Jury Urges Death Sentence for Man Who Killed Deputy
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VENTURA — A Ventura County jury called for a death sentence Wednesday for a man convicted of fatally shooting a sheriff’s deputy.
Michael Raymond Johnson, 50, sat stoically as the weeping jurors were polled after five days of deliberations. Defense attorneys have said that he is mentally ill.
In January, the same jury deliberated one day before convicting Johnson of first-degree murder for shooting Sheriff’s Deputy Peter J. Aguirre in July 1996.
The 26-year-old deputy was shot four times when he responded to a domestic disturbance call in Meiners Oaks, and died before he was able to draw his gun.
Defense attorneys urged jurors to spare Johnson’s life, saying the Vietnam veteran suffers from schizophrenia. But prosecutors provided powerful testimony from Aguirre’s friends, widow and mother about the pain they have endured because of his death.
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