Murder adds on 67 years for ‘Squirrel’

No one had much to say Friday when murderer Bryan M. “Squirrel” James got a maximum 67-year prison sentence on top of the 64 1/4-year term he already had.

James, 25, said nothing when Superior Court Judge Harold Clarke III sentenced him for murdering a man, who defended a woman from James’ uncle in November 2004.

“What can he say?” said Bobbi Johnston, the mother of victim James Alan Johnston, 40.

James shot Johnston in an apartment above the Red Lion Barbecue at 128 N. Division St., where independent prostitute Jonna Pacello had taken refuge from James’ uncle, 42-year-old Robert T. “Shorty” Spencer. A pimp and drug dealer, Spencer had kidnapped Pacello in an effort to force her to work for him.

Pacello escaped the downtown motel where Spencer was holding her and went to a friend’s apartment at the Red Lion. Spencer found her there and knocked her down with a blow to the face on the morning of Nov. 16, 2004.

Although only 5-foot-3, Spencer was still an inch taller than the 90-pound Pacello. Johnston, who was a visitor in the apartment, stepped between Spencer and Pacello. He drove Spencer out of the apartment when Spencer swung a knife at him and missed.

Later that day, Spencer returned with James as backup. They broke down the apartment door, and Spencer struck Johnston in the forehead with a metal pipe – a bicycle seat post that cut Johnston to the bone.

Still, Spencer was no match for Johnston, who was more than 6 feet tall. Johnston fought back, and James shot him to death.

James claimed he didn’t fire the shot, but a jury took only 1 1/2 hours last month to determine that he did.

Spencer said so, too, in November when Clarke sentenced him to 44 3/4 years for his role in the crimes.

“If I knew my nephew was going to shoot the guy, I would have stopped him,” Spencer said.

James had already been sentenced in August to 64 1/4 years for shooting and attempting to murder two strangers in an unrelated June 2004 incident, so any standard sentence he could have received Friday would have guaranteed he’ll never get out of prison.

“The death penalty would be OK with me, your honor,” Bobbi Johnston told Clarke in a brief statement.

James had shown no remorse, she said. “In fact, the day of the verdict, he actually winked at me and my family members.”

James was similarly cocky in an unrelated trial last year, in which he represented himself and told jurors he had no alibi against charges that he shot two pedestrians for sport.

“I’m not going to waste nobody else’s time,” James told the jury. “I’ll let you all get to it. Whatever decision you all do, I’m still going to hold my head up high regardless.”

His head hung in resignation Friday.

Clarke also was subdued by a situation beyond his control.

“A life is lost, a life is taken,” Clarke said. “Nothing I can say or do can put that back.”

Similarly, the judge said, there was nothing he could do to rehabilitate James, who “represents an extreme danger to the community.”

Although jurors convicted James of both first- and second-degree murder in Johnston’s death, Clarke ruled that James could be sentenced on only one of the charges.

Convictions for second-degree assault, first-degree burglary and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm were folded into the 45-year murder sentence. But two 10-year “enhancements” for use of a gun in the murder and the burglary and a two-year enhancement for use of a deadly weapon in the assault brought the total to 67 years.

James’ conviction for second-degree assault with a deadly weapon sprang from Spencer’s pipe attack on Johnston. State law holds perpetrators and accomplices equally responsible.