The fact that 10 years have gone by since the stabbing death of 14-year-old Christopher Mosier seemed to present problems in court Tuesday for various witnesses who tried to recall what they said to police in 1993, what they said when a man was arrested in 2002 and what they are testifying to now.
Terry Louis Johnson, 42, is on trial for first-degree felony murder in connection with the teen's death. Christopher Mosier was baby-sitting Johnson's 2-month-old son Dec. 30, 1993, the evening the teen was found in a pool of blood by his mother, Sylvia Mosier, after she got off work.
Prosecutors claim Johnson, who they contend has a long-standing drug problem, is the only person who admitted being at the scene that night while Sylvia Mosier was at work, and he was the only person who could have committed the crime in a narrow time frame between worried phone calls from Christopher's mother. They also insist that new, improved DNA testing shows Christopher's blood on a baby blanket that Johnson took from the Mosier home when he came to get the baby.
Defense attorneys contend Christopher, who was a tall, husky boy who stuck up for kids being bullied at school and who said he carried a knife himself because he was afraid of gangs, could have been killed by someone else and that there is no proof that Johnson did anything. As for the DNA testing, they claim Christopher's blood could have gotten on the infant's blanket from a cut or any small injury anytime during the previous month because the teenager helped his mother with baby-sitting.
Sylvia Mosier testified Tuesday that she called her home from a restaurant where she worked at 7:10 that night, 7:45 p.m. and 8 p.m. At 7:10, Christopher spoke to her and said everything was fine, but no one answered the later calls. Earlier, she testified at a preliminary hearing that she had called only twice, while a police report shows she told police the night of the murder she had called three times.
"I was in shock," she said Tuesday, talking about the night of the murder. "I was going in and out of consciousness, and I don't know how they got anything out of me."
Linda Johnson, Terry Johnson's ex-wife, testified that he had been verbally abusive and a few times physically violent with her, and that she made secret plans to take their son and leave the state in 1996 with the help of her former boss. She also testified she described burnt spoons and a rocklike substance she had seen to police, and they told her that her husband was freebasing cocaine.
Johnson said during the marriage things would disappear, including her jewelry, 13 car stereos and "anything of value," which she attributed to her husband's drug use.
Her previous statements to a defense attorney, police and testimony at a preliminary hearing turn up discrepancies, including comments at first about how she trusted Johnson and didn't believe he was capable of such a crime. She said she later became convinced he did kill Christopher but stayed in the marriage out of economic necessity, fear of his threats and hopes that he could overcome his drug problems.
"I was saying what I needed to to survive," she said, referring to earlier positive remarks she made about Johnson.
At one point, she tearfully stated Johnson once told her he would kill their child in front of her "just to make me suffer." Questioned by a defense attorney about when she would let Johnson visit their son, her voice sounded defiant: "Never have, never will. I don't trust him."
Magey Hassan, a friend Johnson visited with the baby the night Christopher was killed, said he didn't recall Johnson changing his clothes at Hassan's home that night but instead just using the bathroom to change the baby's diaper. Prosecutors suggested that contradicted what Hassan told police in 1993, but Hassan repeatedly stated Tuesday, "I never said that" when asked about Johnson changing clothes.
Hassan, who said he has overcome alcohol and drug problems he had at the time, heard from Johnson a few days after Christopher died. Johnson told him, "I don't know why they're after me or what's going on, but most likely it's racial discrimination," Hassan said, referring to the fact that Johnson is black. "He told me he didn't do anything," Hassan said.
Both Hassan and Linda Johnson testified that Johnson appeared calm and unruffled that night, and Johnson said her husband came home from Hassan's house immediately to speak to police after Johnson had called her and she told him police wanted to question him.
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com