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Murderer is guilty again
By GRAHAM BRINK © St. Petersburg Times, published October 7, 2000 TAMPA -- A jury deliberated for most of the afternoon Friday before finding Ray Lamar Johnston guilty of first-degree murder for killing a massage therapist in her Seminole Heights home. Johnston, already on death row for a previous killing, now faces another death sentence. The jurors will reconvene Oct. 18 to consider whether he should be put to death or serve a life sentence. They will make a recommendation to Circuit Judge Rex Barbas, who will have the final say on the sentence. Johnston, 45, who did not take the stand during the week of testimony, has said in the past that he was innocent. Police linked Johnston to Janice Marie Nugent's February 1997 death soon after his arrest in the August 1997 slaying of LeAnne Coryell. Malio's restaurant employees said he and Nugent were seen there together. After his indictment last year, Johnston told the Times that he had dated Nugent once, months before she was killed. They met at Malio's, he said, but only went to dinner once somewhere else, and returned to her house. Johnston, a businessman with a long prison record for raping women, said he left abruptly after Nugent poured burning hot oil on him in preparation for a massage. He said he never saw her again. Nugent, 47, was discovered in her bathtub, beaten and strangled. Investigators said there was no forced entry into her home on W Chelsea Avenue, suggesting she knew her attacker. Johnston had also said that he was innocent of killing Coryell. The 30-year-old dental assistant was found beaten, strangled and raped not far from her Northdale apartment complex in August 1997. Bank cameras later caught Johnston using her bank card.
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From the Times |
