Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Arlington, TN: Jury told boyfriend killed expectant mother, baby

With the birth of her daughter just a month away, teacher Tonya Johnson had the crib and the changing table and the curtains in the baby's room decorated in soft pinks, greens and yellows.

Her daughter's name was to be Greenlea, but neither of them made it to the delivery date in October 2009.

The father, Tarence Nelson, now is on trial on two counts of first-degree murder, accused of killing them both with a single bullet to her right abdomen.

"Tonya Johnson died," state prosecutor Carla Taylor told a Criminal Court jury Tuesday, "and it was too late to save Greenlea. She never made it to this world."

The shooting occurred on the evening of Sept. 25, 2009, at Johnson's home at 5686 Wolf Pack Drive in Arlington. Concerned neighbors entered the house when they peered in the front door and saw her slumped on the living room ottoman.

One neighbor was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher relaying emergency procedures to others who were frantically trying to save mother and daughter. "There was a lot of commotion going on," said Kaye Ingram, who lived across the street.

Nelson, 28, a computer network analyst from Murfreesboro, quickly became a suspect when Johnson's cell phone indicated they had had numerous conversations with one another before the homicide.

Cellphone towers also indicated that Nelson was in close proximity to Johnson's home at the time, according to court records.

Police said neighbors' descriptions of a man who drove up to the house earlier that evening matched Nelson.

Taylor said Nelson had called Johnson from Murfreesboro earlier about coming to Arlington to discuss their relationship, which began several years earlier.

Defense attorney Steve Leffler told jurors there is not enough evidence to find Nelson guilty of first-degree murder.

Nelson was arrested the next day in Murfreesboro and remains in the Shelby County Jail without bond.

Johnson, 36, was a third-grade teacher at Brownsville Road Elementary School.

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