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Judge throws out charges in triple murder in Conn.
A federal judge has thrown out charges against a man in connection with the 2005 killings of three people in Bridgeport in a turf dispute over crack cocaine sales.
Judge Janet Bond Arterton dismissed three counts of murder in aid of racketeering Monday against Efrain Johnson, one of four men convicted in the crime. Arterton ruled that while there may be ample evidence to support a felony murder conviction, there was insufficient evidence at trial to show Johnson was part of an organized criminal enterprise or that he participated in exchange for something of monetary value.
Johnson was convicted last year and faced a mandatory life prison sentence. He still faces state felony murder charges.
Prosecutors are reviewing the ruling, said Tom Carson, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.
Johnson, who remains in custody, knew nothing about the drug trafficking enterprise that was the subject of the federal prosecution, said his attorney, Todd Bussert.
"We have thus long felt that as to him, the case was improperly brought in federal court," Bussert wrote in an email. "Mr. Johnson is extremely thankful that the court recognized the merits of his position and is optimistic that justice will be served as the case proceeds in state court."
In December, Arterton sentenced Azibo Aquart to death for the killings. Aquart became the first federal court defendant in Connecticut to receive the death penalty since federal capital punishment was reinstated in 1988. Aquart's lawyer vowed to appeal the sentence.
Aquart, his brother, Johnson and another man were convicted in the killings of 43-year-old Tina Johnson, 40-year-old James Reid and 54-year-old Basil Williams, who were beaten to death with baseball bats on Aug. 24, 2005, and found bound with duct tape in Tina Johnson's apartment.
Authorities said Tina Johnson had been selling crack cocaine in Aquart's drug turf in the Charles Street Apartments without his permission. Prosecutors said Aquart and his associates were involved in numerous acts of violence to maintain control over their drug selling activities in the apartment complex.
Under the federal law, prosecutors had to prove Efrain Johnson was connected to the enterprise in a meaningful way to promote its illegal activities and committed the killings in exchange for a payment.
Arterton cited trial testimony that Johnson drove Aquart to the apartment building, brought baseball bats, wore gloves and a mask, burst into the apartment, tied up Tina Johnson with duct tape and stood near the door of a bedroom while the Aquart brothers killed two of the victims.
Despite that evidence, Arterton said there was no evidence that Johnson was voluntarily and intentionally associating with Aquart as the head of the drug dealing enterprise, saying he didn't even know the enterprise existed. The judge also ruled that a small amount of marijuana Johnson received earlier for a favor was not enough to prove he committed the crime in exchange for receiving something of monetary value.
"There is nothing in the record to show that defendant's association with Azibo Aquart that night was more than a personal association," Arterton wrote, adding that "no reasonable juror could have concluded that Mr. Johnson was connected in a 'meaningful way' to the Aquart enterprise, even though he brought the bats, heard Aquart complain about 'people selling drugs in his building' and duct taped Tina Johnson's wrists, because he did not even know the Aquart enterprise existed..."
Aquart's brother, Azikiwe Aquart, and another associate, John Taylor, pleaded guilty to racketeering murder and are serving life prison sentences.
http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/cr...nn-4654819.php
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