A state appeals court panel today upheld a man’s conviction for murdering a fellow resident and sexually assaulting another woman at an assisted living home in Long Beach the same day.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that there were errors in Kerry Johnson’s trial.
Johnson — who required the use of a walker to move around at the time of the crimes — was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of first-degree murder for the June 3, 2020, killing of a 66-year-old woman, according to the appellate court panel’s ruling.
The jury also found true the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of sodomy in connection with the attack, along with a forcible sodomy charge involving another attack the same day on a 68-year-old woman who was moved out of the assisted living home, the panel noted.
The appellate court justices concluded in their opinion that “there was compelling evidence of Johnson’s guilt of the charged crimes.”
“Johnson told the police at the scene that he committed a sexual act with a woman who ‘came through’ the residence and then left, and that she ‘didn’t consent,'” according to the panel’s 25-page ruling.
“Within a few hours of (the woman) reporting that Johnson sexually assaulted her, one of the managers of the residence found Johnson attempting to engage in a sexual act with (the second victim), who had been strangled to death.”
Johnson, who was 69 at the time and is now 73, was arrested early the next morning and has remained behind bars since then.