Johnson Asks Another Trial

Johnson Asks
Another Trial

Refuses Attorney's
Advice To Plead Guilty

Harold A. Johnson today de|
manded a circuit court trial for
the Jan. 9 murder of his three^
year-old daughter, Barbara.

Johnson asked for the trial by
declining to plead guilty to the
first-degree murder charge, as
he had been advised to do by his
attorney, Ralph C. Keyes, and
is sister-in-law, Mrs. G. D. Por-
terfield of Houghton Lake.

The 39-year-old father was re-
turned to the Southern Michigan
Prison at Jackson, where he is
serving a mandatory life term for
the murder of his one-year-old
daughter, Margaret. He shot and
killed both daughters and his
wife, Margery, in their Ann Arbor
home.

Johnson faces the possibility of
three life sentences, if convicted
of the other two murders in the
first degree, and he would be
eligible to parole from none of
the terms. Additional trials or
pleas are necessary 1o make a
disposition of the cases in the
court records.

Keyes was allowed to withdraw
from the case this morning after
talking with Johnson, who asked
the court to appoint another at-
torney. Before withdrawing,
Keyes said Johnson no longer
holds an interest in the home
at 1435 Westfield Ave., where the
shootings occurred.

Johnson, according to Keyes,
has turned over the house by
quit claim deed to Mrs. Porter-
field, who with her husband fi-
nanced the first trial.

Judge ^3reakey said he would
investigate Johnson's financial
situation further before appoint-
ing an attorney and also would
wait to set a trial date.

Johnson will be returned for
trial on a writ of habeas corpus,
He has been in prison since
March 3, when he was sentenced
by Judge Breakey after a circuit
court jury had found him guilty
of murder in the first degree.

Johnson also is awaiting trial
for the murder of his wife. He
stood mute to all three charges
when arraigned. State law now
permits no parole in first degree
murder cases.