Shooting suspect faces capital murder charge

TEXARKANA -- Miller County prosecutors have charged a man with capital murder in a home invasion at a Texarkana apartment complex last year.

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Justin Damone Johnson, 28, is accused of killing a man in a unit of Beacon Point Apartments during a shootout over drugs Nov. 15, according to a probable cause affidavit and police reports.

Capital murder is punishable by death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A few minutes before midnight on Nov. 15, Trevon Staten, 22, opened the door of his apartment and several masked men, one of whom investigators believe was Johnson, walked in shooting, the reports say. Staten was shot and killed.

Rashod Rushing, who had been sitting at a table with Staten when the men came to the apartment, grabbed a pistol and ran out the door, according to the reports. Rushing saw one of the masked men, identified as Julian Bolton, crawling on the ground outside, having been shot during the fray inside the apartment moments before, according to the reports.

Rushing, 28, is accused of shooting Bolton twice more, killing him. Rushing was charged in February with second-degree murder, which is punishable by six to 30 years in prison and a fine up to $15,000.

Johnson was picked up by federal marshals in mid-April after nearly five months at large. Documents filed Thursday charging him with capital murder allege he was in the course of committing aggravated robbery when he took Staten's life.

At the time of the Beacon Point shooting, Johnson was wanted by Texas authorities on a probation revocation warrant. Officials in Bowie County, Texas, acquired the warrant in October 2014 after filing a motion to revoke his probation on a misdemeanor drug charge. Johnson had received a one-year term of probation in April 2013 for possession of liquid codeine cough medicine without a prescription. The probation was later extended for six months.

The violations alleged in the motion to revoke his probation include two positive drug tests for marijuana, failure to submit to drug testing, failure to report to a probation officer, failure to complete community service restitution and failure to pay court-ordered fees.

Less than a year before Johnson received the probation in Texas, he was acquitted by a jury in Albuquerque, N.M., of multiple charges, including two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and abuse of a child causing great harm or death, according to New Mexico court records.

Johnson was accused of killing two brothers, one of whom was 15, and of critically injuring a woman in a drug-related shooting in April 2010. Johnson was arrested by Texarkana, Texas, police in May 2010 and extradited to New Mexico for trial, media reports state.

Records show Johnson was acquitted of the New Mexico charges July 13, 2012, at the end of a five-day trial. A single count of evidence tampering was dismissed by the court.

Johnson is being held in the Miller County jail without bond. Rushing remains in the Miller County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond.

Metro on 06/20/2016

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