DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 1997         TAG: 9709240420

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

DATELINE: INDEPENDENCE                      LENGTH:   41 lines

EARLY HEARING SHEDS LIGHT ON DETAILS OF VICIOUS KILLING

Louis Ceparano tried to stop Emmett Cressell Jr. from viciously attacking a neighbor three weeks before the two white men allegedly burned alive and beheaded a black acquaintance, witnesses of the first fight said Tuesday.

``Louis said, `Man, get out of here, Cressell is going to mess you up,' '' Richard Long testified. ``That's when Cressell hit me.''

The preliminary hearing in the beating case shed light on the characters of the two men accused in the shocking murder of Garnett P. Johnson, 40. Ceparano is charged with capital murder for allegedly being the primary aggressor, while Cressell is charged with first-degree murder.

Cressell, 36, claims it was Ceparano, 42, who doused Johnson with gasoline on July 25, set him afire and later chopped his head off. Ceparano claims he was too drunk to recall what happened.

Grayson County General District Judge Daniel Bird ruled that there was enough evidence to try Cressell on a malicious wounding charge Oct. 24. There will be a preliminary hearing in the murder case on Oct. 7.

The Justice Department is investigating Johnson's slaying as a possible hate crime.

Long, who is white, testified that he had just come out of a convenience store on July 6 and was on his way to ring the church bells for the Sunday service when Cressell confronted him.

Cressell claimed Long owed him money for fence-building. Long said he paid Cressell more than he should have and said the job was never finished.

The clerk at the convenience store said she went outside after hearing Cressell, an unemployed sawmill worker, screaming about money.

``Louis had tried to get Cressell to leave and tried to get Mr. Long to leave,'' Mellissa Shaffner, 24, told the judge.

Cressell punched Long in the face to start the fight, she said, and continued to pummel Long after he was nearly unconscious. At one point, Cressell propped Long against a car and repeatedly head-butted him, she said.

Long had a mild stroke and was hospitalized for five days, and he still needs surgery to repair a broken nose that's visibly crooked. KEYWORDS: MURDER LYNCHING

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