News - Local

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Experts testify in Lucedale murder

LUCEDALE — After a long day of testimony, a jury of nine women and three men are still hearing the prosecution’s side of the case in the murder trial of Deon C. McCants.

McCants, 18, was a 16-year-old George County High School student on January 13, 2008, when Meleah Griffin, 18, and Dominique M. Johnson, 21, were shot to death in their rural George County home. An autopsy revealed that Griffin was pregnant, turning the case into a triple murder.

Four expert witnesses took the stand, presenting pieces of forensic evidence before George County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Ronnie Lambert was called to testify mid-morning Wednesday. Lambert was questioned by prosecution and defense attorneys the rest of the day.

The state claims that McCants had gone to the Johnson and Griffin home on several occasions to buy cocaine. A statement given by McCant’s girlfriend indicated that cocaine purchased a few days before the murder was bogus and tasted like sugar. Upset over the bad drugs, prosecutors say, McCants went to the Johnson home and shot Johnson in the head and then shot and stabbed Griffin.

The prosecution presented an audio-video confession where McCants told investigators that he had gone back to the Johnson residence to buy more cocaine but “was feeling angry and tension and sort of blacked out.” He then pulled out a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver belonging to his mother and shot both victims. Griffin was still making gurgling sounds so he went to the kitchen, took a knife and stabbed her once in the neck.

In the confession McCants described the kinds of wounds and the position and location of the bodies accurately, information that only someone familiar with the murder scene would have known, prosecutors said. He said, however, he shot Johnson twice and Griffin once. Johnson was shot only once.

In the confession video, Lambert and Investigator John Keel question McCants several times about the number of gunshot wounds each victim suffered.

McCants was arrested and charged with the murders on February 4, 2008. On February 8 and February 11, he recanted his confession and claimed he was a witness as Cyrus J. Street committed the murders.

“I have never seen a confession where the police argue that you have got it wrong,” said defense attorney Calvin Taylor in his cross examination of Lambert.

Taylor challenged Lambert to present any physical evidence that McCants was actually the shooter. Taylor also questioned why McCants would go back to the Johnson residence to buy more “bad dope.”

At 6 p.m. Circuit Court Judge Kathy Jackson recessed the case until this morning.