Idaho shooter's charges dismissed

COEUR d’ALENE — Charges against Adam M. Johnson, the man arrested for shooting two Moses Lake men, were dismissed.

The Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office dropped both the aggravated battery and attempted murder charges and said it would not re-file them.

Johnson, of Coeur d’Alene, was released from Kootenai County jail.

After prosecuting attorney Art Verharen informed Judge Robert Caldwell of the state’s decision, the packed courtroom in the basement of the Kootenai County Courthouse sat in silence.

Friends of Johnson leaned in closely as a member from Johnson’s defense team turned around and explained the decision, as Verharen walked out the room. Then the 20 or so friends and family of Johnson left the room, and hugged, cried, clapped and celebrated once outside.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s amazing,” said Tony Lewis, Johnson’s friend. “I never questioned it. I knew there was no way (the charges would hold up). Based on Adam’s character there was no way he would have shot somebody without being in mortal danger, fearing for his life. He doesn’t have it in him.”

Friends of Johnson met him at the jail as he was released. Johnson declined interviews, as did his ?mother, Sherrie Johnson, who embraced well-wishers outside the courtroom after it was announced.

The grand jury’s refusal to indict Johnson means that fewer than 12 of the 16 members felt the prosecution’s evidence warranted trial.

The prosecutor’s office summoned a grand jury instead of holding the preliminary hearing. Grand jury members listened to witness testimony in a sealed courtroom without defense attorneys present.

“We obviously preferred a different determination, but we gave them all the information we had and we have to live with it,” said Barry Black, chief deputy prosecutor. “We just have to trust in the grand jury system; that’s why we have it.”

News of the dismissal reached Moses Lake shortly after it was announced.

“I am upset that it turned out that way but what can you do?” said Jordan Burgess, who was a part of the confrontation and whose older brother, Brandon Burgess, was shot in the stomach during the melee. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Johnson was facing up to 30 years in prison for allegedly shooting Burgess, 25, and Bradley J. Phillips, 25, below the left kneecap outside a downtown bar Dec. 27.

Phillips was treated and released from Kootenai Medical Center and Burgess was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he underwent surgery, but is recovering at home in Moses Lake.

“Of course he’s going to be upset,” Jordan Burgess said of his brother. “Some guy shot him and (Johnson) is just going to walk away from it.”

According to police reports, witness testimony varied from accounts portraying Johnson as the aggressor, yelling at the group of men and pulling his pistol on them unprovoked after an earlier confrontation at the Underground Bar, to statements that the group of men confronted Johnson, whereby he pulled his weapon in self-defense.

Those testimonies also vary from when the gun was fired. Some say the first shot was fired as the group was standing there, which led to the beating Johnson endured from the group that left Johnson bruised and bloodied, while Johnson maintained that he fired as he was being attacked.

Johnson, who has a concealed weapons permit, told police he feared his life was in danger and “emptied the clip” to save himself during the beating, according to police reports.

“We figured that was how it would go,” Jordan Burgess said when the family learned of the grand jury’s decision.

Grand juries can be used when a case involves a sensitive victim or for complicated cases and those with voluminous witness testimony, according to the prosecutor’s office. They do not allow cross-examination of the witnesses, leaving the jury members, instead of a judge, to decide the charges’ merits.

When asked if he felt an unfair hometown advantage could have factored into the decision to not indict Johnson, Jordan responded: “Most definitely.”

“I guess that’s how that turned out,” he said, adding the group of eight people and Johnson were the only real witnesses to the incident, and the cluster of people who fled out of the bars after the first shot was fired didn’t really witness the altercation.

The grand jury saw Johnson brought into the courtroom in prison garb and handcuffs, but was led out of the courtroom minutes later to go back to jail where he was to be released.

Friends and family of his left the courthouse to meet him there.

“He gets to go home so I’m happy for him,” said Johnson’s friend Christina Whitford. “I’m happy for all of us because we get a friend back.”