By Nicholas Stix
(Three accompanying video boxes may require a few seconds to load.)
83-Year-Old Woman Raped, Beaten, and Murdered
By Kevin Rincon
July 11,2011
WOKV
Jacksonville, FL —
Jacksonville police have arrested a 20-year-old who they believe is responsible for the death of an 83-year-old woman.
Christopher Lemar Johnson was charged with the murder of Emma Jean Beasley. Arrest records indicate he is being charged with burglary, armed sexual battery, armed robbery and murder….
Beasley lived with her son-in-law and her daughter; they were at the hospital visiting their newborn granddaughter at the time. When they got home they found Beasley beaten and the home raided….
Monday, July 11, 2011
Beaten, raped Jacksonville woman, 83, gave attacker's details before dying
By Jim Schoettler
The Florida Times-Union
A dying 83-year-old Jacksonville woman gave her daughter a brief description of the man who raped and beat her after breaking into her home Saturday, Jacksonville police said today….
Police arrested [Johnson on Monday, July 11] based on witness identifications - though not the victim's - and fingerprints found at the scene, an arrest report said.
"They [investigators] did a super, super job," said Geneva Griffin, the mother of Beasley's son-in-law, Danny Griffin. "Thank God."
Johnson's family expressed disbelief in the charges after he appeared in court Tuesday morning. Geneva Griffin's response: "We'll let the law take care of that."…
[Johnson] is being held without bail.
Court records show Johnson has prior arrests for trespassing, criminal mischief and defrauding an innkeeper. His arrest report lists him as unemployed and a former student at First Coast High….
Investigators found that a large amount of change was stolen from a jar in the home.
Jewelry and a black Harley Davidson T-shirt were also missing, the arrest report said.
Beasley was beaten with a blunt object, said Schoonover, who called the killing a "brutal, heinous crime."…
Evidence at scene
The arrest report released Tuesday morning said the victim was able to tell her daughter she was raped by someone who was black. No other details were listed.
Beasley was unable to give police any information before she was taken to Shands Jacksonville hospital, where she died, Schoonover said.
Police found a stranger's bloody white T-shirt on the floor next to the victim.
Police also spoke with a witness who saw a man entering the home and later identified him as Johnson, the report said. Other witnesses also provided police with information about Johnson.
Fingerprints found at the scene also matched Johnson's, Schoonover said. Johnson was spotted by police on Moncrief Road West and arrested without incident. Schoonover said Johnson lived about a mile from the crime scene and was known to roam in the area. Several of his previous arrests occurred near his home, records show.
Christopher Lemar Johnson Charged with Murder, Sexual Battery in Beating Death of 83-Year-Old Woman
By Jessica Clark and Len Kiese
July 12, 2011
First Coast News
….
Johnson's father, Reginald Harden, was in court for today's hearing, and said that while he has sympathy for the victim's family, he believes his son did not do it.
“He wasn't raised like that and he ain’t that type of kid,” Harden said….
Police: Man Beat Elderly Woman to Death
Police: Suspect Charged With Murder in 83-Year-Old Woman's Death
POSTED: Tuesday, July 12, 2011
UPDATED: 5:49 pm EDT July 12, 2011
News4Jax
….
Police said Johnson lived about a mile away from Beasley's home and roamed the neighborhood, but did not know the victim or anyone in the Beasley family.
Family members said Beasley kept to herself and didn't bother anyone. They said she was very sweet and very frail.
For the past decade, Beasley had lived with her daughter and son-in-law, Danny Griffin, on the quiet, secluded property.
Beasley leaves behind two children, four grandchildren and about a dozen great-grandchildren….
Griffin applauded the police for making an arrest so quickly.
“I expect the state attorney’s office to work just as hard, just as tireless as these men and women did, and I know they’re going to do it," Griffin said. "They’re going to put this guy away. He’s never going to be where he’s going to be able to do this to anyone again."
Channel 4 learned that Johnson has previous misdemeanor arrests -- three charges of trespassing over the past two years -- but none for any violent crimes. He was released from jail on May 11 after serving a six-month sentence on his most recent conviction.
