La Plata, MD – Testimony in the jury trial of Kenny Earl Morris, 56 of Waldorf, charged with attempted first-degree murder and Patricia Lynn Johnson, 51, also of Waldorf, charged with first-degree assault in the same case, gave some chilling accounts in the events of Jan. 31, 2014 at a Waldorf town house.
The victim, Tyrone Jeter, told a Charles County Circuit Court jury under the watchful eye of Judge H. James West that on the evening of Jan. 31, 2014, he had been home from work about 15 minutes, opened a soda and chips when there was a knock on the door.
Jeter testified that he shared the town house with Johnson’s sister Janice and had been in a relationship with the sister for 21 years. He described the relationship between the two sisters as “very close,” and that she often came over three or four times a week.
“She was welcome in our home anytime,” he said under questioning by Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Constance B. Kopelman.
Jeter said Morris and Patricia Johnson were at the door, he said hello and asked what was wrong. Jeter said one of the defendants, Johnson, began yelling at him, using profane language about parking in her boyfriend’s parking spot.
“I told her, ‘it’s an open spot,’” he said. “Kenny got irate, began calling me a pussy and telling me to suck his —-. I asked him to leave. I said, ‘look man, just leave.’ I had parked in the spot before,” Jeter added. “It was open spot, open to anyone in the community.”
He said he also told them “please don’t do anything to my car.”
“I did not yell, not one time,” he said.
Jeter said he went outside to make sure his car hadn’t been damaged and then went next door to talk about it.
“We had been very close for a number of years,” he stated. He said Patricia invited him in.
“I was telling her, ‘this just make any sense’ and she said I was being disrespectful parking in Kenny’s spot,” he said. “I told her he doesn’t live here and she said he does live here. Then she got loud. She got very loud.”
The argument escalated, he said, and Johnson pushed him three times. When he pushed her back, she fell on her butt. It was then, he said, that Morris attacked him, punching him in the face, and then he said, “It felt like bee stings in my back. I remember trying to grab his hands. He was trying to stab me in the chest.”
Jeter said he suffered at least eight cuts in his back, arms and neck. He continued, saying that Morris stopped attacking him, and started rocking back and forth on the living room floor.
“He started saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” Jeter said. “I could smell alcohol on both of them.”
Jeter said he left and when he was washing the blood off his body, he discovered, “the knife blade broke off in my neck.”
He pulled it out and set it on the sink, Jeter testified.
Johnson’s sister Janice testified that she and Patricia’s daughter, Brianna Williams, were supposed to go to a doubleheader basketball game at the College of Southern Maryland the night of the incident.
“Patricia was supposed to go with us,” she testified, adding that she called her sister several times before she and Brianna left for the game, thinking Brianna’s mother would meet them there.
She said while they were at the game she received a call from Jeter, who told her she needed to come home.
Janice testified Jeter told her, “Your drunk ass sister is at it again.”
Janice said she told Brianna they had to leave. She tried called her sister again to no avail, before receiving a second call from Jeter.
She said Jeter told her, “You need to take me to the hospital.”
Janice testified that when she walked in her town house, “There was blood everywhere.”
Janice stated that she and her sister had a good relationship, often sharing coffee in the morning while talking or watching television, but noted there had been other incidents where her sister’s drinking had caused problems.
Morris’ attorney David Simpson asked Janice Johnson why she didn’t call 911 when Jeter said he had to go to the hospital.
“It was a very short phone call,” she said. “He asked me when I was going to be there and that he needed to go to the hospital and that was all. It was a very short call, then a click.”
Johnson attorney, Michael D. Lovelace, attempted to get her to say Jeter had gone next door to provoke a fight.
“No,” she said.
Testimony continues in the trial this afternoon, when the jury is expected to get the case.
The original story: Man charged with assault for stabbing victim over a parking space
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com
