A member of the robbing crew charged in the Feb. 2012 fatal shooting of a Norcross valedictorian and football star testified Wednesday that an alleged accomplice admitted his guilt as the two men were being transported to jail.
Murder charges were dropped against Timothy Johnson, 35, after he agreed to testify against the other six members of a crew that prosecutors say was assembled to steal at least $1 million rumored to be stashed inside the home of convicted cocaine trafficker Nicolas Jackson.
The big score never materialized. Johnson — who received a 15-year prison sentence in exchange for his testimony — and Jason Dozier, the first of the group scheduled to stand trial, were arrested along with the others less than a mile away from the Autry Road home where 15-year-old Nick Jackson was killed. Norcross police officers found two pairs of latex gloves, a roll of duct tape, ski masks, four handguns and $20,000 inside the minivan spotted by Jackson’s sister Nikia as it sped away after the shooting.
Johnson, who did not go inside the home but drove the getaway vehicle, testified that Dozier, 37, acknowledged firing shots into the teen’s bedroom door along with co-defendant Anthony Lumpkin, who will be tried in November with the other alleged members of the crew: Rico Dehaven West, Eddie Lewis Green, Michael Davis and Darrez Lamontz Chandler.
Johnson said Dozier told him he felt compelled to shoot after Lumpkin began firing his gun. Jackson was felled by a single bullet that lodged in his heart.
Gwinnett County Assistant District Attorney Mike Morrison said in his opening statement Wednesday that while Dozier likely did not fire the fatal bullet he should be found guilty of murder because he “encouraged, assisted and abetted” the shooting.
But it was the illegal activities of the victim’s father that brought danger to his family’s doorstep.
Nick Jackson Sr., who will begin serving a 97-month prison sentence later this month after pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine, testified he tried to keep his family shielded from his work.
He said he had sold drugs “off and on” for 15 years and resumed dealing cocaine when the real estate market tanked about 5 years ago. In a good week, he testified he’d distribute up to 20 kilos, or more than 40 pounds.
His family was unaware he was a drug dealer, said Jackson, who sat between his son’s mother and his daughter Nikia in the courtroom.
The 39-year-old father of four said he did not know the seven men implicated in his son’s death.But they knew him.
Johnson said his stepbrother, who went to high school with Nick Jackson Sr. and bought cocaine from one of his associates, first tipped him off about the money believed inside the dealer’s home.
Nick Jr. was playing video games when the robbers entered through the basement. Nikia Jackson, who was upstairs at the time, testified she heard the gunfire but thought it was just her little brother bouncing a basketball.
Prosecutors played her call to 911, where Nikia can be heard imploring her brother to wake up.
“I called my brother’s name but he’s not answering,” she tells the operator.
“Why did they do this?” Nikia is later heard saying. “I should’ve come downstairs when I heard it.”
Dozier’s attorney, Andrew Margolis, said in his opening statement his client “had no intent to cause anyone’s death and in fact did not cause the death.” Margolis didn’t challenge Johnson’s account of events but attacked his credibility, noting that prosecution’s star witness was a career criminal.
Johnson acknowledged he had been selling drugs since he was 12 years old. He met Dozier in prison during one of the defendant’s four stints in Georgia detention facilities dating back to 1993.
Though it didn’t come up Wednesday, Dozier also may have also implicated himself during an interrogation after the shooting. Norcross Police Sgt. Bill Grogan testified at a probable cause hearing last year that after Dozier was informed officers were taking gunshot residue tests, the suspect buried his head in his hands and told Johnson, “That’s it for me, bro.”
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