Jury Finds Baltimore Man Guilty of W. Rogers Avenue Murder

By Andrew Michaels - February 13, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A jury in the homicide trial of Kristopher Johnson returned a guilty verdict on Feb. 13 for the murder of 34-year-old Dondi Johnson in October 2020.

After a four-day trial before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill, the defendant, who has no relation to the victim, was found guilty of first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony violent crime, and firearm possession with a felony conviction.

During closing arguments on Feb. 10, defense attorney Bradley MacFee told the jury that the detective who initially questioned Kristopher Johnson lied to them under oath. MacFee explained that the detective first lied to the defendant by using the defendant’s brother’s statement to get Kristopher Johnson to talk. The detective promised to play the statement on a phone for the defendant, who the defense attorney said wanted to hear the statement so badly that he confessed to the murder.

“It wasn’t until that phone that allegedly contained the statement was placed in front of [Kristopher Johnson] when the interview was over,” MacFee said. The detective then lied to the jury in open court, he continued, when he claimed he did not use that statement as leverage to a confession from the defendant.

The prosecutor diverted the jurors’ attention to Kristopher Johnson’s testimony, which she said was “different from his [police] interview on Nov. 17, 2020,” more than three weeks after the shooting on Oct. 25, 2020. She specifically cited the defendant’s testimony regarding the identity of the shooter, which he “refuses to tell [the jury].”

“Was Dondi Johnson disrespecting the defendant? Probably, but we’ll never know,” the prosecutor said. “As he was thinking and all of those choices went through his mind, he chose to shoot Dondi Johnson.”

Kristopher Johnson’s sentencing is scheduled for May 31.