Photo by Brett Dunlap Attorney Eric Powell confers with his client Billy Ray Johnson during a status hearing in Wood County Circuit Court Tuesday. Johnson was scheduled to go to trial next week on a murder charge in the stabbing death of his brother in November 2019. However, the defense is waiting for reports on DNA testing that have not been presented. The trial is being continued to September to allow the time for these reports to be submitted and reviewed.
PARKERSBURG — The murder trial of Billy Ray Johnson has been continued to September as the court awaits a report from a California lab regarding DNA testing.
A status hearing was held Tuesday before Wood County Circuit Court Robert Waters as Johnson, 55, being held at the North Central Regional Jail, was scheduled to go to trial on Monday, July 19.
Johnson is charged with the November 2019 murder of his brother, 59-year-old Kenneth Wayne Arnott who had been stabbed at Johnson’s Staunton Turnpike residence outside Parkersburg city limits.
The trial was originally scheduled in March but court records indicated the trial was continued to allow a defense expert witness more time to complete DNA testing and provide reports.
During the hearing on Tuesday, both the Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure and defense attorney Eric Powell told Waters the reports were not in yet and neither side has had a chance to read through and analyze the findings to be able to address them at trial.
Powell said his office has been in contact with those people as recently as last week. They would be expiditing those reports and lab analysis as soon as possible, he said. Powell said the reports will involve DNA samples taken from a t-shirt belonging to Johnson that may show someone else being present at the time who grabbed him.
”They would forward those reports to Mr. Lefebure and my office on the same day they compile and generate that report,” Powell said. ”To date I have not received a report from the experts in California regarding that DNA analysis.”
He was possibly expecting the report either this past Monday or Tuesday.
Lefebure said prosecution wanted the chance to go over the findings to be able to prepare for the cross examination of the defense’s expert witnesses.
”We have no idea what the report will indicate one way or another,” he said.
Lefebure originally moved to prevent the reports from coming in.
”We have been waiting…roughly a year that we have been going through this process to get this DNA testing done, completed and get these reports generated,” he said. ”It would not be fair to the state to receive these reports less than a week before trial.”
Both sides indicated they wanted to go to trial as soon as possible, next week if possible. Powell said he had witnesses coming in.
Waters said a lot of time and effort has gone into getting these reports. Powell said the t-shirt became an issue six moths ago, but he understood the court’s concern.
Powell didn’t want to exclude the testing and said it was “somewhat expository” to their case.
Waters said the issue depends on what the results show and since they don’t have the reports it might set up a possible issue if the case would be appealed later on if the reports are excluded. Waters asked if Johnson wanted to continue the trial.
Powell said Johnson wanted to wait for the reports to be included.
”Very reluctantly, but seeing the necessity for it I will grant the defendant’s oral motion made (Tuesday) for a continuance,” Waters said. ”I don’t see how we can safely go to trial next week without those results.”
The trial has been reset for 9 a.m. Sept. 27. Motions are due Aug. 30.
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com
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