Nuptial Bliss Eludes Pair on Their Road to Prison

Apparently, love doesn’t conquer all, or at least it didn’t for a couple who wanted to get married Wednesday--the same day they were sentenced to prison.

“I can’t sentence someone to state prison in the morning and marry them in the afternoon,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John H. Major told reporters in his chamber, after denying the prisoners’ request that he marry them in San Fernando court.

Major sentenced Kimberly R. Johnson, 29, to seven years in prison for attempted murder in connection with a November, 1984 attack on a man solicited for prostitution in Van Nuys, according to court documents. He also sentenced Johnson’s boyfriend, 29-year-old Ronald Lockett, to six years in prison for residential robbery in connection with the same incident. Johnson and Lockett both are from Inglewood.

Although he refused to marry the couple, Major attempted without success to find a judicial official willing to perform the ceremony. He said he would try to arrange a prison ceremony at a later date.

Court officials said the marriage request was unusual because the couple would be incarcerated in separate facilities and would not be allowed to see each other for about three years. “Usually, the man’s going to jail and the woman wants to get married so they have conjugal visitation rights,” said Michael Abouaf, Johnson’s attorney.

Although court officials looked in vain for someone willing to marry the couple, Abouaf played Cupid for his client, filling out marriage forms and contributing $8 of his own money when the couple did not have the full $35 license fee. By late afternoon, however, Abouaf had to admit defeat.

The court bailiff, who broke the news to the couple, said they did not appear to be upset. “They took it philosophically,” she said.