Suspect in Deputy’s Death Meets Potential Jurors

Michael Raymond Johnson, the 50-year-old Vietnam veteran accused of fatally shooting Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Peter J. Aguirre, appeared before a panel of prospective jurors Wednesday as preparations began for his trial.

Prosecutors say Johnson gunned down Aguirre on July 17, 1996, while the rookie officer was responding to a 911 call at the home of Johnson’s estranged wife in Meiners Oaks.

The 26-year-old deputy was the first officer killed by a suspect in the line of duty in Ventura County since the fatal shooting of Simi Valley Police Officer Michael F. Clark in 1994.

Like Clark’s case, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Aguirre’s accused killer in what is expected to be a lengthy criminal trial.

On Wednesday, Johnson stood before a panel of nearly 100 potential jurors summoned for the case. An additional 100 are scheduled to appear today.

Wearing a gray suit, white dress shirt and glasses, Johnson stood next to his two defense attorneys and smiled while saying a polite “good morning” to the jury candidates.

As he resumed his seat, Johnson folded his hands in front of him and listened as Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren urged prospective jurors to embrace the opportunity to serve on an important case.

“The essence of a fair trial turns on the availability of jurors,” Perren said in his opening remarks. “We want your goodwill, your cooperation and your willingness to work with us.”

But with the case expected to continue into next year, finding 12 regular and three alternate jurors may be difficult.

Perren said it would take about a month to seat a jury. If opening statements begin about the first week of December, the presentation of evidence is expected to continue into January.

And if Johnson is found guilty of first-degree murder and at least one of the two special allegations charged in the case, the trial would enter a penalty phase that could run into early March, the judge warned.

That rough schedule includes a two-week break for the holidays and a three-week break between the guilt and penalty phases of the trial, Perren said.

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The judge also gave prospective jurors a brief outline of the charges facing Johnson, a five-time felon who has been in and out of state and federal custody during the last two decades.

Johnson is charged with murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and spousal rape. He is also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and faces two special allegations that make him eligible for the death penalty.

Those allegations are that he killed an on-duty police officer and committed murder while in the act of kidnapping his wife.

Johnson has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied the allegations.

On the afternoon of the slaying, authorities say, Johnson kidnapped his wife at gunpoint and drove her to an isolated location, where he raped her.

According to court documents, Johnson suspected that his wife was having an affair and told her that they would never be separated.

Frightened by his jealous and violent behavior, the wife told her daughter in a phone call that she needed help and the daughter notified authorities, according to court papers.

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When deputies arrived at the house, the wife came to the door wrapped in a towel and spoke in Spanish so fast that deputies could not understand what she was saying, court documents said.

As she stepped outside, Aguirre walked into the house with his gun in his holster. Seconds later, deputies heard gunshots and Johnson ran naked from the house, firing two weapons--a .45-caliber semiautomatic and a .32-caliber semiautomatic.

Before running outside, prosecutors say, Johnson delivered an execution-style shot to the fallen deputy, who left behind a wife and young daughter.

Johnson was shot in the gunfight, but not critically wounded. He is charged with attempted murder for allegedly firing at Deputy James Fryhoff.

During his preliminary hearing last November on the murder and related charges, Johnson claimed that delusional jealousy dictated his behavior that fatal afternoon.

Defense attorneys have suggested that Johnson suffers from a mental disorder brought on, in part, by a tour in Vietnam that caused him to act “crazy” on the day of the shooting.

Johnson’s public defenders have portrayed him as an emotionally troubled veteran whose long criminal career may have been brought on by his experiences as a soldier.

Deputy Public Defender Todd Howeth also said during last year’s preliminary hearing that deputies and investigators made mistakes before and after the slaying.

In January, Howeth tried to get the charges against his client thrown out on the grounds a judge did not allow him to pursue that line of questioning in the preliminary hearing. But Perren rejected the motion to dismiss.