The murder trial of a Marine accused of stabbing to death a Rice basketball player behind a Northgate bar is expected to go to the jury on Wednesday after both sides closed their cases Tuesday morning.
Ronald Andrew Johnson, Jr., 26, could face up to 99 years in prison if he is found guilty.
Prosecutors said he fatally stabbed Jonathan Bailey during a fight outside the V-Bar in April 2007. Johnson also is accused of stabbing the victim’s twin brother, Janson Bailey.
Defense attorneys, however, contend that Johnson stabbed the two men in order to protect his “Marine brother” Michael Fuller, who they say was being savagely beaten by the Bailey twins and their friends.
Fuller was hospitalized after the incident, and testified this week that he still has double vision from the repeated blows to the head he took.
Prosecutors spent Tuesday morning calling police officers who worked the crime scene in the aftermath of the stabbing. They showed a video of Johnson and Fuller stumbling away from the scene, and displayed the two men’s bloody clothes confiscated by police a few days later.
The defense chose to call no witnesses, instead resting their case on the cross examination of the more than a dozen witnesses that prosecutors called.
Lawyers were expected to give their closing arguments Tuesday afternoon, but the case was delayed while the jury charge was prepared.
They will reconvene in the 361st District Court at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
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