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AP
Kia Levoy Johnson Posted on 06/11/2003 9:03:13 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Inmate facing death for robbery-slaying
06/11/2003
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - For an agonizing 45 minutes, a surveillance videotape shows William Rains trying to climb out from behind a counter after he had been shot and robbed at the suburban San Antonio convenience store where he was the night manager.
"It's like in the movies where you see the shaking hand come up and the shaking hand go down when somebody is trying to lift themselves up," Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Michael Cohen recalled this week. "You'd see the hand shake, then fall. It was real surreal.
"Unfortunately, this guy bled to death."
AP Kia Levoy Johnson |
Johnson, 38, would be the 16th condemned inmate to receive lethal injection in Texas this year and one of 10 set to die over the next two months.
"He shot an innocent victim who didn't even have a chance to cooperate," Cohen said.
The videotape that showed Rains' excruciating death also showed the shooting and helped convict Johnson, who insisted he was innocent.
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"He walks in, the gun's out and he shoots the guy immediately," Cohen said. "They guy goes down and (Johnson) stands over the counter and is yelling at the guy to get up to open the register."
On the tape, Rains, 32, was shot once in the abdomen with a .32-caliber pistol and moans in pain. His attacker grabs the register from the counter and flees.
"As he's doing that, he's dragging the cash register tape, the paper that comes out," Cohen recalled. "And when he's steps out of the door he steps on the cash register tape and leaves a real good imprint of the sole of the tennis shoes he's wearing."
A customer found Rains' body and called police. When the video of the crime was aired on television in San Antonio, several people told police the gunman was Johnson.
"When we caught up with him at his residence, we found that same tennis shoe in his closet and it was a perfect match," Cohen said.
Johnson, a high school graduate who worked as a cook, was no stranger to the prison system. He had a pair of burglary convictions and in March 1990 was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Six months later he was paroled, only to be returned to prison in February 1992 as a parole violator. Nine months later, in November, he was paroled again. The Rains killing occurred the following October.
"I told them that they had the wrong person and that I did not kill anybody," Johnson, who refused to speak with reporters from death row, said on a Web site devoted to his case.
In late appeals, Johnson's lawyers contended he was mentally retarded and should not be put to death because the U.S. Supreme Court has barred execution of the mentally retarded. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the appeal last week, saying there was no evidence to support the argument. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected the appeal late Tuesday and Scott Sullivan, one of Johnson's attorneys, said he would take his argument Wednesday to the Supreme Court.
In earlier unsuccessful appeals, lawyers contended his court-appointed trial attorneys were incompetent.
Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice
Inmate facing death for robbery-slaying -
16th for Texas in 2003 Excerpt:HUNTSVILLE, Texas - For an agonizing 45 minutes, a surveillance videotape shows William Rains trying to climb out from behind a counter after he had been shot and robbed at the suburban San Antonio convenience store where he was the night manager.
"It's like in the movies where you see the shaking hand come up and the shaking hand go down when somebody is trying to lift themselves up," Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Michael Cohen recalled this week. "You'd see the hand shake, then fall. It was real surreal.
"Unfortunately, this guy bled to death."
Kia Levoy Johnson, a twice-paroled burglar convicted of shooting Rains and robbing him of $23, was set to be executed Wednesday evening for the Oct. 29, 1993, fatal attack at the Balcones Heights store.
Johnson, 38, would be the 16th condemned inmate to receive lethal injection in Texas this year and one of 10 set to die over the next two months.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas Executions ping list!. . .don't be shy.
| Date of scheduled execution | State | Victim name | Inmate name | Status |
| June 11, 2003 | Texas | William Rains, 32 | Kia Johnson | pending |
| Kia Johnson was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of William Rains, 32. William was shot during a robbery of the shop in San Antonio where he worked as a night manager. A security guard at a convenience store discovered the body of William Rains, a clerk, behind the counter. The police were able to obtain a surveillance tape that showed the perpetrator and showed the victim trying to reach for a telephone for forty-five minutes after he was shot. The next day, a long-time acquaintance of Johnson's called police when he recognized Johnson as the person on the tape when it was shown on television. The police went to the person's home and showed him the full videotape, whereupon he again identified Johnson. A warrant was issued for Johnson's arrest; he soon was located in the custody of police, having been arrested on an unrelated charge. A police officer identified Johnson as the man in the tape because he was wearing the same distinctive clothing. Another of Johnson's acquaintances, also identified him as the man portrayed in the tape. | ||||
In late appeals, Johnson's lawyers contended he was mentally retarded and should not be put to death because the U.S. Supreme Court has barred execution of the mentally retarded. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the appeal last week, saying there was no evidence to support the argument. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected the appeal late Tuesday and Scott Sullivan, one of Johnson's attorneys, said he would take his argument Wednesday to the Supreme Court.He won't get any sympathy. This one is a goner, imho . . .
More bump images HERE !
This creep almost got his 10-year pin. But in cases like his, it's always MUCH better late, than never.
I'm not familiar with the US parole system, so maybe I am reading this wrong, but it sounds like he was given a 10 year term then let out after just 6 months?!?! How can that happen? Even in the liberal UK we would expect him to serve 1/2 the sentence.
The only sentence that means anything is a federal sentence or a death sentence.
I agree, too. If you do the crime you should do the time. Had he done his time, this cold, heinous murder would not have happened !!
Easy. A "liberal" federal judge took over the penal system in Texas and imposed all sorts of requirements for quality of life of inmates. As a result, quite a number of prisoners had to be released early to reduce "overcrowding" in Texas prisons. Since that time Texas has built lots of new prison space mostly in rural counties across the state. Also, the federal courts are no longer controlling Texas prisons. We now have plenty of prison space to hold prisoners so they don't have to be released early.
One side benefit of these prisons for the rural communities where they are located is that they increase their population which increases their representaion in the legislature and congress, but the prisoners who can't vote don't distort the politics of the commnunities. There are some leftist activists who are upset that the prisoners who are mostly from inner city urban areas are actually helping to increase the number of conservative rural legislators while decreasing the number of "liberal" (leftist) legislators from urban areas.
I'm sure that we'll be seeing this argument brought up many more times in the future by defense attorneys in death penalty cases, whether or not the attorney actually believes that their client is mentally retarded.
He'll get to meek Mr. Needle in about 3 hours now.
Not a moment too soon.
BTW: Love the play on your name :)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/927403/posts
AP
Kia Levoy JohnsonJohnson Executed For Videotaped Robbery-Slaying
Excerpt:
HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A twice-paroled burglar was executed Wednesday evening for gunning down the night manager of a suburban San Antonio convenience store almost 10 years ago in a $23 robbery.
"Tell Mama I love her," Kia Levoy Johnson, 38, said when asked by a prison warden if he had a final statement. "Tell the kids I love them too. See y'all," he said, directing his comments to his brother, watching through a window a few feet away.
He never looked through an adjacent window where the parents and brother and sister of his victim watched.
Johnson, who has four children, gasped a couple of times as the lethal drugs began to take effect and was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., seven minutes after the dose began.
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