Phylicia Barnes 16, Monroe, NC missing Baltimore, Md 12/28/10(Found Deceased)

[MuffyBee]

Thanks for all the updating Muffybee!

It isn't a surprise to me that they charged the ex-boyfriend.  The phone calls here http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=9225.msg1520864#msg1520864 are interesting.  Who was on the other end of the line.

And this State's Attorney sounds like a hotdogger http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=9225.msg1520869#msg1520869, hopefully his apparent need of attention won't get in the way of fact finding and the truth.

If she told her sister he made her uncomfortable, presuming she also told her sister about the texts and phone calls, why did she go there, why was she allowed to visit.  That's probably hindsight and family dynamics come in to play as well. It's just so sad.

Maybe Phylicia really wanted to visit and neither she nor her half-sister let Janice Sallis (Phylicia's mom) know Phylicia was uncomfortable in regard to Michael. Phylicia's mom Janice Sallis must feel awful for encouraging her to look into the rest of the family. 
Older post:
http://www.wbaltv.com/r/26415292/detail.html
 ::snipping2::
Guglielmi described the apartment building from which Phylicia disappeared as similar to that of a college dorm. Sallis said she would not have let her 16-year-old daughter visit her half-sister in Maryland had she known how she lived.

"I felt deceived," said Sallis of Phylicia's half-sister. "She had visited approximately four times, and each time she visited, I spoke with her half-sister and drilled her to make sure (she knew) the lifestyle that was not allowed, and that encouraged me a lot when I allowed her to go up there, and that was the type of influence I wanted her to have."

Phylicia is an honors student who was on track to graduate from her North Carolina high school.

"I encouraged her to find the Barnes side of her family two years ago because I didn't want her to be like so many people, wondering what her other half was like. I wanted her to be balanced," Sallis told NBC.
The FBI and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children are also involved in the ongoing search.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

I was reading through some of the earlier articles in Phylicia's thread and I came across this article dated January 4, 2011.  I snipped the bit about the ex-boyfriend of her half-sister who was "located and interviewed" and is "not cons at suspect or person of interest at this momement".    Interesting.   Now he's been arrested.

http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=9225.msg1285248#msg1285248

http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13782424
Internet tipster offers new locations to search for missing NC teen in Baltimore
Posted: Jan 04, 2011 3:21 PM CST Updated: Jan 05, 2011 5:27 AM CST
MONROE, NC (WBTV) – An internet tipster has offered 3 additional locations for Baltimore Police to search for Phylicia Barnes, the 16 year old girl from Monroe who went missing in Baltimore last week.
 ::snipping2::
Guglielmi told WBTV.com Tuesday night, detectives have located and interviewed the 27 year old ex-boyfriend of Barnes' half-sister. Guglielmi said the man is, "not considered at suspect or person of interest at this moment."
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-ci-barnes-brother-officer-20120429,0,5706326.story?page=1
Phylicia Barnes' brother wants to become city cop
He joins as trainee, set for academy training next week
April 29, 2012

When police and prosecutors gathered in a cramped media room on the ground floor of the Police Department's Fayette Street headquarters to finally announce an arrest in the killing of Phylicia Barnes, the victim's half-brother merely rode down an elevator to watch.

Bryan Barnes, inspired by the detectives who worked relentlessly for 16 months on his sister's case, has joined the Baltimore Police Department as a paid trainee. The 24-year-old already has passed background checks, and is scheduled to start as a cadet in the academy this week.

Barnes said he feels uniquely qualified to help others, after suffering through a 16-month ordeal over a missing relative, including a search that ended tragically when the teen's body was found in the Susquehanna River.


"Since it happened to me, I'm in a better position to stand by a family as time goes on," Barnes said a day after the murder charge was announced Thursday. "It happens every day. Somebody goes missing. Somebody gets killed. I've been through it and I know how the family will feel."

There's still a chance he might change his mind at the last minute, Barnes said, as he's still mulling over the kind of career he wants. He knows it will be something in law enforcement though, and said the time he's spent with city police — both as a grieving relative and a newly minted colleague — has inspired his decision.
 ::snipping2::

[KittyMom]

He certainly would bring a voice of understanding to families or victims.  Good luck to Bryan Barnes as he starts down his career path.

[Sister]

He certainly would bring a voice of understanding to families or victims.  Good luck to Bryan Barnes as he starts down his career path.

Indeed he can be an asset.

