[StBernard] Husband convicted of killing wife

[Westley Annis]

Am glad justice has been served but I thought that because "the right to a
speedy trial" canceled out all preKatrina crimes; is murder an exception?

Simms


> -----------------------------------------------------

> Husband convicted of killing wife

> Burning case is first jury trial since storm 

> Saturday, January 27, 2007

> St. Bernard bureau

> 

> The first jury convened for a criminal trial in St. Bernard Parish after

> Katrina this week convicted a man accused of burning his wife to death in

> front of her 5-year-old daughter. 

> 

> The 12-person jury deliberated for about an hour Wednesday before

convicting

> Roy Anthony Johnson of second-degree murder in state District Judge Robert

> Buckley's court in Chalmette. 

> 

> Johnson was accused of second-degree murder in the death of his estranged

> wife, Agena Woods, 35, whom he doused with a flammable liquid and set

afire

> in the bathtub of her Violet home in October 2001. 

> 

>  

> Buckley said sentencing has been set for Feb. 27, but since second-degree

> murder carries a mandatory life sentence that is largely a formality. 

> 

> Authorities said Johnson, who was 37 at the time of the crime, fled the

> burning house with Woods' 5-year-old daughter, who witnessed the crime. He

> dropped the child off at her uncle's house nearby and later was spotted

> walking along St. Bernard Highway, where he was apprehended. 

> 

> Johnson and the child also suffered burns, authorities said. 

> 

> In January 2002 Buckley ordered Johnson sent to a state forensic hospital

> for treatment after he was declared incapable of assisting his defense.

> After receiving treatment, Johnson's trial was held up by Hurricane

Katrina.

> 

> 

> It has been tough to seat a jury because much of the parish's pre-storm

> population of nearly 70,000 has been scattered since Katrina. 

> 

> "We were finally able to get the first jury," Buckley said Friday. "It's

> been a difficult task."