Lawyer: Other inmates to blame

The death-penalty phase of Costa Mesa native and white supremacist Billy Joe Johnson’s murder trial opened Monday, with his lawyer arguing that Johnson became a killer behind bars.

“What can turn young Billy Joe Johnson into the gentleman you see here today? That which goes bump in the night? The boogie man?” Michael Molfetta asked the jury assembled at Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana. “The state prison system is our junk drawer. Open it and look in, and you’ll see that’s what it created.”

Johnson, 46, was convicted last week of first-degree murder and conspiracy for his role in the 2002 slaying of fellow skinhead gang member Scott Miller.

Miller, a founding member of the Public Enemy Number One white supremacist gang, was killed for revealing some of its secrets to the media. In an act of retribution, Johnson lured Miller to an alley in Anaheim where two other gang members killed Miller. Those men were convicted for the slaying in 2007.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Johnson, who was already serving time for another killing.

On Monday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ebrahim Baytieh kept his opening statement to the jurors brief.

He emphasized Johnson’s bloody past, saying he deserves to die.

For his part, Molfetta looked to shift some responsibility onto the California Department of Corrections. He told the jury that, had Johnson not been exposed to racial segregation and gang life while inside prison, he might be a different person today.

“How do we get to a guy who has his own moral compass? That has nothing to do with, frankly, the way normal people think?” Molfetta asked.

By putting a man with no father figure in his life around people who would happily mold him into their violent ways, he said.

Baytieh used witness testimony to chip away at Molfetta’s theory. Several witnesses, from police officers and prison guards to past victims, all testified about their run-ins with Johnson. Witnesses testified to seeing him attack other inmates and rob a woman outside a Denny’s restaurant in Costa Mesa.

Jurors can expect more of the same Tuesday. Baytieh said they would hear testimony to do with Johnson’s 2006 conviction for killing a man with a claw-hammer.