TECHNICIAN
A tragic tailgate shooting: prisoners’ perspectives
O
STORY BY CHELSEY FRANCIS intent to inflict serious injury and accessory after the fact, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The brothers are at a medium custody prison, and Timothy is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Two years ago, Technician met with Timothy and Tony Johnson in Caldonia Correctional Institution in Tillery, N.C. to talk about life in pris-
on and the brothers’ memories of the shooting. The victims’ families refused to comment on this story. “The little decisions that you make have big consequences.” -Timothy Johnson
PRISON TIME Inside a medium security prison in Tillery, N.C., brothers Timothy and Tony Johnson spend their days completing the tasks they are assigned. At night, they stay awake and think about how things could have gone differently Sept. 4, 2004. The prison is the stereotypical picture of such an institution, with old, white brick and an intimidating facade. As if the four sets of gates and the tunnel that visitors must walk through to get in the prison aren’t enough, barbed wire surrounds the complex. Every other week, the brothers’ parents walk through this tunnel and pass through the metal detectors to visit their children in Caldonia Correctional Institution, where they are destined to spend the rest of their days. The brothers were convicted in the shooting of Brett Harman and Kevin McCann at a 2004 NCSU football game. According to the brothers, being in prison has rehabilitated them instead of leaving them the same people they were when they were first incarcerated. “You see a lot of people who get in trouble for maybe a breaking and entering and come to prison and do a year and go home and come back a lot of times, and I just don’t see how they could,” Timothy Johnson said. “After being in here a week, I knew that would have never been me. I don’t understand being comfortable here.” The days for Timothy and Tony are busy, taking care of their individual tasks from Monday to Friday every week. Timothy works in one of the prison’s supply warehouses while Tony is a janitor. It’s overwhelming for the brothers to wrap their minds around their life sentences. They said what they miss most in their lives — their former lives on the outside of the barbed wire — are the little things. “The ability to dream,” Timothy said. “When you have as much time as we have, you can’t really make plans for the future, or hope for this, or hope for that—that’s something that’s gone.” While Timothy said he misses the beach, Tony said he regrets he will never be able to have a family. “[To have] a family, have kids,” Tony said. “All that’s nonexistent anymore.” With regards to the shooting of Harman and McCann, there were turning points in both Timothy and Tony’s heads. “Obviously this is something I’ve replayed countless times, many sleepless nights,” Timothy said. After his incarceration, Timothy lost contact with his then-girlfriend, Lianna. “Since I’ve gotten in here, I’ve tried to leave drugs and alcohol alone, and I started going to church and I’m trying to see what I can do to make myself the kind of person that wouldn’t be in this situation,” Timothy said. “[Lianna] just wasn’t at the same path, and I didn’t see that it was going anywhere.” Tony said McCann and Harman’s group blatantly wanted a fight. “But there’s no mistake about it. This other group, they wanted a
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Paul Ryan brings victory rally to ECU Cameron Gupton News Editor of The Eastern Carolinian
ing right.” An earlier confrontation with Harman and McCann had taken place a short distance away from where the brothers were tailgating, according to Tony. “When I pulled out [of the tailgate spot], I was driving, I feel a beer hit my car, so I stop and a guy comes up,” Tony said. “I had long hair then, and he pulls my hair from the back window, so another two guys come up and I step out of the car, and we start fighting, and it ends up I’m on the ground. It’s three against one, so I’m getting stomped out.” Tony called Timothy on his cell phone during the fight and said he thought Timothy would have seen the altercation because it happened only yards away in the parking lot. Timothy, who didn’t witness the event, said he thought Tony was overreacting about the fight at the time. “Because he’s yelling, I’m mad, ‘cause he caused a big deal about what looked like nothing to me. I keep hanging up on him, I don’t even give him a chance to explain,” Timothy said. Before entering the game, Timothy thought he knew where the men from the earlier altercation were. “So, I change shirts, I make sure
Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, visited Eastern Carolina University’s campus Monday and led the Romney-Ryan victory rally at the Student Recreation Center. Guests lined up outside of the Student Recreation Center as early as 7 a.m. in the hopes of being admitted into the event. Doors opened to guests at approximately 11 a.m. There were about 2,000 attendees in the SRC and 700 in Mendenhall Student Center watching a live feed of the rally. Students offered numerous reasons as to why they chose to attend the rally. “I want to get more pumped up and more motivated right after the Republican National Conventiot,” said senior political science major Justin Owen. Other students came to listen to Ryan’s speech and become more involved. Callie Leigh, a senior in business administration, said she came to the event to see Ryan and listen to him speak. Randi Lee said she was motivated to attend