NKyTribune staff
The Kenton Commonwealth Attorney’s office has provided details in a case that prompted a jury to convict Lamont Johnson of murder, in Taylor Mill’s firs homicide in at least 30 years.
In January, a Kenton County jury took only about 30 minutes to convict Johnson, 41, of strangling Trina Coleman to death on Sharon Drive in Taylor Mill, in November, 2016.
Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced in March.
Kenton Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders released the following statement detailing a timeline that culminated with Johnson’s conviction:
Trina Coleman met Lamont Johnson in June, 2016 while she was working the drive-thru at Burger King. Johnson asked her for her phone number and soon the two were dating.
The romance did not go well for long. By July, 2016, Coleman’s friends began noticing suspicious bruising on Coleman and suspected she was a victim of domestic violence. In August, 2016, Coleman tried to end the relationship and Johnson became enraged. Johnson began following Coleman in a car. Coleman saw that she was being followed and drove to the Covington Police Department in hopes of finding an officer but none were outside so Coleman drove to her friend’s house on Covington’s Eastside.
When Coleman parked, Johnson rammed her vehicle from behind, exited, and began assaulting Coleman, trying to get her out of her car. Coleman’s friend called police. A neighbor was able to distract Johnson long enough for Coleman to run away. Johnson fled the scene as police approached. Covington officers gave chase but the pursuit was terminated when Johnson raced into Ohio at high speed.
A few days later, at the urging of her friends and family, Coleman obtained an Emergency Protective Order in Kenton County, however, despite repeated attempted by Sheriff’s deputies in Kentucky and Ohio, Johnson was never served with the Order.
Johnson continued to pursue Coleman.
For fear of being assaulted, Coleman would sometimes attempt to appease Johnson by spending time with him, but every attempt would eventually end in Coleman being assaulted again. On October 17, 2016, Coleman told Johnson things were over once and for all. On October 19, 2016, Coleman told her mother it was probably the last time she would ever see her alive because Johnson was threatening to kill her. She also said she could no longer be around her mother or her daughter because Johnson was threatening to kill them as well.
By October 30, 2016, Coleman was spending the night at an old friend’s house in hopes Johnson could not find her. On November 1, 2016, Coleman stopped at her apartment on Sharon Drive in Taylor Mill before going to work her second job. While on the phone with a friend, the call waiting kept beeping and Coleman said it was Johnson who kept calling. That would be the last time Coleman would ever be heard from alive. When Coleman didn’t show up for work, her friends and co-workers knew something was wrong because she was never late and never absent.
Friends and family went to Coleman’s apartment around 11pm but got no answer when they knocked at the door even though Coleman’s car was parked outside. They searched for several more hours before eventually kicking in the door in the early morning hours of November 2, 2016. Inside, they found Coleman’s partially clothed body dead on the hallway floor.
She had been beaten and strangled.
Taylor Mill Police were called to the scene along with the Kenton County Police Evidence Collection Unit. Detective Cyrus Harris was assigned to lead the investigation. After loved ones told Harris about all of the domestic violence at the hands of Johnson, Harris asked the US Marshals for assistance locating Johnson and serving him with an arrest warrant from when he fled police in August. Three days later, Johnson was arrested on the warrant then charged with Coleman’s murder.
The case was called for trial before Kenton Circuit Judge Gregory Bartlett on January 9, 2018. Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders and Asst. Commonwealth’s Attorney Joseph Hill called more than a dozen witnesses during the course of a 5 day trial stretched over two weeks. Two of the most compelling witnesses were two of Johnson’s oldest friends who said Johnson showed up at the home in Cincinnati the night Coleman was murdered. They said Johnson was upset, drinking heavily, and confessed to killing Coleman.
Another witness, the mother of one of Johnson’s children, said Johnson also called her on the night of the murder and said “I (messed) up. I ain’t never coming back from this. Tell my daughter I love her.”
After closing arguments, the jury deliberated just over 30 minutes before finding Johnson guilty of Murder. After a sentencing hearing, during which prosecutors introduced evidence of Johnson’s multiple, prior drug trafficking convictions, the jury then deliberated only 10 minutes before recommending the maximum possible sentence of Life in Prison. Formal, final sentencing is scheduled for March 5, 2018 before Judge Bartlett.