Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 15, 1994 TAG: 9407150073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The jury convicted Brian Keith Johnson of manslaughter. Johnson, 26, beat and stomped Ralph Dewey Day after a long alcohol binge.
One of the men who was drinking with them said Johnson became angry after Day ate a tomato that Johnson wanted. A jail inmate testified that Johnson had told him the dispute had been over a sandwich.
Prosecutors had sought a murder conviction, but the heavy drinking involved in the killing helped muddle the evidence.
Day, 59, was one of a group of older street people with whom Johnson was drinking at his apartment.
Vinton police knocked on Johnson's door Sept. 18 after getting a report of suspicious activity. They asked Johnson if everything was all right.
Johnson cocked his head over his shoulder and said, "We have a dead man here in the chair."
Day's bruised and bloody body was in a recliner, his head slumped over to the side. He had died of a punctured lung.
Johnson told investigators that he had hit and kicked Day but hadn't killed him.
On Wednesday, Johnson testified that he had been so drunk that he couldn't remember what happened. Johnson's blood-alcohol content was 0.40 percent - four times the legal limit at that time for driving an automobile.
Another drinking buddy, Isaac Turner, testified that Johnson had attacked Day over the tomato. Turner admitted, however, that he was so drunk that he had only hazy memories of the day.
Mark Kidd, Johnson's attorney, told jurors that the prosecutors' case was flimsy. There were four men drinking heavily in the apartment, and Kidd said the killer could very well have been someone other than Johnson, or Day could have fallen.
"These are people who did not take care of themselves," Kidd said. "When they were on a drinking binge, they would fall down. They'd get sick and pass out."
But Leach, the prosecutor, said the evidence showed that Day didn't die from an accident.
"That man didn't fall down the steps," Leach said. "He looked like he'd been hit by a truck. And that truck was Brian Johnson."
Leach held up Johnson's tennis shoes, which had specks of human blood on the bottom. There wasn't enough blood to test to see if it was Day's, Leach said, but all the other evidence made it clear that it was.
"Ralph Dewey Day was a street person and a drunk," the prosecutor said. "But he didn't deserve to die like that. Nobody does."
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