Defense describes ‘perfect storm’ of mistakes leading to strangling

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - A “perfect storm” of mistakes by prison doctors and officers climaxed in February 2005 when Kevin Johns strangled fellow prisoner Phillip Parker aboard a prison bus, defense attorneys said Tuesday.

In his closing arguments Tuesday, defense attorney Harry Trainor said Johns was not criminally responsible for the killing because prison psychiatrists had taken him off antipsychotic medications when they thought he was “malingering” — faking or exaggerating — symptoms other psychiatrists said were evidence of schizo-affective disorder.

“Phillip Parker died not only due to Mr. Johns’ illness, but also because of a series of errors — some large, some small — that combined to create a perfect storm” Trainor said.

Prosecutors countered that Johns killed Parker, then exaggerated his symptoms to be reassigned from maximum-security prison to psychiatric treatment at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup.

Days before the killing, Johns had been recommended for treatment of suicidal tendencies at Patuxent Institution, but that order was countermanded by another doctor and he continued without treatment, Trainor said. As he was put aboard the bus Feb. 2, corrections officers did not properly tighten his restraints, giving him enough freedom of movement to choke Parker. Guards aboard the bus were not paying attention to Johns, even as Parker was dying.

“A lot of mistakes were made. Now’s our chance to make them right,” Trainor said.

The defense asked that Johns be remanded to a mental institution for treatment, then continue serving the life sentence he received for his two other murder convictions.

S. Ann Brobst, assistant state’s attorney for Baltimore County, said the state agreed Johns suffered from mental illness, but his behavior immediately after the killing appeared to show he was thinking and acting coherently.

“He isn’t babbling; he isn’t looking around at little green men,” Brobst said. “There was no indication he was reacting to any internal stimuli. It’s the state’s position he knew exactly what he was doing.”

Circuit Court Judge Emery Plitt, who served for 20 years as counsel to the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said he will now spend at least two days reviewing more than 5,000 pages of records and DVDs of Johns in prison before deciding if Johns is guilty or not criminally responsible.

If Johns is found guilty, he will choose whether a judge or jury decides his sentence. The state is seeking the death penalty.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com

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