Deputy Theron A. Burnham
Facts of the Crime:
Paul Johnson and his wife visited their friends, Shayne and Ricky Carter, on the evening of January 8, 1981. While at their friends' house, they all smoked marijuana and took injections of crystal methedrine. At trial, Ricky stated that he heard Johnson say he was going to obtain more drugs and that he would possibly steal something or rob someone. Shayne also testified that Johnson stated he was going to obtain more drug money and that “if he had to shoot someone, he would have to shoot someone.” Taxicab driver William Evans picked up a fare in Polk County on the night of January 8, 1981. The cab dispatcher heard a stranger’s voice over the cab’s radio several times after midnight stating that Evans had been knocked out. That was the last communication that the dispatcher had with the cab, which was found five days later in a citrus grove located about a mile from where Evans’ body was found. Evans had been shot twice in the head and both his fare money and wallet were missing. The cab had been set on fire. At approx 3:00 a.m. on January 9, 1981, Amy Reid and Darrell Beasley left a restaurant in Lakeland. A man who said that his car would not start approached them in the parking lot. The man also requested a ride to a friend’s house.
Reid and Beasley complied and drove off with the stranger. The stranger asked Beasley to stop the car in a remote area so he could relieve himself. When the stranger returned to the car, he asked Beasley to walk to the back of the car with him. When Reid looked through the rear-view window, she saw the stranger pointing a gun at Beasley. Reid locked the doors in the car and drove to a convenience store several miles away where she called the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Deputy Allison and Deputy Darrington were the officers who answered Reid’s call. After the deputies picked Reid up, she directed them to the location where she left Beasley and the stranger. Concurrently, another deputy, Theron Burnham, reported to dispatch that he had spotted a suspect on the road that Reid last saw Beasley. When Deputies Allison and Darrington arrived at Burnham’s location, they parked their car so that it faced Burnham’s patrol car. Burnham’s car had been left running with the lights on, but they did not see Burnham. A white male came out from a drainage ditch on one side of the road and quickly passed in between the patrol cars. He fired two shots at Deputies Allison and Darrington and fled across an open field. The deputies discovered Burnham’s body, which had been shot three times, in the drainage ditch and his service revolver was missing.
Beasley’s body was found later that day with one gunshot wound to the head. His wallet was missing. On the following afternoon, Johnson’s wife and the Carters saw a police sketch of the suspect in the newspaper and talked about whether it resembled Johnson. Johnson later telephoned his wife at the Carters’ home, and she was visibly upset when she hung up the phone. Ricky spoke to Johnson and asked him if he was responsible for the killing that the newspaper talked about and Johnson replied, “if that’s what it says.” Ricky and Johnson’s wife went to get Johnson. Johnson changed into a new shirt before throwing his old shirt, which had been described in the newspaper, out the window. Upon returning to the Carter residence, Johnson relayed that he struck the officer with his gun when the officer told him to put his hands on the patrol car. A struggle ensued and Johnson shot the deputy three times. Paul Johnson was arrested for the murders of Beasley and Burnham on January 10, 1981. Johnson was charged the following week with taxi cabdriver Evans’ murder. Reid, Allison, and Darrington identified Johnson. Additionally, Johnson’s fingerprints were discovered in the taxicab.
Johnson was first sentenced to death on September 22, 1981.
After his first sentence was overturned, he was re-sentenced to death on April 28, 1988.
After his second sentence was overturned, he was re-sentenced to death on May 7, 2014.
Bookmarks