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Published: 2009-02-12 14:23:00
Updated: 2009-02-12 17:13:24

Jury seated in James Johnson trial


James Johnson
James Johnson
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Jury selection is complete, and opening arguments will begin Monday in the trial of a Wilson man accused of helping to cover up a homicide nearly five years ago.

James Johnson, 22, is charged with being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder in the slaying of Brittany Willis, a 17-year-old who was kidnapped, robbed, raped and shot to death on June 28, 2004.

The 12 jurors and three alternates chosen over the past four days will travel every day during the trial from Tarboro in Edgecombe County to Wilson in Wilson County.

Jurors were picked from Edgecombe County, in part, because of pretrial publicity of allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and racial division over the case. Johnson is black, Willis was white.

Johnson was detained for more than three years on charges of murder, rape and kidnapping before he was released on a reduced bond in September 2007.

In December 2007, a special prosecutor dismissed those charges, but a grand jury indicted Johnson on the lesser accessory charge in January 2008.

Another man, Kenneth Meeks, pleaded guilty to Willis' slaying and is serving a life sentence in prison.

Johnson has admitted to wiping his fingerprints off Willis’ SUV but said he did it under duress because Meeks showed him a gun. He went to police about the crime three days later.


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I sure wish I could be on the jury!!! He might get a mistrial because of a hung jury, but he wouldn't be found innocent!!!

I am no longer a LEO in Wilson County I have moved to another county, however I was there when this tregedy happened...Everyone will be glad this is finally going to trial. Regardless of the outcome there will be one side that has a gripe about it.

I'm gonna bet he gets off light as the naacp whining party as been going on awhile now, but we will see what happens

I'm orginally from Wilson and it does not surprise me that it was moved to Tarboro. Edgecombe county is 75% black while and Wilson County is 63% black. So this will be interesting. I just hope justice is served. It's not black or white it is justice that the Wills family is seeking. We need more people in America to stand up like this family has done. They are very brave.

This is the breakdown: The jury includes five white females, two African-American females, two white males and three African-American males. Ranging in age from 20 to 60, they are of truck drivers, heath care workers, production workers, administrative workers and bankers.

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