Published: June 25, 2009 08:39 pm      

COURTS: Johnson murder trail delayed for more testing

Prosecutors want more DNA analysis, defense says current tests show blood from someone other than Johnson and his wife

Surprising results from DNA testing prompted prosecutors on Thursday to ask for more time to do more testing in the murder trial of Robert Johnson.

A clearly frustrated Niagara County Court Judge Matthew J. Murphy III said he’d allow “one more adjournment, but that’s it.”

“There will be no more delays,” Murphy said sternly. “Clear your calendars and be ready to go and if you find something else (new evidence) you’re just going to have to go with what you have. This will be a date certain.”

Jury selection, which had been set for July 23, was moved to Sept. 21.

Prosecutors had already asked for a delay in the trial, telling Murphy DNA testing on between 27 and 29 pieces of evidence had taken longer than expected.

Johnson is accused of stabbing his wife Ahkenya to death in their Jordan Gardens apartment on Jan. 17.

“Based on our recent (DNA testing) results, our experts are advising us to test additional items,” Assistant District Attorney Lisa Baehre said.

Asked if prosecutors were “unhappy” with the test results they had, Baehre replied, “Absolutely not!”

However, Johnson’s defense attorney, Michael McNelis, suggested his client’s claim that someone else committed the murder may be bolstered by the DNA testing results.

“There is a third, unidentified, DNA profile in what (prosecutors) tested,” McNelis said.

The presence of blood other than that of Johnson or his wife could bolster McNelis’ claim of a still unidentified killer. McNelis tried in April to force prosecutors to turn over police reports of a home invasion at the Johnson’s Jordan Gardens apartment some two months before Ahkenya Johnson’s slaying.

Ahkenya’s body was discovered on Jan. 17 in the apartment she and her husband shared after police responded to a 911 call there. Police said she had suffered multiple stab wounds.

McNelis said his interest in the investigation of a home invasion at the Johnson’s home centered on the weapons that were reportedly involved in the incident.

“According to the information I have, there were knives used in the home invasion in November,” McNelis said in April. “There may be an alternate theory of what happened (to Ahkenya Johnson). If (intruders with knives) went there once, what’s to say they wouldn’t come back again.”

Thursday, McNelis declined to discuss what he has learned about the home invasion report.

Investigators have said Ahkenya was “found with multiple stab wounds, several knives were used, it appears to be a very emotional crime.” Prosecutors said the attack was so violent that three of the knives used in the murder were broken off in the victim’s body when police arrived.

An autopsy showed she had suffered over 41 separate stab wounds. Her head had been almost decapitated from a slashing wound to the throat.

Johnson, 26, formerly of the Falls and now of Buffalo, has been jailed in lieu of bail of $200,000 cash or $400,000 property since his arrest Feb. 17 on charges of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

Johnson had denied any involvement in his wife’s slaying, telling detectives he discovered her body after returning home from a trip to the barber shop.