Columbus jury takes one hour to reach verdict in assault on handicapped restaurant worker
After a single day of testimony and an hour’s deliberation Tuesday, a Columbus jury acquitted one of two men accused of robbing and beating a mentally challenged busboy outside the Country’s On Broad restaurant in 2018.
Javon Green, 25, was tried on charges of robbery and two counts of aggravated battery in the 3:50 a.m. attack on Lamar Johnson outside the 1329 Broadway business, where Johnson told officers he had been waiting to go to work that morning when two men asked him for money.
Prosecutor Jason Knowles told jurors that when Johnson tried to get away, Green grabbed him from behind by the backpack he wore and snatched him backward. Both men started punching Johnson, breaking his nose, and then pushed him down, kicking and kneeing him, fracturing his wrist, Knowles said.
The second suspect in the case was Brian Kitchens, who confessed to joining Green in the assault. He pleaded guilty before Green’s trial, and testified to his version of events Tuesday.
His testimony did not go over well with the jurors, said Green’s defense attorney, Anthony Johnson.
“They didn’t believe Mr. Kitchens,” said Johnson, who spoke with the jury afterward. “He made it seem like only Javon was involved.”
The trial began about 10 a.m., and the jury announced its verdict shortly after 4 p.m., finding Green not guilty on all charges. Johnson said Green had no other pending cases and was free to go.
The testimony
Kitchens testified that he and Green that night got some beer and liquor from a “bootleg house” in Phenix City before they went to downtown Columbus, where Green saw Johnson and started talking to the victim.
Kitchens said Green and Johnson argued before Green “started jumping on him and kicked him,” adding, “I did too.”
Kitchens said he hit Johnson once or twice and kicked him two or three times. “He fell and I started kicking him myself,” the witness said. “He was bleeding.”
Green rifled through Johnson’s backpack, finding no cash, but taking a cell phone and a pack of cigarettes, authorities said.
Kitchens said he and Green afterward walked to a Circle K on Veterans Parkway to get some food, and were on their way back to Phenix City when police saw them passing by the restaurant.
Among the first police officers to arrive was Kertaivous Coppins, who said Johnson’s injuries were obvious: “He had bleeding all over his face,” Coppins testified. Johnson was distraught and clearly in pain from his broken wrist: “He winced in pain while he was holding it.”
Johnson had some trouble communicating, the officer said. “He has a hard time speaking to you, to have a clear and concise conversation,” Coppins testified, but that gets easier for him once he relaxes and feels more comfortable.
He said he was talking to Johnson when they noticed Green and Kitchens walking by, and Johnson pointed them out, saying that’s who robbed him.
Coppins said he followed them to the bridge, as they tried to walk quickly away. Kitchens stopped when Coppins ordered him to, but Green ran to Phenix City, hiding Johnson’s cell phone in a flower bed as he fled. He was arrested in Alabama, and had to be extradited back to Columbus, the officer said.
When Green took the witness stand in his own defense, he shifted the blame to Kitchens, telling jurors one of their stops that night was a “trap house,” a home used for selling drugs, where Kitchens bought methamphetamine.
He said they were walking by the restaurant when Kitchens saw Johnson smoking and wanted to ask him for a cigarette. Green said he was on his phone, texting, when Kitchens abruptly started beating Johnson. Green tried to intervene, to break up the struggle, he testified.
Kitchens pleaded guilty in 2019 to felony charges of robbery and aggravated battery, and to giving police false information, a misdemeanor. Coppins said Kitchens lied about his name and his date of birth.
Judge Bobby Peters has sentenced Kitchens, 49, to 15 years in prison with eight to serve and the rest on probation.
Missing evidence
Johnson today is 44, and said he still has pain from the wrist injury that required surgery.
He testified to what happened, confirming the account Knowles had given in his opening. But the jury did not see video of what he told police that morning, nor any photographs of his injuries.
Knowles told the jury all that evidence has been lost. Coppins testified that in the five years since Johnson’s assault, the police department upgraded its body camera system, and had retained no evidence from Johnson’s case.
No copy of the recordings were made because police typically would not retrieve that footage until a case was ready for trial, he said.
Besides the COVID epidemic that delayed court proceedings, the case required an outside prosecutor, as District Attorney Stacey Jackson briefly was involved in Green’s defense before he was appointed the chief prosecutor here in May 2020.
Because Jackson had a conflict of interest, Knowles was assigned the case from the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia.
Victim lost mother
Johnson’s mother, Nancy, was the city’s first homicide victim of 2018, according to an interview that year with his boss, Grif Morpeth.
The 63-year-old woman was killed and her 44-year-old daughter was injured Jan. 1 during a shooting at a New Year’s party in the 2900 block of Colorado Street. Johnson had been living with an aunt, Morpeth said.
Morpeth said he hired Johnson, who has a stutter, through the New Horizons healthcare agency about 20 years ago.
“He’s a great employee,” Morpeth said. “Customers know him, they like him. And, of course, all the employees at Country’s love him. They’ve known him for years.... We try to look after him if he’s on any medicines or anything.”
Morpeth said Johnson usually arrives at work at about 3 a.m. in the morning to watch TV and drink coffee while the dessert chef bakes pies. He said Johnson was in front of the restaurant when the attack occurred. The dessert chef found him at the door beaten and upset.
This story was originally published October 24, 2023 at 12:58 PM.