WonderNine
member
Woman put boyfriends's head in freezer after shooting
One of the grizzliest murder cases in Madison County history ended Thursday after Circuit Judge Charles Romani sentenced Suzanne Johnson to five years in prison for shooting her boyfriend, Frank E. Brown, and cutting off his head.
The murder occurred Sept. 13, 1996, and police found Brown's head the next day in the freezer inside Johnson's apartment in Collinsville.
In November of 2002, the 47-year-old Johnson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
She will be eligible for parole in 2 1/2 years.
The sentence wasn't enough for Brown's daughter, Monica Doby.
"At least I know she's going to be off the street," said Doby, 24, who lives in Yazoo City, Miss.
Doby was joined by a dozen or so other family members who attended the sentencing in Edwardsville. They sat behind prosecutor David Rands' table and across the courtroom from a dozen members of Johnson's family.
Doby said she is still angry that soon after Johnson was charged with first-degree murder, her attorney, Bill Lucco, was able to get her bail reduced to $400,000, which allowed her to post $40,000 to get out of jail.
Johnson, then, began working as a cook at Perkins Family Restaurant in Troy.
"She admitted to police she killed him," Doby said.
"She was free to travel and visit. They can visit her whenever they want. You have to go to the gravesite to visit our father."
Brown's sister, Evelyn Brown, testified that the delays during the past six years have caused her and other family members to have nightmares and health problems.
"I pray there is a sentence that is just and fair," she testified. "I'm hoping when I leave here that we can go to the gravesite and start a healing process."
But many of the delays stem from the fact that Collinsville police searched Johnson's apartment without first obtaining a search warrant. A Madison County judge later threw out the evidence, as well as Johnson's confession.
Just before her plea in November, an appeals court was considering the legality of the search and whether the evidence should have been thrown out.
According to the Madison County Coroner's report, police were called to 34 Marcia Court on Sept. 14 by Zena Jones, who told Officer Dan Arvizu that blood was seeping down through her bedroom ceiling from Johnson's apartment above. According to testimony at the inquest given by Collinsville detective Robert Vecchetti, Arvizu got permission from the landlord to enter the apartment.
On his way out, exiting through the kitchen, Vecchetti testified that Arvizu's leg brushed up against a 30-gallon trash can and knocked the lid off, revealing a sock-covered human foot projecting from the top of the can. The body was wrapped in a vinyl shower curtain and covered with a plastic trash bag.
Vecchetti said Johnson told investigators that she and Brown had begun arguing in the bedroom. Brown shoved her, and when he left and began walking downstairs to the kitchen she pulled a revolver from the drawer and shot him in the back. She said she followed Brown to the living room and shot him twice in the head.
Johnson, Vecchetti said at the inquest, then took her bloody clothes to a laundromat. Later, she drove to the Martin Luther King Bridge and threw the gun in the river, then returned home and fell asleep.
When she awoke -- between 2 and 3 a.m. -- she decided to dispose of the body, Vecchetti said. Johnson told investigators she used razor blades to sever his head.
In the morning, she drove to Super Valu and rented a rug cleaner and returned home to clean the carpet and walls. Then, Vecchetti said, she drove to Grandpa's and bought a 30-gallon trash can. When she tried to put Brown's body in it, however, it proved to be too small, and she told investigators she returned to Grandpa's and exchanged it for a larger trash can, and also bought paint. Eventually, she was able to get the body into the trash can.
Later, she told investigators, she changed clothes and left to attend a family reunion.
She was arrested that night.
At Thursday's sentencing, Johnson apologized to the Brown family and thanked her own relatives for their support.
"I wish the past could be changed and this never happened," she said. "I apologize to the Brown family for the pain and grief, but I did love Frank."
Said Doby, outside the courtroom, "If she loved my father like she said she did, why did she chop his body up? If she loved him, why did she go out and buy a trash can?"
