By Mensah M. Dean
The Philadelphia Daily News
PHILADELPHIA — A jury was ready yesterday to begin hearing evidence against one of two male teenagers charged with raping an unconscious female classmate before she died of alcohol poisoning in March 2008.
But before arguments could begin, Juan Williams, 19, pleaded guilty to four felonies committed against Kierra Johnson, who attended a public disciplinary school with Williams and his co-defendant, Shareef Clemons, 18.
Common Pleas Judge Ellen Green-Ceisler then revoked Williams’ bail and held him in custody for formal sentencing May 4 on counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and rape of an unconscious or unaware person. He also pleaded guilty to two accompanying conspiracy charges.
“It was an internal decision of his to accept responsibility for a juvenile mistake that had an adult consequence,” said Williams’ attorney, Donald Chisholm II.
On Monday, before jury selection, Chisholm sought to suppress a lengthy statement Williams gave police following Johnson’s death. The judge denied his request, meaning if the trial had gone forward the jury would have heard Williams’ account of how he and Clemons raped the 15-year-old girl, whose blood-alcohol-level was .433 - more than five times the legal limit to drive.
Williams could spend 30 to 60 years in state prison, said Assistant District Attorney Eileen Hurley. Clemons faces trial April 26.
Johnson had lived a turbulent life in East Germantown. She gave birth at age 14 and was expelled to Community Education Partners, a disciplinary school, after she was caught having sex on school grounds.
On March 7, 2008, Johnson skipped school and met with Williams, then 17, and Clemons, then 16, who didn’t even know her name but recognized her school uniform, Hurley said.
The trio ended up at Williams’ house on Crowson Street near Church Lane, East Germantown, where they drank vodka, wine, peach schnapps and rum.
“When she went upstairs to go to the bathroom there was a conversation between the two: ‘Wow, she’s really drunk! Let’s keep getting her drunk.’ They kept egging her on,” Hurley said. “When she passed out they picked her up and carried her to the basement.”
The boys placed Johnson on a weightlifting bench, put on condoms and took turns having sex with her, Hurley said, adding that Clemons had sex with her again without a condom. He left DNA evidence on her body, while none of Williams’ DNA was recovered from the victim, Hurley told the judge.
After Johnson vomited, the boys washed her down with a garden hose and eventually left her in the basement partially clothed, where Williams’ mother found her lifeless body.
Ernestine Harding, Johnson’s mother, said Williams approached her on Tuesday in a courthouse hallway and offered what sounded like a sincere apology.
“Juan was somewhat of a victim, too. I just don’t think that he played as much of a malicious part as the other one,” she said yesterday.
“But he has to be held responsible for his actions. I wish him the best. But whatever sentence he gets, it can’t bring Kierra back.”