A jury acquitted a Gary man Thursday evening in a fatal shooting inside a garage after a night of drinking.
Anthony Thomas, 58, had been charged with murder and a gun enhancement in the Dec. 9, 2022, death of Kevin “K.J.” Johnson, 64.
That night, Ralph Wilson, a forklift driver, invited a handful of friends, including Thomas and Johnson, over to his house. Both men worked with Wilson at some point.
In closing arguments Thursday, Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Lanham argued that even if some details from the night diverged, their accounts of the shooting were the same. It snowballed from some sort of argument.
“I’ll shoot you in the face,” Thomas said multiple times.
Then, he did.
Johnson was never aggressive, Lanham said. The 911 call, a responding police officer, a bloody footprint, a basketball cap and a bullet casing all backed up the witnesses’ accounts.
“No one else had a gun,” she said.
Thomas testified Wednesday he did shoot Johnson, Lanham said. As Wilson knocked him over, Thomas said he pulled the trigger.
Self-defense can’t be an accident or reckless. Was it justified?
“He certainly was not,” she said.
An acquittal meant Johnson “deserved to die,” she told jurors.
Defense lawyer Michael Lambert said that was “outright false.”
It was self-defense, he argued. Thomas “acted within the law.”
The lawyer zeroed in on what he said were inconsistencies in the men’s accounts.
Wilson testified Tuesday that he tried to separate the men and Thomas reached over him to shoot Johnson.
In the probable cause affidavit, cops wrote Wilson said Thomas pushed Johnson into a chair before shooting him. When he testified Tuesday, Wilson said that was wrong.
“I guess (the police report) is wrong,” Lambert said on cross-examination.
“Yes,” Wilson responded.
Another witness, Rammell Harris, testified Johnson charged Thomas twice that night. They had an argument where Johnson held something like a utility knife or box cutter.
It was later found, unopened, on the floor. Wilson testified he was getting a deck installed at the time and the room also stored building materials. A contractor might have left it. Lambert said that explanation didn’t make sense.
“I know warehouse workers use box cutters,” he said.
The lawyer told jurors that part of the crime scene might have been cleaned before police got there. There weren’t beer cans scattered around. A witness testified Johnson was drinking from a bottle of Wild Irish Rose, but it wasn’t found. Ashtrays were cleaned out.
A white Miller beer case near Johnson’s body didn’t have blood on it. I didn’t believe for a minute it got there by itself, Lambert said.
“You get to weigh what you believe,” he said.
Before the shooting, the men were “fighting over that knife,” the lawyer argued. When it dropped, Johnson’s hands went on Thomas’ neck, Lambert said.
“The law lets you use that force to protect yourself,” he said. “He was not there to kill anyone.”
After the verdict, Lambert said jurors believed it was self-defense.
“You can protect yourself,” he said.
Detectives from the Lake County/Gary Metro Homicide Unit were called at 9 p.m. on Dec. 9, 2022, to the 1100 block of E. 19th Avenue in Gary for a reported homicide. Inside a garage, police found Johnson and a spent bullet casing.
Witnesses said a handful of men, including Thomas a.k.a. “Tony” and Johnson a.k.a. “KJ” were hanging out, drinking, “teasing” each other and “trash talking,” when Thomas and Johnson appeared to get into an argument and started “wrestling.”
Wilson briefly separated them before Johnson appeared to go back to Thomas.
“I’ll shoot you in the face, (expletive),” Thomas said.
After the shooting, Thomas started pacing.
“What am I going to do?” Thomas said.
There was nothing he could do, Wilson said, worried Thomas would shoot him.
“You killed this man for no reason,” Wilson said. “You messed up your life.”
There were “too many witnesses,” Thomas said.
He hugged Wilson before leaving. Thomas was later pulled over and arrested in a gray Dodge Durango on I-80/94 just over the Illinois state line.
According to his obituary, Johnson is survived by a daughter and grandson.
mcolias@post-trib.com