Ex-Texas A&M football player guilty of killing man with machete in random attack
A former Texas A&M football player was found guilty Tuesday of killing a jogger in a brutal machete attack in 2015.
Thomas Johnson went to trial on Monday for attacking 53-year-old Daniel Stevens, who was on a morning run in October 2015 when he passed under a bridge on a Dallas jogging path. Johnson hacked Stevens to death with a machete, prosecutors said.
Police said the attack was random.
Johnson, 25, appeared in court after years of litigation over whether he is mentally competent to be tried,
Johnson’s relatives said he was diagnosed with schizophrenia before the attack. Johnson played football for Texas A&M in 2012 until he disappeared mid-season and turned up days later at his family’s home.
In 2016, a judge ruled him not competent to stand trial and had him committed to a psychiatric hospital. Court records show that Johnson was deemed fit for trial in June following a report on his mental state from the hospital.
Moments after allegedly killing Stevens, Johnson called police and confessed, prosecutors said. On Monday, they argued that DNA found on the clothing Johnson wore matched the DNA of Stevens.
Johnson pleaded not guilty and his lawyers said in court filings that they would present an insanity defense, but they called no witnesses on Tuesday after prosecutors rested their case, according to the Associated Press.
The jury deliberations on the guilty verdict lasted less than 30 minutes.
The trial moved on to the penalty phase, with members of both Stevens’ and Johnson’s families testifying on their behalf. Johnson’s sentence had not been decided as of Tuesday evening.
Stevens’ horrific 2015 death careened into further tragedy weeks later when his wife of 25 years took her own life. Before her suicide, Patti Smith told the Dallas Morning News that she hadn’t been sleeping or eating since her husband’s death.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 30, 2019 at 10:37 AM with the headline "Ex-Texas A&M football player guilty of killing man with machete in random attack."