Tim Johnson, 45, who lives in Maryland, testified that his younger sister has always been a soft-spoken, caring person and a hard-working, self-sufficient single mother. His sister has never been in trouble with the law, he said, and has never received so much as a traffic ticket in her life.
"To me, outside of this incident, she's a role model for all her nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters," Tim Johnson said.
Suzanne Johnson grew up in a family of seven sisters and four brothers, he said. Two sisters died of cancer, but the other siblings went on to graduate from Edwardsville High School, he said.
Tobin Johnson, 25, Suzanne Johnson's son, said his mother had worked as a school bus driver for a while, then took a job at Mercantile Bank. Later she worked at Perkins' as a cook. Tobin Johnson lives in New Orleans where he serves in the National Guard. His mother, he said, is a loving, caring person, who raised him and his sister, Tara Nicole Stewart, 29, of Edwardsville, to value hard work and self-sufficiency. Stewart also serves in the military. Tobin Johnson said that his mother would not be a threat to society.
"We've never seen her in a violent rage," he said. "She's always been calm. Never aggressive."
Lucco urged Romani to sentence her to probation, citing the unique circumstances of the case and Suzanne Johnson's clean criminal history and exemplary character. Johnson has been extremely remorseful, he said, and she does not present a threat to society. Imprisoning her, he said, would remove a hard-working, productive member from society.
Lucco said that Johnson's mother and two sisters have died from cancer and that Johnson herself has been diagnosed with cancer. She underwent surgery last year to remove a tumor.
"No one knew she had cancer," Lucco said. "It's the nature of Suzanne Johnson not to complain."
But Prosecutor David Rands argued that "a man's death absolutely requires a sentence of imprisonment," as a way to try to deter others and show Brown's family that some measure of justice has been done.
On Thursday, state Sen. Bill Haine, who served as Madison County State's Attorney until last November, said he does not blame Romani for his ruling to exclude evidence saying Romani had no choice but to follow a higher court rulings concerning unreasonable search and seizure.
http://www.goedwardsville.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8170501&BRD=2291&PAG=461&dept_id=473648&rfi=6
One of the grizzliest murder cases in Madison County history ended Thursday after Circuit Judge Charles Romani sentenced Suzanne Johnson to five years in prison for shooting her boyfriend, Frank E. Brown, and cutting off his head.
The murder occurred Sept. 13, 1996, and police found Brown's head the next day in the freezer inside Johnson's apartment in Collinsville.
In November of 2002, the 47-year-old Johnson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
She will be eligible for parole in 2 1/2 years.
The sentence wasn't enough for Brown's daughter, Monica Doby.
"At least I know she's going to be off the street," said Doby, 24, who lives in Yazoo City, Miss.
Doby was joined by a dozen or so other family members who attended the sentencing in Edwardsville. They sat behind prosecutor David Rands' table and across the courtroom from a dozen members of Johnson's family.
Doby said she is still angry that soon after Johnson was charged with first-degree murder, her attorney, Bill Lucco, was able to get her bail reduced to $400,000, which allowed her to post $40,000 to get out of jail.
Johnson, then, began working as a cook at Perkins Family Restaurant in Troy.
"She admitted to police she killed him," Doby said.
"She was free to travel and visit. They can visit her whenever they want. You have to go to the gravesite to visit our father."
Brown's sister, Evelyn Brown, testified that the delays during the past six years have caused her and other family members to have nightmares and health problems.
"I pray there is a sentence that is just and fair," she testified. "I'm hoping when I leave here that we can go to the gravesite and start a healing process."
But many of the delays stem from the fact that Collinsville police searched Johnson's apartment without first obtaining a search warrant. A Madison County judge later threw out the evidence, as well as Johnson's confession.
Just before her plea in November, an appeals court was considering the legality of the search and whether the evidence should have been thrown out.
According to the Madison County Coroner's report, police were called to 34 Marcia Court on Sept. 14 by Zena Jones, who told Officer Dan Arvizu that blood was seeping down through her bedroom ceiling from Johnson's apartment above. According to testimony at the inquest given by Collinsville detective Robert Vecchetti, Arvizu got permission from the landlord to enter the apartment.