"He's been in trouble for some misdemeanors, but this here?" said Johnson's father, Reginald Harden. "I can't just believe this."
Police believe Johnson acted alone and expect no additional arrests in the case.
“I’m hurt," said Johnson's grandmother, Evelyn Harden, as she left the courtroom Tuesday. "I’m hurting for him, and I’m hurting for the other family.”
First Coast News’ Jessica Clark reported on July 11, “Police believe whoever killed Beasley broke into the home to burglarize it, but the crime escalated, because Beasley was home alone.”
So, “the crime” escalated, and did what it did, “because” the victim was home alone. Why, then, did the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrest Christopher Lemar Johnson, instead of “the crime”? After all, according to the JSO or Jessica Clark, it was “the crime” that raped and killed Mrs. Beasley.
While all burglars are potentially dangerous, if surprised by occupants, rape and murder, especially of unarmed, frail, 83-year-old shut-ins are not part of the profile. They are, however, part of the profile of a racist black psychopath (see Moseley, Winston (Kitty Genovese's rapist-killer; Lee, Derrick Todd ("the Baton Rouge Killer"); Vance, Curtis Lavelle (Anne Pressly's rapist-killer), et al.)
On July 12, Jessica Clark interviewed Mrs. Beasly’s neighbor from across the road, Mary Thornton. Thornton was holding a baseball bat, which she had slept with the previous night, saying, “I mean, it’s sad when you can’t even be safe, or feel safe in your home.”
Those three trespassing arrests were cases where Johnson was about to burgle homes, but got caught in time. That suggests that alert, caring neighbors immediately called the police when they saw a prowler on their neighbor’s property, and/or that alert homeowners spotted Johnson on their property and immediately called 911. If Johnson committed the crimes for which he has been charged, those three arrests were three separate occasions on which he could have earlier raped and/or murdered a person or persons.
Of course, Johnson enjoys the presumption of innocence regarding the instant charges against him. Maybe he just makes a hobby of “roaming” about the neighborhood and trespassing on folks’ property. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
The rape and murder of Mrs. Beasley was committed exactly two months after Christopher Lemar Johnson was released from his latest stint in jail.
Of course, a prowler’s trespass can not only be the beginning of a burglary, but the voyeurism stage of a search for a victim to rape and/or murder, such as was the case with racist serial rapist-murderer Derrick Todd Lee, who specialized in kidnapping, raping, murdering attractive, dark-haired white women, though he also freelanced at burglary, robbery, and violent crimes against white men.
Johnson is presently being held without bond in Duval County Jail.
Another in the mode of Mosely, Todd, Vance, and Johnson was one Vernon Mathis Robinson. He broke into the Hollywood apartment of Thora Marie Rose on the night of October 2, 1963.
ReplyDeleteThora Rose was beaten to death as she lay in her bed. The killer left 36 fingerprints in the apartment. The Los Angeles Police Department was unable to match the prints to anyone on file at the time and for decades after.
In December 1990, while experimenting with the then-new AFIS fingerprint database, LAPD fingerprint technicians put the prints into AFIS and got a match with one Vernon Robinson, who was a respected citizen in South Central LA who had just relocated to a $70,000 managerial position in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Robinson went on trial for the murder of Thora Rose in October 1993-exactly 30 years after the crime. At the time, it was one of the oldest murders ever to be tried.
Going in, it was considered by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office to be a difficult case to gain a conviction. The trial took place in the downtown Los Angeles criminal court building.
I've exchanged emails with someone involved with the trial. I have to tell you what I learned sometime.
David In TN
What happened to Vernon Robinson?
ReplyDeleteVernon Robinson is at the Stockton branch of the California prison system. He's been there for many years. The Stockton facility has older prisoners, Robinson is around 72 now.
ReplyDeleteHe comes up for parole periodically.
Yesterday, the Cal Dept Corrections Inmate Locator announced: "Inmate granted parole."
ReplyDeleteIt still has to be approved by Governor Jerry Brown, who leaves office at the end of the year. I will be surprised if Brown doesn't approve the decision.