johns talked about her sons’ troubled family life,
starting when
he suffered a seizure at age four.
There was a slight gasp in the Pulaski County Circuit courtroom
when the
verdict was announced. Stewart’s family, sitting in the second row,
hugged and
congratulated one another.
“It sounded good to me, the death sentence,” Stewart’s mother,
Betty, said
afterward. “I think he deserved the death penalty,” she said, adding,
though,
that she would have been satisfied with either penalty.
Slusher, who rested his case without calling any defense witnesses,
said
he still didn’t think the prosecution had proved its case.
“You always have second thoughts when you lose,” he said. “But we
thought
the state didn’t establish the case strongly enough to show that Mr.
Johns
coolly deliberated.”
He pointed out that prosecutors conceded that Johns shot Stewart,
who was
drunk, during a roadside confrontation over Stewart’s former girlfriend
in
which Stewart had forced the car Johns was riding in to a halt.
Earlier Thursday, the jurors were asked to take mercy on a
“mentally
retarded, brain damaged man,” and spare convicted killer Johns the death
penalty. In her closing argument, defense attorney Nancy McKerrow said a
sentence of life without parole would be more than adequate punishment
for
Johns’ killing.
“Joe Johns will die in prison,” she said, whether it’s on death row
or in
a cell no larger than a bathroom. That being the case, she said, she
pleaded
with jurors to take into account Johns’ tragic upbringing.
“I don’t believe executing a mentally retarded, brain damaged man
will
serve any purpose,” she said.
But in his closing argument, Assistant Attorney General Robert
Ahsens, who
helped Pulaski County Prosecutor Michael Headrick, asked jurors to “do
your
duty” and issue the harshest penalty possible for a man he characterized
as a
serial killer and a one-man crime wave.
As he showed the jury gruesome pictures of the bodies of Stewart
and two
others who Johns is charged with killing while on the lam after
Stewart’s
murder, Ahsens reminded them that Johns also was linked to several
burglaries
and an abduction while he was on the run. The fugitive eluded as many as
400
law enforcement officers for nearly six months after killing Stewart
“If this massive evidence doesn’t warrant the death penalty, I
don’t know
what else I can do for you,” Ahsens said.
While he agreed that Johns had a troubled life, one that McKerrow
said had
involved growing up in a family of “too many kids and too little money
and too
much alcohol and way too much violence,” Ahsens said other people had
overcome
such harsh surroundings.
“There are a lot of people who were poorly educated and raised
rough,
starting with Abraham Lincoln, and they never killed anybody,” he said.
The jurors were from Adair County, around Kirksville. One man said
the
decision was the toughest thing he ever had to do. Another juror said
Johns
might have had some diminished mental capacity but not enough to absolve
him.
He said that Johns may have lost control and not realized what he was
doing but
to go on the run for six months, he said, Johns “had to know something.”