Testimony: Elgin suspect 'antsy' 2 weeks after neighbor's death
Paul A. Johnson was not acting nervous when initially questioned by Elgin police for the March 2, 2013, stabbing death of his neighbor, police testified Wednesday.
But Johnson's half-sister testified he was "pacing" and acting "antsy" about two weeks later when he was in Chicago to meet his half-brother, who eventually wore a wire and talked to him about the murder of Lisa Koziol-Ellis, 33.
Prosecutors have yet to play the recording in the trial, which began this week in Kane County and likely will run into next week.
Defense attorneys say Johnson's half-brother, Harry Dobrowolski, who died of a drug overdose in May 2014, killed Koziol-Ellis, stabbing her 55 times with a knife and screwdriver.
Johnson, out of "blind loyalty," helped clean up the crime scene at Koziol-Ellis' townhouse in the Garden Quarter development just three doors down from where Johnson lived, defense attorneys say.
Sharon Mansour testified that her half-brother, Johnson, visited her Chicago home in mid-March 2013, nearly two weeks after the murder.
They hung out for about four to five hours, but Johnson was acting antsy, pacing, and asked her to call Dobrowolski from her phone, even though Johnson had his own phone to use, she said.
"He was waiting for Harry to return, but it was taking too long," Mansour said.
Assistant State's Attorney Bill Engerman said in his opening arguments earlier this week that, on the recording, Johnson told Dobrowolski that if police arrested him, Johnson would help.
"I swear to Christ, I will turn myself in," Engerman quoted Johnson as saying on the recording.
Also Wednesday, Mike Gough, a retired Elgin police evidence technician who worked on the case, testified that he collected a sample from a "large variety" of blood droppings in the snow and sidewalk outside the four-townhome building.
Gough also said he and other officers executed a search warrant at Johnson's residence, but they did not find a pair of Nike athletic shoes prosecutors say Johnson wore at the crime scene that left a bloody shoe print in Koziol-Ellis' hallway. However, Gough said, they found a stain containing blood on the inside bathroom door frame where Johnson lived.