Killer of four’s family heard at new penalty phase

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 | 9:21 a.m.

A jury trying to determine if a man convicted of tying up and killing, execution-style, four young men should be eligible for the death penalty heard testimony from several of his family members on Tuesday.

Donte Johnson was convicted by a jury and sentenced to death row by a three-judge panel for the murders in 1998 of Matthew Mowen, 19, Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 20, and Peter Talamantez, 20.

But after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries, not judges, can call for the death penalty, a new penalty phase was ordered by the Nevada Supreme Court.

Several members of Johnson's family, who know him as John White Jr., took the stand on Tuesday in an attempt to shed some light on the background of the convicted murderer as he grew up in South Central Los Angeles.

Johnson's mother, Eunice Cain, who wore a bright yellow T-shirt with the phrase "beer goggles" written on it, said she was mentally "a little slow," had trouble speaking and suffered from asthma and another lung illness.

Cain said she smoked PCP and had an alcohol problem even though she was the mother of three.

She said her children saw her husband "beat her and John (Dante) used to try and stop him but he was too little."

Cain said the beatings included having her teeth knocked out and almost being thrown out of a window by her husband.

She admitted to being high on drugs on one occasion and putting her children in a shed for a day where authorities discovered them and placed them in foster care. Cain would never have custody of Johnson and his two sisters again as they would be placed in their grandmother's custody with 10 of their cousins.

Although Cain admitted she had a substance abuse problem she said she never used drugs when she was pregnant with Johnson.

Johnson's sister, Johnnisha Zamora, said her early childhood consisted of her mother "leaving us all the time because she was high on drugs."

"She was always smoking (PCP) in front of us and our Dad was always hitting her in front of us."

As for her and Johnson's father, Zamora said she could "count on my hands how many times I saw my father growing up."

Zamora said life didn't necessarily get any better once she, her sister and Johnson moved in with her grandmother, who is known as Big Mamma.

She said she grew up restricted from going past the front gate of her grandmother's home because there were always "people hanging out and a lot of violence."

Zamora recalled when she and Johnson found a woman's dead body on the street and witnessed a shootout at the house across the street from her grandmother's home.

She said Johnson was "the only person I could talk to, because I love him."

Zamora added that he was a popular member of her family "because he's funny."

Under the questioning of Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas, however, it became clear the harsh conditions she grew up under didn't lead her to crime like it had Johnson.

Zamora, the married, employed, mother of three children agreed with Daskas that she had "made it out of the neighborhood."

In August 1998 Johnson and two other men bound with duct tape the hands and legs of the victims and forced them to lay face down before killing each with a single gunshot to the back of the head in a house the victims had rented together on Terra Linda Avenue in southeastern Las Vegas.

Because of District Judge Lee Gates' decision to bifurcate Johnson's new penalty phase the jury will first have to decide if Johnson is even eligible to be considered for the death penalty.

The jurors have been instructed they are to weigh the aggravators in the case against the mitigating evidence presented. The prosecutors have already met the burden of providing an aggravator because Johnson was convicted of killing more than one person.

Under the rules of a bifurcated penalty phase the jury will not hear from the victims' families until after they have determined whether or not Johnson is eligible for the death penalty.

Unlike a jury deliberating about a person's guilt or innocence, a decision regarding death penalty eligibility does not have to be unanimous. Only one juror has to determine the mitigating evidence outweighs the aggravators for Johnson to avoid facing the death penalty.

If the jury does find Johnson is ineligible, they will return to court for more testimony and argument before deliberating on Johnson's fate, which would then be a choice between life in prison with the possibility of parole, life without the possibility of parole and a set term of 40 to 100 years in prison.

The jury won't be told of Johnson's criminal history until after the jury has determined whether or not he faces the punishment of death.

Because of several rulings made by Gates during pretrial motions there are several other pieces of information the jury will not hear in either of the two phases.

The jury will not hear about the strangulation of Darnell "Snoop" Johnson in August 1998 at the Thunderbird hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard near Charleston Boulevard, which has never been prosecuted. Donte Johnson is still considered a suspect in the death.

Gates also has ruled the jury won't be able to hear or read some 20 letters Johnson has written to both Smith and Young since he was originally sentenced to death. In the letters Johnson calls himself "General" and refers to both Smith and Young as his soldiers as he urges them to convince others to testify on his behalf.

During the second phase of the hearing the jury will, however, hear allegations that Johnson was involved in an attack on a fellow inmate.

Although the state dismissed charges against Johnson after Oscar Irias was thrown over a balcony at Clark County Detention Center, Gates said there was enough credible evidence to allow the incident to be included in Johnson's new penalty phase.