Correction: Colleen Barnhill is one of the attorneys who represented Melissa Diane Stearns at Stearns’ first-degree murder trial in Pulaski County. Barnhill’s first name was incorrect in this story about the conclusion of the trial.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims was forced to declare a mistrial Thursday night when jurors considering a murder charge against a Little Rock woman who fatally stabbed her roommate could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Melissa Diane Stearns was charged with first-degree murder over the January 2014 slaying of Herschel Lynn Johnson at his Minton Road home. Johnson, 63, had given Stearns a room in his home in exchange for her cooking and cleaning for him. Prosecutors said they would retry her.
Defense attorney Cheryl Barnard called on jurors to acquit the 35-year-old woman, saying Stearns was protecting herself. She said there was no proof that Stearns had meant to kill Johnson, describing the fatal wound as a fluke.
"The question is what was Melissa's state of mind, what was her intent?" Barnard said. "How likely is it do you think that Melissa could have stuck that knife through those ribs. Melissa Stearns is not a trained Navy SEAL. What kind of knowledge would she have to have to perfectly place a knife between those two ribs?"
No one else thought the wound, delivered just to the left of Johnson's left shoulder, would prove fatal, said Barnard, who was assisted by attorneys Cheryl Barnhill and Josh Adkerson. Johnson was talking when Stearns last saw him, and even told a friend he wanted to have a beer before calling for an ambulance, Barnard said.
Stearns, upset over the stabbing, did lie to sheriff's deputies when she denied knowing anything about how Johnson was killed, Barnard said.
But the attorney pointed to the testimony that Stearns had been hysterical in the immediate aftermath of the knifing and expressed concern for Johnson afterward.
Stearns did come clean with deputies shortly after the killings, Barnard reminded the jury. Stearns did not testify, with the defense calling only one witness, a sheriff's deputy who had arrested Johnson on Halloween 2013 based on a complaint by Stearns that Johnson had hit her with a brick.
The seven women and five men on the jury deliberated about 2 1/2 hours before reporting they were deadlocked 10-2 in favor of a second-degree murder conviction. The hold-out jurors would not budge, the foreman told the judge. Second-degree murder was one of the options for the jury, along with manslaughter and negligent homicide.
Second-degree murder, a Class A felony that carries a penalty range of six to 30 years in prison, means the defendant committed a homicide while deliberately engaging in dangerous behavior, while first-degree murder, which carries 10 to 40 years or life in prison, is a deliberate act of killing. Manslaughter is a Class C felony, with 3 to 10 years in prison, while negligent homicide is a Class A misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in jail.
In closing arguments, deputy prosecutor John Hout told jurors that they could tell Stearns meant to kill by the content of a text message she sent to a friend, Joshua Matthew Strong, hours before the slaying. It said, "Bout to kill this motherf*." He said jurors could tell Stearns had deliberately killed Johnson by the weapon she used, a carving knife with an 8 1/2-inch blade. The knife wound pierced Johnson's lung, heart and aorta.
"This is a case about a bully. He was frail and she was a bully," Hout told jurors. "She put this knife all of the way through him. She went and got the knife and went into his room."
Deputy prosecutor Luke Daniel called on jurors to recall how Stearns admitted to investigators that she had stabbed the man in the back and never considered him dangerous.
"'Herschel Johnson was walking away,' those are her words. 'Herschel Johnson wouldn't hurt a fly,' her words," Daniel said. "'Herschel Johnson wouldn't hurt a fly,' her words. 'I stabbed him in the back,' again those are her words."
Stearns left Johnson to bleed to death in his bed, the prosecutor said, while she packed up her belongings and fled.
"She knew how bad this was. She started telling lies to cover this up. She wanted Herschel Johnson to die," Daniel told jurors holding the knife that killed Johnson. "She's packing up food and he's lying on the bed bleeding. How can you tell me somebody who shoves this knife 6 to 9 inches into his body is doing that without the purpose of killing?"
Metro on 04/10/2015