News - Local

Tuesday, Jan. 06, 2009

Autopsy not completed in football star’s death

PASCAGOULA — Jackson County District Attorney Tony Lawrence said Tuesday the investigation into the shooting death of George County High School football star Billey Joe Johnson Jr. is ongoing and an autopsy to determine the manner of death has not yet been completed.

Lawrence made the announcement after also confirming he’d met with Curley Clark, an officer with the state NAACP, over the Christmas holidays to gather any information from the organization that could assist in their investigation.

Clark, however, said he was not satisfied with the meeting because he felt the investigation should be further along at this point. Specifically, Clark said, he felt the state Medical Examiner’s Office could have already completed the autopsy report on Johnson to confirm for his family the manner of his death.

Johnson’s family called on the NAACP to investigate when their son died Dec. 8 of what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after a George County sheriff’s deputy stopped him at Benndale Carpet off Mississippi 26.

Johnson had just been identified as a suspect in a burglary in progress at a former girlfriend’s Lucedale home minutes before a George County sheriff’s deputy pulled him over for running a stop sign and a red light.

In the incident report the sheriff’s deputy said he was at his patrol car checking Johnson’s driver’s license when he heard a gunshot and breaking glass and then saw Johnson dead outside his truck with a shotgun on top of him.

Johnson’s family, along with representatives of the NAACP, say Johnson would not have committed suicide because he had too much to live for. An all-star football running back, Johnson had been offered numerous college scholarships.

Jerome Carter of the Cochran Law Firm in Mobile said his office is not directly involved in the NAACP’s investigation into Johnson’s death.

Carter had an independent pathologist examine Johnson’s body before the teen’s funeral but the pathologist said he was unable to determine Johnson’s manner of death because pieces of his head were missing where he’d been shot.

The independent pathologist, however, already has noted the wounds to Johnson’s body were not consistent with what was included in a police incident report detailing the events leading up to Johnson’s death.

“There really isn’t anything new ... that we have to release right now,” Carter said Tuesday, noting he, too, is awaiting the results of the autopsy the state performed on Johnson.