the rally because of her friends. “Before, I wasn’t very politically involved,” Lee said. According to Lee, her friends sparked her interest in politics after the Republican National Convention last week. The victory rally began with the crowd chanting “Purple, Gold” and “Romney, Ryan.” Shortly after, the event was officially opened with a prayer. Justin Davis, Student Government Association president, then addressed the student body. “In just a few minutes, the next Vice President of the United States will be in this building,” Davis said. Davis’ speech focused on the importance of staying educated, getting active and staying involved this election season. “We are a leadership university and tomorrow starts here,” he said. “Stay involved, stay educated and stay enthusiastic.” Important North Carolina Republican politicians such as Ed Goodwin and Robin Hayes followed by addressing issues affecting state residents and spoke highly of both Mitt Romney and Ryan. “Paul Ryan is just like us,” said Goodwin, an ECU alum and current candidate for North Carolina Secretary of State. “There may be a few Paul Ryans among us today.” North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory, began speaking at 1:45 p.m., announcing Ryan was officially in the building. McCrory spoke about his political campaign and his personal faith in the Romney-Ryan campaign. “He is a natural leader,” McCrory said, refering to Ryan. Mc-
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ARCHIVE/TECHNICIAN
Law enforcement officers from six agencies responded to the crime scene of shooting at the State Fairgrounds Sept. 4, 2004. Fans had to wait three hours before they were allowed to get to their cars.
confrontation,” Tony said. “They wanted something to happen.” During the trial, it was speculated that the brothers left the tailgating lot to get a gun before confronting the group with McCann and Harman. However, at the time of the interview in 2010, the brothers denied this claim. “The story’s been told that we left and got a gun and were looking for these guys,” Timothy said. “That wasn’t the case.” Timothy said he was unaware of
THE ALTERCATION a potential confrontation until just before the shooting occurred. “I hadn’t even gotten the idea that anything had even happened until right before everything happened,” Timothy said. “I was just trying to go to the game, when [Tony] walks up surrounded by eight guys. At first I was trying to be peaceful and say, ‘We don’t want any problems, y’all just go away. I’ll handle him.’ [Tony] was already agitated because they’ve already had a confrontation.” Looking back on the situation, Timothy said the fight was a problem waiting to happen. “They were drinking, we were drinking. It’s a volatile situation,” Timothy said. Although Timothy said he regrets the incident, he feels he did the best he could in the circumstances. “Now, once somebody’s on top of him with a knife, at that point, I don’t regret anything that I did. I regret that it happened, I regret how it turned out, but I feel I made the best decision I could at the time,” Timothy said. “It probably wasn’t a good decision, but at the point I don’t see how I could’ve changed anything.” Looking back on the day of the shooting, Tony said he wished he had listened to his then girlfriend. “I remember my girlfriend stayed the night with me beforehand. She literally begged and cried and didn’t want me to leave. I always think back and wish I had just stayed home and listened to her,” Tony said. Although Timothy arrived at the tailgating lot by the fairgrounds on Trinity Road before Tony, Timothy
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n Sept. 4, 2004, the N.C. State community reacted with shock to the tragic shooting of Illinois-natives Kevin McCann and Brett Harman. N.C. State student Timothy Johnson, a junior in psychology at the time, was later charged with first- and seconddegree murder. His brother, Tony Johnson, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with
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Former N.C. State student Timothy Johnson, charged with counts of first and second-degree murder, was denied bond during a hearing Sept. 9, 2004. Timothy and his brother Tony Johnson were charged for the murders of Kevin McCann and Brett Harman at a tailgate shooting.
rode with Tony to find a parking spot elsewhere for Tony’s car on Blue Ridge Road. “There were some open spots and we walked back to where we were tailgating,” Timothy said. “Then we smoked a blunt on the way, I had one rolled and ready for him when we got there, and we sat where we parked the car and did a couple of lines of coke, and we started walking back.” After returning to where the group was tailgating, the brothers said they hung out with their friends at the tailgate. “A little while later, we realized we could pull my car forward and let him pull in, so we go get his car and do that. That’s where the grill was, he brought the grill,” Timothy said. The confrontation with the other group began shortly after Timothy moved his car to the tailgating spot. “Some other guys were throwing a football, and Tony’s bent down by the grill and the football kind of bounces over there, almost hits him and bounces off,” Timothy said. Tony said his perception was altered because of the drugs. “I got upset. It wasn’t no big issue, but I got upset at the fact that the ball came over there,” Tony said. “My mindset was different than it is now: I was drinking, smoking weed and doing coke, so I wasn’t think-
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