On his way out, exiting through the kitchen, Vecchetti testified that Arvizu's leg brushed up against a 30-gallon trash can and knocked the lid off, revealing a sock-covered human foot projecting from the top of the can. The body was wrapped in a vinyl shower curtain and covered with a plastic trash bag.
Vecchetti said Johnson told investigators that she and Brown had begun arguing in the bedroom. Brown shoved her, and when he left and began walking downstairs to the kitchen she pulled a revolver from the drawer and shot him in the back. She said she followed Brown to the living room and shot him twice in the head.
Johnson, Vecchetti said at the inquest, then took her bloody clothes to a laundromat. Later, she drove to the Martin Luther King Bridge and threw the gun in the river, then returned home and fell asleep.
When she awoke -- between 2 and 3 a.m. -- she decided to dispose of the body, Vecchetti said. Johnson told investigators she used razor blades to sever his head.
In the morning, she drove to Super Valu and rented a rug cleaner and returned home to clean the carpet and walls. Then, Vecchetti said, she drove to Grandpa's and bought a 30-gallon trash can. When she tried to put Brown's body in it, however, it proved to be too small, and she told investigators she returned to Grandpa's and exchanged it for a larger trash can, and also bought paint. Eventually, she was able to get the body into the trash can.
Later, she told investigators, she changed clothes and left to attend a family reunion.
She was arrested that night.
At Thursday's sentencing, Johnson apologized to the Brown family and thanked her own relatives for their support.
"I wish the past could be changed and this never happened," she said. "I apologize to the Brown family for the pain and grief, but I did love Frank."
Said Doby, outside the courtroom, "If she loved my father like she said she did, why did she chop his body up? If she loved him, why did she go out and buy a trash can?"
Tim Johnson, 45, who lives in Maryland, testified that his younger sister has always been a soft-spoken, caring person and a hard-working, self-sufficient single mother. His sister has never been in trouble with the law, he said, and has never received so much as a traffic ticket in her life.
"To me, outside of this incident, she's a role model for all her nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters," Tim Johnson said.
Suzanne Johnson grew up in a family of seven sisters and four brothers, he said. Two sisters died of cancer, but the other siblings went on to graduate from Edwardsville High School, he said.
Tobin Johnson, 25, Suzanne Johnson's son, said his mother had worked as a school bus driver for a while, then took a job at Mercantile Bank. Later she worked at Perkins' as a cook. Tobin Johnson lives in New Orleans where he serves in the National Guard. His mother, he said, is a loving, caring person, who raised him and his sister, Tara Nicole Stewart, 29, of Edwardsville, to value hard work and self-sufficiency. Stewart also serves in the military. Tobin Johnson said that his mother would not be a threat to society.
"We've never seen her in a violent rage," he said. "She's always been calm. Never aggressive."
Lucco urged Romani to sentence her to probation, citing the unique circumstances of the case and Suzanne Johnson's clean criminal history and exemplary character. Johnson has been extremely remorseful, he said, and she does not present a threat to society. Imprisoning her, he said, would remove a hard-working, productive member from society.
Lucco said that Johnson's mother and two sisters have died from cancer and that Johnson herself has been diagnosed with cancer. She underwent surgery last year to remove a tumor.
"No one knew she had cancer," Lucco said. "It's the nature of Suzanne Johnson not to complain."
But Prosecutor David Rands argued that "a man's death absolutely requires a sentence of imprisonment," as a way to try to deter others and show Brown's family that some measure of justice has been done.
On Thursday, state Sen. Bill Haine, who served as Madison County State's Attorney until last November, said he does not blame Romani for his ruling to exclude evidence saying Romani had no choice but to follow a higher court rulings concerning unreasonable search and seizure.
http://www.goedwardsville.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8170501&BRD=2291&PAG=461&dept_id=473648&rfi=6
