A judge has thrown out one count against the man accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend, killing their son and her daughter in a fire and then killing a neighbor as he fled in July 2019.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCormick found Armond Johnson, 29, not guilty because of a lack of evidence of an aggravated arson charge in the death of Takeyra Collins. He made the decision after testimony presented during the two-week trial showed the woman died by gunshot before the assailant set the fire that killed her 6-year-old Armond Johnson Jr. and 2-year-old Aubrey Stone in the bedroom next to hers.
McCormick also threw out portions of three aggravated murder counts that accused Johnson of murdering Collins while committing arson.
The judge left the remaining 20 counts, including 11 counts of aggravated murder, fully in tact as prosecutors and defense attorneys prepare to make closing arguments to jurors on Thursday. If convicted, Johnson faces the death penalty.
The ruling came after prosecutors on Wednesday rested their case against Johnson, who is charged with aggravated murder in the deaths of Collins, Armond Jr., Aubrey and Collins’ neighbor, David Cousin, on July 8, 2019.
If he is found guilty of the aggravated murder charges that carry the death penalty, the trial will move to the sentencing phase, where he and his attorneys have the chance to present evidence and testimony to persuade the jury not to recommend that he be executed.
McCormick will ultimately decide the sentence, but he cannot impose the death penalty if jurors reject it.
Johnson is accused of entering the East 63rd Street home in Slavic Village that he and Collins once shared sometime after 9 p.m. and shooting Collins 10 times. Prosecutors say Johnson then doused the house with gasoline an set fires in two spots — a pile of laundry in Collins’ bedroom next to her body and a couch in the living room.
Carpet from the hallway outside the children’s bedrooms, as well as items leading to both exits of the apartment, tested positive for gasoline, testimony showed.
The home’s newer double-pane windows did not break and prevented oxygen from getting inside the home to fuel the fire, an arson investigator testified. The flames fizzled out but filled the house with smoke and soot that ultimately caused the children to die of smoke inhalation.
Surveillance video from outside the home showed a man in a hooded sweatshirt with Nike sneakers running from the home, then returning a few minutes later.
David Cousin, who lived next to Collins, got home from work about 11 p.m., and video showed the man chased him into a field where he was later found shot to death.
Cellphone records showed that someone sent two messages from Collins’ phone about 10:30 p.m. — one to her mother and one to Johnson — in which Collins said Aubrey’s father was chasing her with a gun and threatened to burn down her house.
Police pulled surveillance video that showed the man working at his job at a sandwich shop in Maple Heights at the time the messages were sent and eliminated him as a suspect.
After the fire failed to engulf the entire house, investigators found a red gas can in Collins’ bedroom and her cellphone on the arm of a couch in the living room next to the chair that was ignited. Both had Johnson’s DNA on them, an analyst testified.
Cellphone tower data showed Johnson’s cellphone pinged off of two towers surrounding the Slavic Village neighborhood for several hours the night of the killing.
Johnson’s aunt, Kaleada Lipscomb, testified that she picked up Johnson in her white Dodge sedan at a McDonald’s on Broadway Avenue that is less than half a mile from Collins’ house on the night of the killings after he texted her.
Surveillance video from the restaurant shows a man wearing similar clothes as the man seen running from the house on private security cameras getting into a white sedan.
Police then got a search warrant for the home of Johnson’s mother and aunt in Cleveland Heights, where he had stayed since Collins kicked him out of the house earlier that year. Officers found a pair of Nike sneakers and blue jeans that each had what looked like blood stains on them, according to testimony. The items contained Collins’ blood, the DNA analyst testified.
Investigators also found text messages in Collins’ phone from the months leading up to the killings in which she accused Johnson of pistol-whipping her while the kids were in the house. She told him that she did not want him to see the kids anymore.
Johnson’s defense attorneys, Tom Shaughnessy and Jim McDonnell, sought through cross-examination questions to establish that it’s possible for a person’s DNA to be found on items they’ve never touched.
The DNA analyst agreed with Shaughnessy that, if Shaughnessy shook his hand and then used an iPad to assault someone, the analyst’s DNA could be found on his iPad during the investigation.
Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, wrongly stripped of security clearance, US says
The Biden administration has reversed a decades-old decision to revoke the security clearance of Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist called the father of the atomic bomb for his leading role in World War II’s Manhattan Project. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm...
Powerball: See the winning numbers in Saturday’s $149 million drawing
It’s time to grab your tickets and check to see if you’re a big winner! The Powerball lottery jackpot continues to rise after one lucky winner in Kansas won $93 million in the November 19 drawing. Is this your lucky night? Here are Saturday’s winning lottery numbers:...
US charges Sam Bankman-Fried with defrauding investors
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Sam Bankman-Fried with "orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors" in the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The former FTX boss was arrested on Monday. Mr Bankman-Fried built a "house of cards on a...
Medina County Scam Squad coming to residents’ rescue
Both local and widespread scams have been claiming victims for years, continuing to increase and change as technology and other factors evolve. To combat this, the Medina County Office of Older Adults and the Medina County Prosecutor’s Office have worked together to...
Ohio man who hid camera in bathroom to record children sentenced to 20 years in prison
A federal judge sentenced a man to 20 years in prison for creating child pornography, including using a hidden camera in a bathroom to secretly record children. Timothy Wright, 50, of Dublin, Ohio, also will spend 10 years on supervised released once he completes his...
Submit your event
We will be happy to share your events. Please email us the details and pictures at publish@profilenewsohio.com
Address
P.O. Box: 311001 Independance, Ohio, 44131
Call Us
+1 (216) 269 3272
Email Us
Publish@profilenewsohio.com