Posted: Friday, September 18, 2009
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- If a Marion man charged with killing a Turner County deputy sheriff testifies, jurors may hear statements he made to investigators after surrendering, a judge ruled this week.
Ethan Johns, 20, is charged with murder in the March 15 shooting death of Chad Mechels, 32, of Madison.
The officer was sent to Johns' rented farmhouse to check on him after he reportedly threatened to kill himself during a fight with his girlfriend. Johns and Mechels shot at each other and Mechels was struck in the right arm and throat with a high-powered rifle.
Johns said it was self-defense.
His lawyers filed a motion to keep out of the trial statements Johns made to detectives after turning himself in three hours after the shooting. The statements were made 40 miles away at the law enforcement center in Sioux Falls, where Johns was handcuffed and taken to an interview room.
Johns refused to waive his rights and asked for a lawyer, but the interview continued and Division of Criminal Investigation agents were "very aggressive," his attorneys argued in the motion to suppress.
To disprove that, prosecutors called witnesses at a July hearing to try to show that Johns' statements were voluntary.
In a ruling filed this week, Circuit Judge Steven Jensen concluded that the statements were willful. He said prosecutors may use the statements, which are sealed, to impeach, or challenge, Johns' credibility if he takes the stand. Otherwise they will not be used.
"Johns does not claim, nor does the record show that any of Johns' specific statements were coerced by the agents. Rather, it is apparent that Johns was quite willing to tell his story to the agents and freely spoke with the agents throughout the interrogation," Jensen wrote.
Johns' trial has not been scheduled.
He is charged with alternate counts of first-degree and second-degree murder. That means if the jury doesn't convict him of premeditated murder, which carries a punishment of life in prison or the death penalty, he could be found guilty of the lesser charge, which carries mandatory life in prison.
The prosecutor declined to comment. Johns' attorney did not immediately return a request seeking comment.
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