[MuffyBee]

http://citypaper.com/news/murder-ink-1.1312279
Murder Ink
Murders this Week: 3; Murders this Year: 65

By Anna Ditkoff
May 9, 2012

The murder of Phylicia Barnes, a 16-year-old African-American female, has been removed from the 2012 homicide tally and placed on the 2011 rolls. The official number of homicides for 2011 is now 197. Barnes was murdered in 2010 but her body was not discovered until 2011. While her death was ruled a homicide in May 2011 it was not added to any homicide count until April of this year when Michael Johnson, a 28-year-old African-American man, was indicted for her murder.

Two murders have also been added to the 2009 homicide total, making that year’s number 240 instead of 238. ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/region/baltimore_city/chick-fil-a-fundraiser-for-phylicia-barnes-foundation
Chick-Fil-A fundraiser for Phylicia Simone Barnes Foundation
May 17, 2012

If you go to the Chick-Fil-A on Route 40, Thursday, May 17, you can help raise money for the Phylica Barnes foundation.
 ::snipping2::
All the proceeds will go towards the Barnes Foundations mission of raising awareness in cases of missing children.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wbtv.com/story/17796154/attorney-michael-johnson-assaulted-by-police-during-arrest
Attorney: Michael Johnson assaulted by police during arrest
Posted: Apr 26, 2012 4:18 PM CDT Updated: May 26, 2012 4:18 PM CDT

 ::snipping2::
According to attorney Russell Neverdon, 28-year-old Michael Johnson was punched and tackled by authorities when he was arrested at his house Wednesday night.

Johnson has been charged with first degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes who disappeared while visiting family in Baltimore in December 2010.  The Union County honor student's body was found in a Maryland river nearly four months later.

Neverdon told WBTV via phone on Thursday evening that Johnson was arrested around 11:10 p.m. Wednesday night at his home.

Johnson was outside of his home, getting into his vehicle to go to work, when Neverdon says multiple unmarked vehicles pulled up to the home and people ran out of the vehicles towards Johnson.

Johnson, according to his attorney, did not know the people were law enforcement officers and believed he was being carjacked or attacked.

"Instinctively, he thought somebody was about to 'rob me, carjack me' or something but this wasn't a good look," Neverdon told WBTV. "He attempted to run away from the car and thought 'if they want the car, they can just take the car'."

As he was running, Johnson noticed one of the men was wearing gear identifying him as law enforcement and began to slow down, Neverdon told WBTV.  That's when Johnson was punched in the eye by one person and was tackled by another.
 ::snipping2::
Baltimore Police said during a press conference on Thursday afternoon that there were no incidents during Johnson's arrest.

Johnson is currently being held at the Baltimore City Jail without bond.

[SuzieQ]

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Suspect-in-Phylicia-Barnes-Killing-Pleads-Not-Guilty-159797575.html


Suspect in Phylicia Barnes's Death Pleads Not Guilty

Attorney says he's seen no evidence linking Johnson to girl's death


By Monique Hayes

 |  Wednesday, Jun 20, 2012  |  Updated 9:11 PM EDT




A Maryland man accused of killing a North Carolina teen pleaded not guilty to murder.

Michael Johnson appeared in a Baltimore court yesterday. He is accused of suffocating Phylicia Barnes and then dumping her body.
 ::snipping2::

A 16-month investigation led to Johnson's arrest. Prosecutors said he killed the girl in her half-sister's apartment and used a 35-gallon tub to move the body.

His lawyer said Johnson was targeted by prosecutors because he was the last to see her alive, the AP reported. He said he hasn't seen evidence linking Johnson to the crime.

A trial date was set for Aug. 13.

[fatcatlurker]

 

How on earth did they keep this so close to the vest?  And in Baltimore Maryland no less.


http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2012/12/29/sex-tape-at-phylicia-barnes-trial-could-be-game-changer/

snipped;

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A shocking twist in the case of a murdered teen found floating in the Susquehanna River. Prosecutors say they will use a video showing the victim engaging in sex acts with her accused killer.
 
As Gigi Barnett explains, defense attorneys say the tape could possibly help their case, too.
 
Electronic billboards flashed 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes’ name and face across the state.
 
Four months after her disappearance, investigators found the teen’s naked body floating in the Susquehanna River. Police have since charged Phylicia’s sister’s ex-boyfriend, 28-year-old Michael Johnson, with the murder.
 
Now, a shocking twist in the case: court documents say prosecutors plan to play a cell phone video of the honor student intoxicated and engaging in sexual relations with Johnson, his younger brother and Phylicia’s sister, Deena Barnes.
“This, of course is a game changer. So we have to look at it from that standpoint,” said Russell Neverdon, Johnson’s defense attorney.
 
