Killer takes the stand

With Billy Joe Johnson’s 2006 trip to the witness stand where he confessed to a 2002 murder still fresh in people’s minds, he had a lot to live up to as he took the stand Wednesday.

He didn’t disappoint.

With a spiked mohawk and a courtroom full of prosecutors and police officers watching intently, Johnson, 46, testified matter-of-factly that authorities haven’t gotten him for all his crimes.

“Like what? Murders?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Ebrahim Baytieh asked Johnson.

“Maybe.”

“How many?”

“At least two.”

If Johnson is to be believed, that would mean the Costa Mesa native has killed at least five people. He is already facing 45 years to life for killing a Huntington Beach man in 2004, and his murder trial for helping kill Scott Miller in 2002 is almost finished. Tuesday’s testimony was part of the penalty phase of Johnson’s trial for killing Miller. The same jury that convicted him two weeks ago must now recommend either life in prison or death.

Baytieh claims that Johnson, who did not explicitly deny it on the stand, helped kill a child molester in prison in 1991. Johnson told the jury he’s killed at least two more people and buried them in secret locations. On top of that, he said he’s robbed more people than anyone knows and in the last week has ordered at least five attacks on rival gang members.

Johnson is a “shot caller” with the skinhead gang Public Enemy Number One, which is at war with United Society of Aryan Skinheads, prison guards testified.

Defense attorney Michael Molfetta has had his hands full with Johnson, who throughout the trial has been easily distracted and admittedly looks forward to death row.

By law though, Molfetta has to argue for life without parole, even if his client doesn’t want it, he said during a break in court proceedings.

Johnson testified that he wants death row because there’s more time out of the cell and with other prisoners.

Johnson didn’t do any favors for Molfetta on Tuesday.

One minute, Johnson testified that he owns up to his actions; the next minute he said, “Scott Miller killed Scott Miller ... he knew the rules.”

Miller was killed after revealing gang secrets to the media.

Molfetta did get traction with Johnson when he questioned him about life in prison.

Johnson painted a picture of prison as a “kill or be killed” world where his violent streak was bred out of an instinct for survival. Johnson testified about a time he was stabbed in the neck for not killing someone else.

Johnson is a product of drug abuse and a racially divided, gang-saturated prison system, Molfetta argued.

In cross-examination with Baytieh however, Johnson showed no remorse for his victims, saying each one had it coming, and he made a choice to attack them.

Of the child molester he allegedly helped kill, Johnson said, “He got a two-year sentence. He could’ve raped 30 kids. Ruined them kids’ lives, all their families’ lives. I’m not cool with that.”

But when it came to Miller’s mom, Bonnie, who testified Tuesday morning that her son’s death has taken a substantial toll, Johnson sang a different tune.

“She got the luck of the draw … Scott Miller brought it on himself,” Johnson said. “I harass gang members and drug dealers. That’s all. I don’t mess with the rest of society.”

Attorneys will begin closing arguments this morning in Santa Ana’s Central Justice Center.

The jury is expected to begin deliberating on Johnson’s fate by the afternoon.