DA: Bad childhood doesn’t mitigate four murders

By Matt Pordum

Thursday, April 28, 2005 | 9:25 a.m.

As a jury heard closing arguments about whether a man convicted of murdering four young men should be sentenced to death, a brother of one of the victims collapsed in the courtroom Wednesday.

A picture showing 20-year-old Tracey Gorringe bound in duct-tape and with a bullet hole in the back of his head was shown on a television screen in court. It was too much for Nick Gorringe. He fell from his seat to the floor and cried.

Bailiffs and David Mowen, the father of one of the other young victims, helped Gorringe out of the courtroom. In the hallway Gorringe wept and through his gasps said repeatedly, "What kind of world is this? There is no justice. There is no justice!"

Donte Johnson, the man previously convicted of the 1998 murders of Tracey Gorringe, 20-year-old Peter Talamantez and Matthew Mowen and Jeffrey Biddle, both 19, had been sentenced to death by a three-judge panel. But now his fate is being reconsidered as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that said only juries can levy the death penalty in such cases.

After about a 30-minute pause in the proceedings as a result of Nick Gorringe's breakdown, Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Daska resumed his closing arguments to the jury, who will first have to determine if Johnson is even eligible for the death penalty before hearing more evidence, testimony and Johnson's criminal history. After that, the jury will deliberate a sentence.

Under a decision by District Judge Lee Gates to split the penalty phase, the jurors have to first weigh the aggravators in the case against the mitigating evidence presented. The prosecutors have already met the burden of providing at least one aggravator that helps make Johnson eligible for the death penalty: Johnson was convicted of killing more than one person.

Daskas said while the jury had been told of Johnson's difficult childhood that consisted of drug and alcohol addicted and abusive parents and the harsh realties of the crime present in South Central Los Angeles, his background didn't outweigh "the destruction" he caused with the taking of four lives.

Johnson killed the young men for a VCR and a video game system, Daskas said.

Daskas reminded the jury that both of Johnson's sisters and his brother-in-law had grown up under the same conditions and have grown into "respectful law abiding citizens" who have jobs and families.

"If you find his (Johnson's) childhood outweighs this (the four murders) then you have disrespected all of the members of South Central Los Angeles who haven't committed quadruple homicides," Daskas said.

Daskas said Johnson chose to lead a life of crime, and his actions and words after the murders show what kind of person he is.

The prosecutor reminded the jury how Johnson said the blood "squirting up from the victims' heads was like Niagara Falls" and how he appeared "hyped up, like he was having fun" after he committed the killings.

Daskas also pointed to testimony from Johnson's girlfriend who said Johnson wanted her to watch the evening news to hear about the killings and to read newspaper articles about the murders because he was "excited and thrilled."

Johnson's lawyers, Bret Whipple and Special Public Defender Alzora Jackson, urged the jurors to reject the possibility of death for Johnson, saying not just he, but no one deserved such a potential fate.

Whipple said there was no way for the jury to quantify the love Johnson's sisters and children feel for him. He said because Johnson was convicted of the murders "society is safe and he has been held accountable."

"He has a right to love and be loved again," Whipple said. "He has forfeited his right to freedom, but not his right to be a human being."

Whipple said the jury had the right to choose life, the right to choose life in prison "the right to take the higher ground."

Jackson showed the jury a baby photo of Johnson and said "children learn what they live, who they see is who they become." She said the Johnson before them in court was a "remnant of physical and mental abuse" he suffered growing up with parents in a violent neighborhood.

Jackson reminded the jurors of beatings Johnson's mother suffered at the hands of his father and of the drug and alcohol abuse that ultimately forced Johnson into foster care before he moved into to his grandmother's home with 10 other children.

The special public defender said Johnson had "no choice" in life and made it clear it would only take one of the 12 jurors to determine the death penalty would not be an option for Johnson.

Unlike the deliberation of 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.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Stanton closed out the three days of the first phase of the penalty hearing by saying, "There is concrete evidence that something runs through his (Johnson's) veins, his ears that is different than that of those other people who have lived in South Central Los Angeles."

The prosecutor said while Johnson's two sisters, mother and children say they know and love him he said they only know him from when he was growing up as "John White, they don't know him as Donte Johnson."

Stanton said Johnson was the one who planned the killings and made the decision to bring a bag of loaded guns and gloves so that fingerprints would not be found. Stanton stressed the murders were no accident because Johnson decided not to bring a mask or something to prevent the victims from identifying him.

If the jury does find Johnson is ineligible for the death penalty, 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.