In opening arguments Tuesday, Sarah Johnson's lead defense attorney said his team will show in the coming week that prosecutors have failed to make a complete case against the Bellevue teenager accused of slaying her parents.
"No blood, no guilt. That is what the evidence is going to show you if it hasn't already," said defense attorney Bob Pangburn.
Johnson is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of her parents, Alan Johnson, 46, and Diane Johnson, 52, in their Bellevue home Sept. 2, 2003. If convicted, she faces life in prison.
Pangburn proceeded to give jurors an introductory law and order lesson and stressed that the burden of proof is on the state.
"Our job is not to prove anything," he said. "That's the state's job. We believe we will, but that's not our job. Our job is to point out where the state has failed to make its case."
He said the defense's case will take "about a week" and added, "It's not going to be perhaps as concise a story" as prosecutors offered. But he said the state had not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
"At end of case, if you haven't picked up on this already, we will have shown you that the state simply did not, can not and will not prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt," Pangburn said.
But the defense received a blow from 5th District Judge Barry Wood even before it began trying its case. Outside the presence of a jury, Wood ruled on Monday that defense attorneys could not show jurors a video of an attempted reenactment of Diane Johnson's shooting. The video depicted a mannequin shooting a rifle at a coconut to illustrate how blood and tissue at the scene of the Johnson killings might have reacted to a gunshot.
"What I see here is the defense trying to create a result and then work backwards to find a test to create that result, as opposed to taking the crime scene, shooting the coconut and then seeing what the result is," Wood said.
As its first witness, the defense called Carl Beaver, an Idaho psychologist who has visited with Sarah Johnson three times since her arrest in the fall of 2003. The thrust of Beaver's testimony was that Johnson may not have grieved in predictable ways because of her age, the nature of her parents' deaths and the unique position she has been in as the leading suspect in the crimes.
Beaver said Johnson has struggled with depression, has had suicidal thoughts in the past and has not always had a good self-concept, "which could help explain her stories."
She has no parents, no brother and no family. "She's got no support. All of that combined with the legal predicament she's in makes it hard for her to cope and grieve," he said, adding that people between the ages of 14 and 17 typically have a very difficult time grieving when faced with extraordinary circumstances.
The defense will continue to make its case today.
Sarah Johnson, 18, right, is comforted Tuesday by a law clerk aiding her defense team during the fifth week of her double murder trial in the Ada County Courthouse in Boise. Photo by Willy Cook
