“If I could speak to the McEntee Family, his wife, his kids, I would tell them that I’m sorry. If I could erase that day, I would.”
Those were the opening words in the “Kevin Johnson Clemency” video posted on the Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty’s (madpmo) website. Included in the 35-minute film is Johnson’s recollections about July 5, 2005-the day he, at the age of 19, murdered Kirkwood police Sgt. William McEntee.
According to news reports, Johnson ambushed McEntee who was on patrol in the Meacham Park neighborhood. Reportedly, Johnson approached the passenger side of McEntee’s patrol car, fired several shots then fired two more as McEntee crawled out of his cruiser. In all, McEntee was hit seven times.
On Tuesday Nov. 29, Johnson is scheduled to be put to death at the state prison in Bonne Terre. The Missouri Supreme Court announced in August that it had issued a warrant for his execution. Individuals and advocates such as Madpmo hope to win clemency for Johnson. His defenders claim that he was sentenced to death because of a racially biased prosecution bent on convicting a Black man for killing a white cop.
Johnson had two murder trials, the first ended with a hung jury. The jury by a margin of 10-2, argued for a lesser, non-capital, charge. In the second trial, Madpmo asserts that “the deck was stacked” against Johnson from the outset. They contend that Prosecutor Robert McCulloch-whose police officer father was gunned down by a black man in 1964 -cast doubt on his ability to prosecute Johnson without bias.
In the second trial, McCulloch is accused of using his peremptory strikes to eliminate Black jurors to ensure a predominately white jury. Numerous police officers were allowed to gather in the courtroom and the hallways, Johnson’s Appellate lawyers said, insisting that it sent a signal to jurors to convict.
McColloch got the capital conviction in Johnson’s second trial.
“The system failed Kevin,” Madpmo wrote on its “CLEMENCY FOR KJ” webpage. First, by ignoring the “Batson challenge” a precedent that refers to the court ignoring the peremptory challenges on grounds that the prosecution excluded potential jurors “based on race, ethnicity, or sex.” Secondly, Johnson’s new attorneys argue that his court-appointed lawyers failed to put substantial evidence before the jury that would have mitigated the crime, therefore decreasing the likelihood of a death sentence.
Therein lies the point of contention in Johnson’s upcoming death sentence. He remorsefully admits to murdering McEntee. Yet the circumstances on the day of the killing speak to Johnson’s fractured state of mind based on his belief that McEntee was involved in the death of his then 12-year-old brother, Joseph “Bam Bam” Long.
These mitigating factors are at the center of calls for Johnson’s clemency.
In His Own Words
The clemency video has footage from Johnson’s trial where he described the fateful events that preceded his taking McEntee’s life.
Johnson’s grandparents and great-grandparents lived next to each other at 411 and 413 Saratoga Street in Meacham Park. Johnson was at the home of his great-grandparents, Henrietta and Anderson Kimble, when he saw two police officers pull up and look into the window of his white SUV. He panicked because he had outstanding warrants for a parole violation. Johnson woke his little brother, Bam Bam, and told him to take his keys to Patricia Ward, his grandmother and ask her to tell the police she was driving his truck.
Johnson said he watched as his grandmother approached the police officers dangling his car keys saying: “I’m driving it, I’m driving it.” Suddenly, she stopped and looked back toward the house. He described hearing his grandmother’s terrified scream to police: “Come quick, Bam Bam just passed out.”
I interviewed the family back in 2005. They told me what happened after Bam Bam rushed in with Johnson’s car keys. His heart seized, Ward said, adding that the boy collapsed, face forward, on her living room floor.
Family members said police “slow-walked” toward the house and then, upon entering, told everyone to leave. Ward recalled how police even made a relative stop giving CPR while they searched the residence for Johnson.
Johnson, watching events unfold from his great-grandparent’s window, said he saw the police order all family members onto the driveway. He said he saw the police searching the house, still not sure where his little brother was. He did, however, say he saw the officers’ step over something that he later learned was his brother’s body.
Although Kirkwood police initially said Sgt. McEntee was not at the house Johnson, who recognized the officer, said he arrived with the ambulance. He also saw his mother, Jada Tatum, arrive on the scene and try to get into her mother’s house. Johnson testified that McEntee blocked his mother’s entrance. When she tried to look through and open the living room window, Johnson said McEntee aggressively approached her.
“He almost pushed her off the porch,” Johnson testified, adding: “that was when I started getting mad.”
Johnson said he watched paramedics exit the house with his brother on the stretcher.
“They had taken Bam Bam’s shirt off and his feet were dangling,” Johnson recalled on the witness stand. “I could tell he was just dead.”
Joseph “Bam Bam” Long was pronounced dead at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur that evening. By that time, Johnson had already sought out and killed McEntee, the officer he recognized at the scene of his brother’s death.
Around the 21-minute-mark of the clemency video, former Kirkwood Detective, Geoff Morrison, talks about his interaction with a much younger Kevin Johnson when Morrison served as the department’s juvenile officer for 37 years.
“I got along with Kevin,” Morrison recalled. “I never had any dealings with Kevin as a violent person nor did I know of any history of violence or reported violence.”
Morrison remembered the day McEntee, his friend and fellow officer was killed. He was shocked to learn that Johnson was involved. In the video, Morrison said he believes the death penalty is appropriate for “certain crimes.” When asked if Johnson’s actions warranted a death sentence, Morrison replied solemnly:
“No, not this one.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is The St. Louis American’s inaugural Deaconess Fellow.
Next Week: Part II: The Making of a Murderer