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| The room where Williams was slain. Click to enlarge. Photo by Heather L. Smith |
Marquesa Johnson, 22, pleaded guilty to being an accessory to a crime, a Class 4 felony, in exchange for prosecutors dropping 12 other charges against her, including first-degree murder and kidnapping stemming from the Dec. 39, 2009, slaying of Kendrick Williams, 25.
Johnson, who entered the plea in Arapahoe County District Court, is required to testify truthfully against her two codefendants, Darrius Turner, 20, and Riley Godfrey, 28, prosecutors said.
At a sentencing hearing in May, Johnson faces between one and 12 years in prison on the accessory charge. She has already served more than a year in jail since her arrest a few minutes after the slaying.
Johnson was expected to be released on bond from jail later Wednesday.
Prosecutors said Williams’ family was aware of the plea agreement for Johnson.
Turner and Godfrey, who remain jailed, are set to go on trial later this spring.
According to an arrest affidavit filed against Turner, Williams and a female friend were staying in the motel room that night.
The woman told police that Williams left to go buy cigarettes and when he returned he told her there were three people outside who tried to rob him.
Williams grabbed the room’s television remote and went outside to continue arguing with the trio, the woman said. One of the suspects later told police Williams “motioned as if he had a gun, but no gun was ever seen.”
Williams fled into the room and the three suspects began pounding on the door and windows and shouting threats at Williams.
After the suspects broke down the door, Williams fled to the bathroom.
While Williams hid in the bathroom and the suspects tried to break down the door, Turner shouted at him: “You want to make like you had a gun? Now I got a real f------ gun. I’m about to kill (you).”
Turner and Johnson tried to break the door down and Godfrey told the woman Williams was sharing the room with to take off her clothes so she would be less likely to flee.
Once the suspects broke the bathroom door down, the woman told police that Godfrey grabbed the gun from Turner and fired the shots that killed Williams.
A short time later, police arrived and arrested Godfrey and Johnson near the scene. The next day police arrested Turner at an Aurora convenience store.
It wasn’t clear from the affidavit exactly what started the dispute with Williams.
Godfrey told police that the three were on Colfax that night in search of marijuana when they met up with Williams, whom one of them knew. The suspect said that Williams and the suspects tried to buy some pills together but were unsuccessful. While they walked toward the Riviera, Williams and Turner got into a fight that escalated at the motel.
A witness told police that Godfrey and Turner were actually in the area that night selling crack cocaine when they met up with Williams.
After their arrests, Godfrey, Johnson and Turner were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. In addition, all three were also charged with sentencing enhancers accusing them of committing a crime of violence.
Godfrey, who has a lengthy criminal record in Colorado, also faces a habitual criminal enhancer.
Prior to her arrest in Williams’ murder, Johnson did not have a criminal record in Colorado, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.
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