Neverdon said his office knew about the sex tape. But the 16 minute, 31 second video was recorded and stored on Deena Barnes’ cell phone, and that changes their strategy.

“The problem is that in Maryland, we do have some statutory regulations that say certain people of certain ages cannot indulge in certain activity, particularly in the presence of someone who is supervising them,” said Neverdon.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Sounds to me like they knew the who and how all along they just needed to work out the charges first...

The sister should be charged with a sex crime regardless of whether or not it was her half sister...she was 16.  This is complete BS no matter how I look at it but I am glad to finally see some truth coming out. 

 

[Sister]

fatcat, you are so right!
My goodness, I wonder how the Mom feels?
 

[MuffyBee]

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-01-08/news/bs-md-ci-phylicia-barnes-pretrial-20130108_1_daniel-nicholson-iv-phylicia-barnes-detective-nicholson
Phylicia Barnes sex tape may be played publicly at murder trial
January 8, 2013

If Baltimore prosecutors want to show jurors a video of teenage murder victim Phylicia Barnes and the man accused of killing her engaged in "sexual relations," they must do so in open court, a city judge has ruled.

The ruling, which denied a prosecution motion to close the court during the playing of the tape, came last week after one of three unlisted hearings, but appears in documents available at Baltimore Circuit Court. A public schedule had said a hearing would be held Tuesday.



It is not clear why prosecutors want to show the tape, or whether they still plan to show it following the ruling. Judge Alfred Nance has imposed a gag order prohibiting attorneys from discussing the case.

Michael Maurice Johnson, 28, the ex-boyfriend of Barnes' older half-sister, is scheduled to stand trial later this month for the North Carolina teenager's killing. Jury selection is slated to begin Jan. 22.

Prosecutors have said that Johnson killed Barnes and moved her body in a plastic tub. Barnes was 16 when she disappeared in December 2010, in her sister's Northwest Baltimore apartment. Her nude body was found floating in the Susquehanna River in April 2011, and Johnson was charged a year later.

The Baltimore Sun first reported last month that the video, according to prosecutors, also depicts Barnes' older sister Deena and Johnson's younger brother. It was allegedly found on Deena's cell phone.

Prosecutors said they planned to play the tape during Deena's testimony and wanted to close the courtroom, because two of the people on the tape are minors. But defense attorneys were opposed. WBAL-TV first reported that Nance denied the request.

That ruling came after one of the three unlisted hearings, which occurred Thursday, Friday and Monday. Prosecutors and defense attorneys say they are prohibited from talking about the case because of the gag order, though there was no record of such an order's being imposed.
More...

[MuffyBee]

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-01-21/news/bs-md-ci-barnes-trial-starts-20130121_1_deena-barnes-phylicia-barnes-case-michael-maurice-johnson
Trial in Phylicia Barnes case set to start
Two years after teen vanished, alleged killer faces jury
January 21, 2013

Michael Maurice Johnson is scheduled to stand trial starting Tuesday in the death of North Carolina teenager Phylicia Barnes, with court proceedings that could include prosecutors playing a sex video and defense attorneys revealing details from an internal affairs investigation of the lead detective in the case.
 ::snipping2::
Johnson, 28, was indicted on a single first-degree murder count in April 2012. Prosecutors said at a bail hearing that he asphyxiated Barnes in Deena Barnes' apartment and moved her body in a 35-gallon plastic tub. Johnson has maintained his innocence.

Since that hearing, prosecutors have been tight-lipped about the case. A gag order has been issued, so the lawyers involved cannot comment.

Several twists and turns are possible at trial, including more details about accusations that the lead detective went to improper lengths when his own daughter went missing, a video that prosecutors say depicts Barnes, Johnson and two other people engaged in "sexual relations," and a possible defense witness who allegedly saw Barnes in another county after she had been reported missing.

A judge gave the go-ahead earlier this month for prosecutors to show the sex video but said it must be played in open court. It is not clear how prosecutors will use the video in the case.

Barnes' mother, Janice Mustafa, had accused Deena Barnes of condoning alcohol use and allowing men to drop by her apartment. And prosecutors said at the bail hearing last year that Barnes told a relative Johnson made her feel "uncomfortable."
 ::snipping2::
Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a bill named after Phylicia Barnes into law in the weeks after Johnson's arrest, requiring state authorities to publish lists of missing children and annual statistics.

An estimated 13,500 children are reported missing on average each year in Maryland, according to state police. In that context, the trial is important, Rondeau said, but there is more work to be done.

