Tampa, FL: Vincent Brown found guilty of killing his girlfriend

Vincent Brown found guilty of killing his girlfriend

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The penalty phase of Brown's trial is set to begin Saturday. The jury can recommend life in prison or death by lethal injection.
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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 16, 2011
Updated: November 16, 2011 - 12:01 PM
TAMPA --
A Hillsborough County jury has convicted Vincent Brown of first degree murder in the kidnapping and killing of Jennifer Johnson, his on-again, off-again girlfriend, three years ago.

Brown, 41, also was found guilty of kidnapping as the jurors took only minutes today to reach their verdict. Prosecutors said Johnson called 911 after being placed in her car trunk, and she later was strangled and dumped in an abandoned Lakeland house.

Closing arguments in the death penalty case wrapped up Tuesday morning. Jurors met Tuesday afternoon but did not reach a verdict until this morning.

"I'm glad he got what he had coming to him," said Johnson's mother, Alma Dorsey Johnson, after hearing the jury's verdict this morning.

She said Brown was jealous: "If he couldn't have her, he didn't want anybody else to have her."

Alma Johnson said her granddaughter, the slain woman's only child, turned 5 years old Sunday.

"There's nothing I can do," Alma Johnson said of her daughter's death. "She's in heaven now."

Prosecutor Jalal Harb told jurors Brown was the last person to call Johnson, the last person to be seen with her alive and the first person to be seen with her car after her disappearance.

Harb said evidence points to Brown as the person who killed Johnson.

On Nov. 14, 2008, Brown and Johnson were spotted together at a Tampa nightclub. At about 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 15, Johnson called 911 and said she was in her car trunk.

Three days later her body was found in the garage of the abandoned house.

Bags covered her face and were tied tightly around her neck. She died by being deprived of oxygen, according to a medical examiner.

Harb said witnesses' testimony proves Brown had "animosity" toward Johnson.

Phone records indicate Brown called Johnson more than 20 times Nov. 14, and that he called her phone twice after she was slain, Harb said.

After the slaying, Plant City police changed how they handle 911 calls. Their department's policy in place at the time required officers to respond to 911 calls made only from land lines. Because Johnson placed the call from a cell phone, officers were not required to respond.

Johnson's family and friends said Brown was physically and verbally abusive to her throughout much of their relationship. They encouraged Johnson to stop seeing Brown and move on with her life.

"You couldn't beat a dog that bad," said Johnson's uncle, Washi Dorsey, 50.

"It's never too late to get out" of an abusive relationship, said Ruth Chico, a friend of Johnson's since childhood.

jpoltilove@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7691