Convicted murderer Marcus Ray Johnson denied new trial

ALBANY — A convicted murderer was denied a motion for a new trial, Dougherty District Attorney Greg Edwards confirmed Monday.

Marcus Ray Johnson, who has been on death row for the 1994 murder of Angela Sizemore, was denied a new trial through an order issued by Chief Judge Willie Lockette Monday morning.

Attorneys for Johnson were given time to produce transcripts showing a Dougherty Superior Court oral order on DNA testing following a February hearing for Johnson. Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Sizemore near Fundamentals, a former west Albany nightclub, but received a temporary stay of execution on Oct 5, 2011, pending an evidentiary hearing.

Edwards said the defense would likely appeal Lockette’s order to the Georgia Supreme Court. The defense will have 30 days to do so, after which the state’s high court will decide within 30 days whether it wants to hear the case — which means he might be back in execution status in 60 days, the district attorney explained.

Johnson and his attorney, Brian Kammer, asked that a new trial be granted based on original crime scene evidence they contend was inadequately tested or not tested, including several hairs found in Sizemore’s truck presumed to be the victim’s, DNA testing of fingerprints lifted from the victim’s vehicle and DNA testing of a blood found in a soil sample taken from the crime scene.

Edwards stated at the Feb. 26 hearing that it was his belief that if full testing were granted by the court, it could only serve to incriminate another suspect while leaving Johnson’s case unaffected.

Kammer stated that, during the latter part of Johnson’s trial, Lockette orally ordered a type of testing for the soil sample that would have established the blood as male or female. Because of a “drafting error,” Kammer said, the wrong type of testing was ordered. If the DNA testing showed the blood was not Sizemore’s, it would take the assumed crime location out of the picture, Kammer contends.

According to the official record of the state Supreme Court, evidence introduced at Johnson’s trial showed that Sizemore met Johnson at Fundamentals between 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. on March 24, 1994. The bar owner and its security officer, both of whom knew Johnson, testified they say saw Sizemore and Johnson kissing and behaving amorously.

Court records say Sizemore had been drinking so heavily that the bar had stopped serving her. When Johnson and Sizemore left the bar together, the bartender handed Sizemore’s keys directly to Johnson. After leaving the bar, witnesses saw them walking toward Sixteenth Avenue.

Around 8 a.m., Sizemore’s body was discovered in her white Suburban, parked behind an apartment building in East Albany. The victim had been cut and stabbed 41 times and had bruises and marks from being struck and dragged. An autopsy confirmed that the fatal wounds punctured the heart. Police investigators later determined Sizemore was murdered in a vacant lot near Sixteenth Avenue near Fundamentals, where there were bloodstains, scuff marks and drag marks.

Police said that when Johnson was arrested, he blurted, “I’m Marcus Ray Johnson. I’m the person you’re looking for.”

Testing confirmed the presence of the victim’s blood on Johnson’s jacket, and Johnson was in possession of a pocket knife consistent with wounds on the victim’s body. Johnson was also said to have had scratches on his hands, arms and neck. He later stated that the victim became angry because he didn’t want to “snuggle” after sex and he punched her hard in the face and walked away, remembering nothing else until he woke up after daybreak in his front yard.

Herald staff writer Jim West contributed to this report