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Jury convicts Jonesboro school shooter on weapons charge Wednesday, Jan 30, 2008 By Ron Wood Arkansas News Bureau FAYETTEVILLE - A federal jury convicted Mitchell Johnson of a gun charge Tuesday, a verdict that could land him in prison a decade after teaming with another youth in a deadly schoolyard shooting rampage in Jonesboro. The jury took about an hour to find Johnson, 23, guilty on an obscure charge of possessing a handgun and a shotgun "while being an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance." Johnson was 13 when he and an 11-year-old classmate, Andrew Golden, killed four girls and a teacher at Jonesboro Westside Middle School on March 24, 1998. Ten others were injured in the shooting. Johnson was released from federal custody when he turned 21 in 2005. He walked out of jail with no criminal record. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the federal weapons conviction when he is sentenced after probation officers complete a pre-sentencing report, likely within 30 to 45 days. Family members of one of the Westside victims attended the trial Tuesday but declined requests to talk with reporters. The charge stemmed from a New Year's Day 2007 traffic stop in Fayetteville in which Johnson was cause with less than an ounce of marijuana in his pocket and a loaded 9 mm pistol in a backpack in the back of the van in which he was riding. "This was not a routine drug and gun case for us," U.S. Attorney Bob Balfe said after the trial Tuesday. "We strongly believe Mitchell Johnson is a person who shouldn't have a gun, especially when he's using controlled substances." Johnson did not testify during the trial. Neither Johnson nor his attorney, federal public defender Jack Schisler, spoke with reporters as they left the federal courthouse in Fayetteville. Prosecutors finished their case with testimony from three of Johnson's co-workers at a Fayetteville Wal-Mart. They testified they smoked marijuana with Johnson several times around the time he was arrested and that they saw him high on pot at other times. However, one of them, Dustin Wynboom, admitted he initially lied on the stand about whether he had owned a gun and was later brought back to clear up his testimony. In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Candace Taylor told jurors that Johnson's possession of a gun and his drug use at around the same time made the case. "We are not required to prove he rolled a joint and was smoking it at the same time the gun was on his hip," Taylor said. There was some confusion about whether the substance authorities found in Johnson's pocket was marijuana. An initial test indicted it wasn't but a clerical error on the report said it was. A subsequent test found the substance to be marijuana, according to Gary Dallas, chief forensic chemist at the Arkansas State Crime Lab. Johnson's attorney, Schisler, told jurors in his closing arguments that the case was based on a lie. Johnson and Justin Trammell were supposedly headed for California to make a new start when they were pulled over for a minor traffic violation. Trammell, 22, was convicted at age 15 in Benton County of murdering his father with a crossbow. Trammell was not called to testify by either side in Johnson's case. Police said they were watching Johnson because they had gotten an anonymous tip he had 100 pounds of marijuana and several guns. The loaded 9 mm pistol was found in a backpack in the back of the van. There was also a shotgun in the back of the van. "It's the 100 pound marijuana case that broke down to nothing at Mitchell Johnson's expense," Schisler said. |
