Jury to be sequestered in first-degree murder case

• By JOE GYAN JR.
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 21, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Serial killer suspect Sean Vincent Gillis goes on trial today in the brutal slaying of Donna Bennett Johnston of Baton Rouge, nearly four and a half years after her naked and mutilated body was found in a drainage canal south of LSU.

Opening statements from the prosecutor and Gillis’ attorneys are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. in state District Judge Bonnie Jackson’s courtroom.

The first-degree murder trial is expected to last seven to 10 days. The jury of 12, along with one alternate, will be sequestered.

The 46-year-old Gillis already has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty in Port Allen last summer to second-degree murder in the 1999 death of Joyce Williams of Baton Rouge.

But if he is found guilty of first-degree murder in Johnston’s death, prosecutor Prem Burns intends to ask the jury of seven men and five women to recommend a death sentence.

Under Louisiana law, a conviction of first-degree murder carries a penalty of death by lethal injection or life in prison.

If the trial reaches the sentencing phase, Burns plans to present evidence from two other murders Gillis has been accused of committing — the 2003 death of Johnnie Mae Williams, 45, and the 1999 death of Katherine Hall, 30, both of Baton Rouge.

Gillis has confessed to killing eight south Louisiana women between 1994 and 2004 and has been booked on murder counts in seven of those deaths. A probe into the eighth slaying is ongoing.

Authorities say the 43-year-old Johnston, Johnnie Mae Williams and Hall lived “high-risk lifestyles.’’ DNA evidence connects Gillis to their killings, authorities  have said.

Johnston, a mother of five, had a criminal history that included arrests for prostitution and drugs.

Gillis is accused of committing second-degree kidnapping and armed robbery in the Johnston case, crimes which elevate her killing from second-degree murder to first-degree murder and bring the death penalty into play.

Gillis’ attorneys, Kerry Cuccia and Steven Lemoine, contend that enticing a woman into a car for paid sex is not kidnapping. They also say a belt, blanket and earring backing were not taken from Johnston but were instead “left over’’ from the alleged homicide.

Cuccia and Lemoine suggested during the six weeks of questioning of potential jurors that mitigating evidence in the sentencing phase might include a mental defect, intoxication at the time of the alleged crime or lack of any prior criminal history.