 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/article_153ea59a-64a1-11e2-b8ff-0019bb30f31a.html
Md. man facing trial for death of Monroe teen, Phylicia Barnes
January 22, 2013

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/Jury-set-in-Michael-Johnson-trial-Pretrial-motions-begin/-/10131532/18261858/-/bnw04dz/-/index.html
Jury set in Michael Johnson trial; Pretrial motions begin
Johnson accused in death of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes
January 24, 2013

BALTIMORE —A jury has been selected in the trial of Michael Johnson, the man accused of killing North Carolina teenager Phylicia Barnes in December 2010, and lawyers are arguing a few more motions before opening statements Friday.
The jury, made up of 12 people and a few alternates, was picked around 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Johnson, 28, is accused of killing the 16-year-old Barnes while she was visiting family in Baltimore. Johnson was arrested in April 2012 and charged with murder.

During pretrial motions in court on Thursday, defense attorneys tried to have the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office removed from the case. The attorneys argued that the office committed prosecutorial misconduct by not charging the lead detective, Daniel Nicholson, when he was suspended last year on charges that he misused police resources to go into an apartment and search for his own missing daughter, who was later located unharmed.

However, the judge said prosecutors have wide discretion when determining who and when to charge someone, so he denied the motion.

 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/01/25/opening-statements-to-begin-in-phylicia-barnes-murder-case/
Witness Says Defendant Showed Him Barnes’ Body & Asked For Ways To Dispose Of It
January 25, 2013

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Opening statements began Friday in the trial of a man charged with killing honors student Phylicia Barnes.

Alex DeMetrick has details of the trial’s first day.

Both sides laid out their strategy in opening statements in this murder trial.

North Carolina resident Phylicia Barnes was visiting her older sister Deena Barnes in Baltimore in December 2010 when she vanished. A major search was launched, ending four months later when her nude body was found in the Susquehanna River.

In opening statements in court, the prosecution linked that disappearance and death to 18-year-old Michael Johnson, Deena Barnes’ former boyfriend.

The jury will see evidence that includes hundreds of calls and text messages between Johnson and Phylicia Barnes, a sex video of Deena Barnes and Johnson, as well as one of Phylicia and Johnson’s brother.
More...

Video at link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.digtriad.com/news/article/265407/57/Opening-Statements-Made-In-Phylicia-Barnes-Trial
Opening Statements Made In Phylicia Barnes Trial
January 25, 2013

Baltimore, MD -- Prosecutors in the murder trial of a Baltimore man accused of killing a North Carolina teenager said in opening statements they have a witness who says he saw the young woman's body.

Defense lawyers for 28-year-old Michael Maurice Johnson, who is accused of killing 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes, dismissed the potential witness as a jailhouse snitch.
 ::snipping2::
Prosecutors say Johnson killed Barnes in her sister's apartment and then used a 35-gallon tub to move the body. Johnson's lawyers have said there is no DNA evidence linking him to the crime.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-01-25/news/bs-md-ci-phylicia-trial-day-four-20130125_1_michael-maurice-johnson-deena-barnes-phylicia-barnes
Tape shows accused killer's desire for Barnes, prosecution says
State also says it has a witness that saw Phylicia Barnes' body
January 25, 2013

(2 pgs)

Baltimore prosecutors said Friday that a sexually charged video depicting teenager Phylicia Barnes and the man accused of killing her shows a turning point in the relationship that ultimately led to her death.

Assistant State's Attorney Lisa Goldberg also said in opening statements that a witness will testify that defendant Michael Maurice Johnson showed him Barnes' body after she died, in a plea for help. Defense lawyers said that witness is unreliable and shows that the state has a weak case.



Barnes had connected over social media with her long-lost half sisters and they quickly became close, Goldberg said. But one of those sisters, Deena Barnes, saw her more as an adult girlfriend than a little sister and, during her trips from her home in North Carolina to Baltimore, allowed her to drink alcohol.

On one such night, Phylicia Barnes and Johnson, Deena Barnes' boyfriend of 10 years, took off their clothes and streaked around an apartment complex. Then the three of them, along with two of Johnson's brothers, went to a nearby school, where they engaged in "naked touching and kissing," Goldberg said. It was all recorded on video.

Goldberg said the video, which prosecutors plan to play for the jury during the trial, shows Johnson touching Deena — but as he does so, he is looking at Phylicia.
More...

[cookie]

Maybe the sister killed her in a jealous rage? If I was the defense, I might look at that angle..

The secrets they all kept while this poor girls body was floating in the water. And her parents were tortured all that time...very sad

[texasmom]

I hadn't checked in on this one in a while...so sad.