KNOXVILLE
1999 conviction dismissed
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee has dismissed a conviction for especially aggravated robbery against one of the defendants in the February 1999 Valentine’s Day triple slayings in a Cleveland, Tenn., townhouse.
Maurice Johnson was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of O.J. Blair, Cayci Higgins and Dawn Rogers. Those convictions stand.
The appeals court found the evidence was not sufficient to support the robbery conviction, because “we cannot conclude that the robbery progressed beyond an attempt.”
It found the evidence was sufficient to support a conviction for the lesser included offense of attempted especially aggravated robbery, but prosecution of that offense would be barred under the statute of limitations.