BALTIMORE _ The man accused of killing Phylicia Barnes has elected to have a judge decide his fate for his third trial, more than seven years after the North Carolina teen went missing.
Michael Maurice Johnson, 34, waived his right to a jury trial on second-degree murder charges. Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Charles Peters will hear the case and decide whether Johnson is innocent or guilty.
The legal saga has seen Johnson convicted by a jury and acquitted by a judge, with both verdicts overturned. Johnson sought to have the case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined last year.
The new prosecution team said Monday they may call as a witness James McCray, who testified at the first trial that he saw Barnes' body after Johnson asked him for help in disposing it. His was the only testimony that linked Johnson directly to a murder scene. The defense questioned McCray's credibility, deriding him at trial as a "jailhouse snitch," and questions about his credibility led to the conviction being overturned.
McCray was not called at the second trial, but now prosecutors say they may call him again. They have not been able to locate McCray since October, however.
Defense attorneys said the uncertainty was hurting their ability to craft a defense. McCray's account lays out a series of allegations not corroborated by any other evidence, and without his testimony that case is circumstantial.
"We don't know what it is we're supposed to be countering," said assistant public defender Katy O'Donnell.
Johnson was the last known person to see Barnes alive. The honors student from Monroe, N.C., was visiting her half sisters in Northwest Baltimore on winter break in December 2010 when she vanished. Her body was later found floating in the Susquehanna River.
Prosecutors said Johnson, who dated Barnes' sister, had developed a relationship with Barnes and called in sick from work the day she went missing. Witnesses said they saw Johnson struggling to move a plastic container out of his ex-girlfriend's apartment that day. Authorities believe Barnes' body was concealed inside.
Johnson was convicted by a jury at his first trial, which featured an inmate witness who claimed Johnson had confessed to him. But at his sentencing hearing, Judge Alfred Nance reversed the verdict, finding prosecutors had withheld information about the witness.
At his second trial, Judge John Addison Howard declared a mistrial after prosecutors played a recording jurors were not supposed to hear. Howard then reversed the mistrial ruling and dismissed the charges, saying prosecutors had insufficient evidence.
Prosecutors, believing Howard had made an error, promptly re-indicted Johnson. But Circuit Judge Timothy Doory denied an arrest warrant sought by prosecutors and instead Johnson was served with a summons and not detained. The case was sent back to Howard, who dismissed the new indictment. Then the state Court of Appeals _ Maryland's highest court _ reinstated the charges in April.
Johnson has been free since the acquittal in early 2015.
