Triple-murder trial delayed after prosecutors balk at judge’s ruling
The writing was on the wall of the courthouse holding cell where Samuel L. Johnson waited for the start of his murder trial in the killings of three people at a Belleville salon.
The words written were not immediately made public, but St. Clair County Associate Judge Julie Gomric ruled that prosecutors could not present the messages found Monday afternoon to the jury. Prosecutors decided to ask an appellate court to review Gomric's ruling.
The appeal could delay the trial for up to two years.
The messages also could result in additional charges, attorneys acknowledged on Tuesday.
Johnson is accused of the murders of sisters Dorothy Bone and Doris Fischer and their hairdresser, Michael Cooney, on March 2, 2005, in Belleville. All three were found stabbed to death in Cooney's home-based salon in west Belleville.
Fischer and Bone were at Cooney’s to get their hair done. A bloody scene greeted Cooney’s next scheduled customer, who called police. At the time, Belleville’s chief of police, Terry Delaney, said Cooney was the intended victim of a rage-driven killing. The stabbing deaths in a beauty shop in the middle of the morning shocked Belleville and dominated local news for weeks.
State's Attorney Brendan Kelly charged Johnson in 2016.
Johnson, 52, maintained his innocence in jailhouse interview earlier this year.
“I am innocent,” Johnson said in a jailhouse interview earlier this year. “If you get a conviction, you will be convicting an innocent man.”
Former Belleville Police Chief Terry Delaney long maintained that Johnson was the prime suspect for the killings, but despite that belief, former State's Attorney Robert Haida declined to charge him, stating there wasn't enough evidence. The case took a turn when Dave Ruebhausen took over for a retiring Delaney and activated the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis to take a fresh look at the case.
The focus of their investigation was 16-year-old Darrell Lane. Lane was originally charged with the killings and was connected to the case by a bloody fingerprint found on a seat of Cooney's Nissan Pathfinder. The Pathfinder was stolen from the salon property and abandoned in north St. Louis. A series of teenagers, including Lane, eventually got a hold of the vehicle. An expert for the prosecution once stated that he believed the print could only have been made in fresh blood. Lane's attorney disputed that. Lane was acquitted by a jury in four hours.
Kelly charged Johnson after he said new evidence was uncovered. That evidence included statements Johnson purportedly made to inmates while he was being held at the county jail. Those witnesses include Early Kidd and Reedie Bean, who was still in custody as of Monday..
More information on the specifics of the writing on the wall of the holding cell was not immediately made public.
There are three holding cells at the courthouse — two for men and one for women. The cells are used to hold defendants and witnesses who are in custody. Two sets of writings were found on Monday afternoon.
The two sides spent all day Monday interviewing prospective jurors. Jury selection had been scheduled to continue Tuesday, but jurors were sent home.
Additional filings were expected later Tuesday.
This story was originally published June 5, 2018 at 9:55 AM with the headline "Triple-murder trial delayed after prosecutors balk at judge’s ruling."