Johnson takes stand in own defense
Published 9:42 am Friday, August 22, 2014
OBERLIN — An Oakdale man on trial for murder in the shooting death of his grandfather last November took the stand in his own defense Thursday.
Laken Johnson, 19, waived a jury trial earlier this week, allowing Judge Joel Davis to hear the matter and render a verdict. The trial was recessed until 1 p.m. Tuesday after a witness was hospitalized.
Johnson admitted shooting Norman Ray Johnson, 64, with a 12-gauge shotgun on Nov. 4 while the elder Johnson took a shower, but he contends the shooting was an accident. “I didn’t plan on shooting him,” he said. “It just happened in the blink of a moment.”
Johnson initially told police he had planned the killing, but said Thursday he said it because he “just wanted them to leave me alone.” He wanted to tell the truth, but was afraid because he didn’t know what the police would do to him, he said.
“I never planned on doing this,” Johnson said. “The only thing I planned on was being with my grandfather and taking care of him.” Johnson had been raised by this grandfather since he was 6 months old. “I planned on him being here and us having a future, not him being deceased in the heat of the moment,” he said. “He called me son, and I called him Pa.”
Johnson described his relationship with his grandfather as good, but troubling at times. He said he often had to beg to go see his mother, who he had been told was dead. He said he did not have a relationship with her until he was 13 or 14 years old. “We had a good relationship once I realized she wasn’t dead,” Johnson said. “We had some ups and downs, and together our relationship grew and we came closer together.”
His grandfather often talked bad about his mother and did not want him to be around her “because she didn’t raise me,” he said. Although Johnson repeatedly threatened to go live with his mother once he reached 17 or 18, prosecutors said he continued to live with his grandfather despite his claims of physical and verbal abuse.
“He was a good person, but he was over-controlling to me and would not allow me to have a relationship with my mother or go out with friends,” he said. “He had an over-controlling power over me.” He said he never told anyone about the physical abuse because he didn’t think anyone would believe him.
Johnson’s father, Willie Ray Johnson, testified that his father and Laken got along well and were always together. He never saw his father abuse Laken, he said.
Clinical psychologist Darrel Turner, who conducted a psychological evaluation of Johnson two months ago, testified that Johnson expressed a pattern of physical and verbal abuse from his grandfather. He said the abuse intensified as Johnson got older and usually occurred when the pair talked about Laken’s mother.
Turner also said Johnson “told a lot of lies,” including admitting to lying about sexual abuse by his grandfather, but remained consistent with details of the physical abuse from his grandfather and what he described as his “ideal relationship with his mother.”
“I believe he idolized his mother and felt abandoned by both parents, but held on to the idea of living with his mother, but his mother did not necessarily return the affection to him,” Turner said.
Turner testified that Johnson gave no other motives for why he shot his grandfather. “It is clear he has been quite dishonest and did something horrible,” Turner said, describing Johnson as being in “emotional turmoil.”
During his testimony Johnson said he and his grandfather had an argument on the night of the shooting about him wanting to be with her on her birthday. He said his grandfather got angry, threw things around and told him he was not going anywhere. “At this time, he really made me mad and I didn’t know what to do,” Johnson said. “I was not in my right mind.”
Prosecutors contend Johnson knew what he was doing because he had to pick up the gun, aim it at his grandfather, who was in the shower, cock it and shoot it. He said he grabbed the shotgun, went to the bathroom and shot his grandfather. Afterward, he said, he paced back and forth, praying to God to not let his grandfather die.
“I was not in my right mind until it was too late,” he said. “Afterwards I felt terrible. I wanted to die because I knew I couldn’t live without my grandfather.”
Johnson said he grabbed his grandfather’s keys, took more than $12,000 from two locked safes, packed a suitcase, hid the shotgun in the woods and then drove to Lake Charles in his grandfather’s truck before returning to Oakdale to tell family friends Judy and Larry McCollough that his grandfather was dead.
“I knew I had to face the consequences and get some help because I knew I needed to do right,” Johnson said.
He said he took the money because he knew he needed it. Prosecutors contend he killed his grandfather and took his money because his grandfather wouldn’t let him see a girl he had been communicating with on PlayStation and Facebook.
B.W. Angel II, an information technology technician for the Allen Parish Sheriff’s Office, said phone records show Johnson called Amanda Avalos of Magnolia, Texas, five times on the night of the slaying, the first one about 30 minutes after the shooting.
Though the two had never met, Johnson and Avalos contend they were in love and had talked of marriage. Their first meeting was when Avalos testified.
Avalos, 17, said Johnson called her almost every day starting in late August or early September 2013. She said they became more than just friends and that she considered him her boyfriend.
Avalos said she talked to Johnson twice on the night of the shooting and that he sounded “a little nervous and kind of rushed.” She initially told him he could come visit, but later told him it was not a good idea.
Judy McCollough, who was a teacher and attended church with the Johnsons, said Johnson came to her house late on the night of Nov. 4 in his grandfather’s truck carrying his wallet. “He was hollering and crying, ‘Pa’s dead,’ ” she said. “I held him and was praying to get him to calm down.”
She described him as “ready to jump out of his skin” and “highly upset.” He was not usually that emotional, she said. Judy and husband Larry McCollough took Johnson back to the house and called police. Larry McCollough said Johnson told him he had been outside feeding the animals when he heard a shot and someone holler. He said he ran back to the house and found his grandfather dead in the bathtub.
The McColloughs described the Johnsons as having a normal relationship. “I thought they got along well,” Larry McCollough said. “I’ve seen him many times bring his dinner to him at school and Laken would get in the truck with him. He called him Pa.”