Execution Won’t Be Sought in Slaying of 2

In an unusual move, prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty against a 20-year-old man charged with slashing to death his best friend’s parents in the couple’s Garden Grove home, according to court records filed Monday.

The decision means that Gerald Johnson of Villa Park will face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of last year’s double slaying.

“We’re quite relieved,” said Johnson’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Stephen J. Biskar, who learned of the decision in a brief letter from prosecutors. “This was not the kind of case for them to seek the death penalty. Up to this point, justice has been served.”

The murders shocked the quiet bedroom community where Jose and Elena Najera lived with their teenage son, Jose Jr., and cast suspicion on a group of fellow Mater Dei alumni the son was with the night of the murders.

The son told police he discovered the bloody bodies of his parents when he returned home in the early hours of Dec. 29, 1999, after spending much of the evening with friends at Johnson’s house.

Police said they quickly linked the killings to Johnson after finding a bloody ski cap beside the Najeras’ bed with several strands of hair matching DNA taken from Johnson.

In addition to murder charges, Johnson also faces three special-circumstance allegations that made him eligible for the death penalty, including murder during a burglary and multiple murder. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Orange County district attorney’s officials did not explain in detail why they opted against seeking the death penalty. The decision, officials said, was made by a committee of homicide prosecutors shortly after a tough preliminary hearing in October in Superior Court.

During the hearing, a judge initially expressed doubts about the evidence against Johnson--describing the case as “50-50”--before eventually ordering him to stand trial.

That may have influenced the decision by the “death penalty” panel, Biskar said.

The committee weighs a variety of factors in deciding whether a jury should be asked to--or would be likely to agree to--send someone to death row. Among other things, they look at the brutality of the crime, the defendant’s age and the previous criminal record.

Those last two factors probably weighed heavily on prosecutors, Biskar said.

“This is a young man who has no prior criminal record, a Mater Dei graduate from a good family in Villa Park, was an Eagle Scout,” he said. “I think there were a lot of positives going for him.”

The decision was an unusual one for the district attorney’s office, which rarely decides against seeking death when there is more than one murder victim, officials said.

“It is infrequent,” Assistant Dist. Atty. Lew Rosenblum said. “We did not feel convinced that the death penalty was appropriate for a variety of factors.”

Rosenblum, who heads the homicide unit, said he could recall only three times in the past 11 years when prosecutors opted not to seek death given such circumstances.

Such a decision was made in 1993 after Jeffrey Steven Gibson, a decorated ex-Marine, killed his ex-wife and 5-year-old daughter during a drunken rampage.

Biskar, who represented Gibson, said the Marine’s status as a Gulf War veteran evoked enough sympathy to dissuade prosecutors from seeking death.

“We had a lot of things going for us,” he said. “A lot of it was the patriotic feeling that the Gulf War engendered.”