Neuropsychologist makes plea in defense of killer of four men

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Wednesday, May 4, 2005 | 8:48 a.m.

A defense expert on Tuesday compared Donte Johnson's childhood in South Central Los Angeles to that of a "child soldier" living in war plagued nations such as Sierra Leone and Bosnia.

Dr. Thomas Kinsora, a neuropsychologist, made the comparison as he tried to convince a jury that Johnson didn't deserve the death penalty for the killings of four young men in 1998.

Johnson faces the possibility of the death penalty for the August 1998 murders of Tracey Gorringe, 20, Peter Talamantez, 17, and Matthew Mowen and Jeffrey Biddle, both 19.

Johnson and two other men bound the hands and legs of the victims with duct tape and forced them to lie face down before killing them 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, authorities said.

Kinsora, who was hired by the defense, said after spending three one-hour sessions with Johnson he believed it was Johnson's involvement in gangs and parentless, poverty-stricken and violent childhood that led him to commit the crimes.

Kinsora said Johnson was growing up at a time of heightened gang activity in South Central Los Angeles, which had a similar affect on Johnson's psyche to that of war on child soldiers in Third World nations.

"This was a nice little boy who went to church and sang in the choir, who went bad due to gang life," Kinsora said.

In arguing Johnson shouldn't be sentenced to death, Kinsora said Johnson could "be an asset in prison" and that he didn't see Johnson as a "major troublemaker."

He said Johnson's criminal history was the result of "drugs and bad choices."

Kinsora said he was encouraged to hear Johnson was writing an autobiography to give to Johnson's children and that Johnson told him he was helping other inmates prepare and fill out legal documents.

Under prosecutor Robert Daskas' cross-examination, Kinsora admitted he never discussed the four execution-style killings Johnson committed saying "we didn't go into that."

Kinsora agreed with the prosecutor's assertion that Johnson had an anti-social personality and that someone with such a makeup "manipulates other people."

The neuropsychologist said Johnson displayed some but not all of the characteristics of an anti-social personality.

Kinsora also said Johnson committed the slayings at least in part for "money and drugs."

The jury is expected to hear closing arguments and begin deliberations this afternoon on Johnson's fate.

Johnson previously had been sentenced to death by a three-judge panel for murders of the four people. 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.

The jury determined Johnson is eligible for the death penalty and will soon determine whether to sentence him to death, life in prison without the possibility of parole, life with the possibility of parole or a set term of 40 to 100 years.