Athens man convicted of domestic violence

May 05--ATHENS -- A Limestone County jury Thursday found James Lynn Johnson Jr. of Athens guilty of first-degree domestic violence assault for beating his former girlfriend in May 2015 and also guilty of third-degree domestic violence assault for assaulting the woman's 2-year-old child.

The jury also found Johnson guilty of aggravated child abuse of the young girl and guilty of domestic violence strangulation for wrapping a studded belt around the neck of Samantha Fately, his ex-girlfriend. The panel found Johnson not guilty of kidnapping Fately but guilty of first-degree unlawful imprisonment of Fately's daughter.

The jury, made up of five men and seven women, deliberated for about five hours before delivering its verdict to Circuit Judge Robert Baker. Fately immediately left the courtroom after the verdict. The judge revoked Johnson's bond and said he would be held without bail until a sentencing hearing. Baker said he would schedule the hearing as soon as possible.

"We're very pleased with the total outcome," said Limestone County District Attorney Brian Jones. "I want to thank the jury for their hard work and attention. It was a very difficult case with graphic evidence."

The six-count indictment against Johnson included two counts of first-degree kidnapping.

"We knew they would have difficulties with Count 1 and Count 2," said Jones of the first-degree kidnapping charges.

Johnson's attorney, Harlan Mitchell, declined to comment after the verdict.

In closing arguments Thursday morning, Jones said Johnson beat Fately so severely that she had difficulty walking, and also stabbed her in the face with a screwdriver and wrapped a studded belt around her neck. He later forced Fately and her daughter from their apartment to a shed behind Johnson's mother's house in the middle of the night "to prolong their suffering."

Jones said that throughout the ordeal, Johnson "repeatedly told (Fately) that if she got away, 'I'll hunt you down and kill you.' "

Jones said Johnson broke the young girl's arm, beat her face and left bruises all over her body.

"He tortured her, he abused her, he beat her," Jones said. Fately and her daughter were "assaulted during the kidnapping over and over and over."

"James Johnson doesn't want to take full responsibility for what he did," Jones said. But, he told jurors, "you now have a voice to hold him responsible for the victim, her daughter and everyone in the community."

Defense attorney Mitchell told jurors all they had to consider was Fately's testimony. "There's no blood, no fluids to corroborate her testimony."

Mitchell said Johnson was away from the apartment for an entire day and when he returned, he saw Fately shoving her daughter's face into the corner of the wall in the girl's bedroom.

Johnson "hit her for one reason: to prevent (the daughter) from being further injured," Mitchell said. He added that, according to the testimony of a doctor at Athens-Limestone Hospital where Fately and her daughter were first examined, "the bruises on the majority of her body were more than three or four days old. They were seven to 10 days old."

When Fately, Johnson and the daughter went to the shed, "it was like any other day," Mitchell said. "She was content because she had been there numerous times. Why did she stay? She was waiting for James to bring her more meth to get high again. Once he didn't have it, it was time to go."

Chief Deputy District Attorney James Ayers then spoke, showing a photo pulled from video taken at the hospital where Fately and her daughter were examined. It shows Fately and her daughter sitting together. The child, scared and in pain, is sitting beside her mother, he said. "That's her safety place. That's not a child abused by her mother, but a child clinging to her mother for safety."

Johnson's testimony suggesting that Fately pushed her daughter's face into the corner is "absolutely not true. That's contrived. That's completely made up."

During Johnson's statement to the police after his arrest, he had the opportunity then to tell officers "if someone else was accountable" for Fately's injuries.

"We can't have this in a civilized community," Ayers said. "We cannot tolerate this situation: a mother and child in this dire need of help."

marian.accardi@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438. Twitter @DD_MAccardi.

___

(c)2017 The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Ala.)

Visit The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Ala.) at www.decaturdaily.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.