No one witnessed the moment Demetrius “Ali” Johnson was brutally stabbed to death in late August, the first in a series of knife attacks that targeted five other victims, a Clayton County detective testified Monday morning.
Investigators say the 44-year-old was seen in security footage walking with another man, 32-year-old suspect Lloyd Lee Brown, on the night he died, but it does not show the slaying. Still, magistrate Judge John Parker thought there was enough evidence to allow the case to advance through the court system.
Brown appeared before the judge Monday for a preliminary hearing on a charge of malice murder. He waived his right to a hearing on other charges related to the other Aug. 30 attacks, including multiple counts of aggravated assault and hijacking a motor vehicle.
Security footage, multiple witnesses and the fact that police found Brown with bloodied hands still holding a knife all point to him being the suspect in the later attacks, Detective Abram Walker testified. In Johnson’s case, however, the only evidence of what happened to him is two security videos, one showing him and Brown walking together and another showing two dark silhouettes walking in the direction of where Johnson’s body was later found.
Johnson was stabbed several times and died in the parking lot of a sign company on North Main Street just outside Jonesboro. Police believe Brown went on to attack others in the area, accusing him of stabbing a victim through the window of his vehicle and forcing four occupants of another vehicle to flee after trying to enter their car.
Credit: Family contributed photo
Credit: Family contributed photo
Brown was arrested in the immediate aftermath, but Johnson’s body wasn’t found until the next morning, when the sign company’s owner arrived at work.
While Brown has not admitted to killing Johnson, Walker said he told investigators that he and Johnson had been smoking together that night. Brown then became “suspicious” of Johnson when he asked him for a lighter because “how is it that you can be a smoker and you asking someone else for a light?” Walker recalled Brown’s reasoning.
Nevertheless, Brown told detectives that he gave Johnson the lighter and they went their separate ways. But security footage shows the two walking together away from a nearby motel after a manager told them to leave.
Credit: Clayton County Police Department
Credit: Clayton County Police Department
A second video then shows the two silhouettes walking across North Main Street before a car stops for a few seconds and there is some sort of interaction. Detectives have been unable to identify that vehicle or determine why it stopped or what took place when it did.
It also is not certain who the silhouettes are, but Walker said he is confident they are the victim and suspect “based on the totality of the circumstances and the timeline.”
Moments later, the video shows a dark figure where Johnson’s body was found, which investigators believe is actually Johnson, Walker said. However, the video does not show what transpired between the moment the silhouettes are seen in the street and when the figure is seen where Johnson’s body was found just 10 yards away, something Brown’s attorney, Jevarik Rogers, highlighted.
“The fact that a 10-yard walk is unaccounted for would imply that there are moments in time that are missing on this video,” he said in his closing argument asking the judge to dismiss the murder charge. “It’s not based on any witnesses. It’s not based on any physical evidence, such as DNA from any particular person, or anything that links Mr. Brown to it.”
Rogers’ request was denied, and the case was bound over to Clayton County Superior Court for consideration by the district attorney.
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