Parents' remarks can be told jury

By GRAHAM BRINK

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 10, 2000

TAMPA -- A jury will be allowed to hear most of the statements a couple accused of child abuse made after their toddler died from 400 yellow jacket stings, a circuit judge ruled Wednesday.

Attorney George Tragos, representing Wylie and Kelly Johnson of Melbourne, argued at a hearing last month that the couple's reaction to the accident would prejudice jurors and had no connection to the pending charge.

Two-year-old Harrison Johnson stumbled onto an underground nest of yellow jackets Sept. 28, 1998, in Town 'N Country, where he and his parents were visiting. Detectives say the Johnsons, whose religious beliefs eschew medical treatment, did not call paramedics for seven hours. The Johnsons counter that their son did not appear to be in peril and even ate dinner and took a bath before going to bed.

A nurse at St. Joseph's Hospital testified last month that the couple showed no remorse after the boy died.

When asked if they wanted to hold their son one last time, the father "looked at me and said, "We've held him for 21/2 years. That's enough,' " nurse Christine Ruda testified. Mrs. Johnson said the body was "too stiff," Ruda said, and Mr. Johnson said that children "don't come with manuals."

Most evidence is prejudicial to defendants, Circuit Judge Chet Tharpe said in his five-page ruling Wednesday, and the test is whether the evidence would inflame jurors or appeal to their emotions. He ruled that the Johnsons' statements would do neither.

After Harrison died, his parents requested a lawyer. That lawyer recommended they not say anything to authorities. Tharpe ruled that prosecutors can't introduce the Johnsons' refusal to speak and their request for a lawyer as evidence in the April trial.

-- Graham Brink can be reached at (813) 226-3365 or brink@sptimes.com.

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