Seattle man convicted in 3 deaths

SEATTLE – A man has been convicted of shooting his half-sister, niece and grandniece to death in their beds more than five years ago because of a feud over an inheritance.

Despite a lack of eyewitnesses or physical evidence, a King County Superior Court jury convicted Melvin Marcus Johnson Jr., 35, of aggravated first-degree murder Tuesday after three days of deliberations.

Relying on Johnson’s statements in letters and telephone conversations and on testimony by prison informants, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, so Johnson faces a mandatory life prison term without parole.

The six-week trial stemmed from the shooting death of Patricia Whitfield, 50, Artis “T.Z.” Ingram, 24, and Champagne Younger, 6, at Whitfield’s home day-care center in the city’s Mount Baker neighborhood on June 8, 1999.

Johnson and Whitfield had clashed over their mother’s estate and he was angry because she demanded that he pay rent to live in their dead mother’s house and later evicted him.

He was arrested within weeks of the slayings, but prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to charge him immediately, partly because of a state law that barred his wife, Julia, from testifying against him.

In a search of his home, police found two guns that were illegal for him to possess because of his criminal record, and he was sentenced to four years in prison. Investigators continued building their case and filed charges shortly before he was scheduled for release from prison.

“It took five years to get enough evidence against him,” deputy prosecutor Kristin Richardson said. “It was a good thing we had years so he could talk himself into trouble.”