DNA From Stolen SUV Came From Kevin Johnson: New Lenox Murder Trial Testimony

JOLIET — On Friday morning, Assistant Will County State's Attorney Christine Vukmir followed up Thursday's eyewitness testimony from Marquez Whitefield, the young man who testified that Kevin Johnson ended the life of 19-year-old Charlie Baird, by presenting DNA evidence connecting Johnson to the stolen SUV out of Lockport used in the New Lenox gas station killing.

Kelly Krajnik, who has 23 years of experience with the Illinois State Police crime laboratory in Joliet, testified that she conducted the analysis upon several items of evidence obtained by New Lenox police and Lockport police in connection with Baird's killing. The teen was shot at the gas station pumps of the Circle K gas station around midnight on May 11, 2020, and died of his injuries days later at a hospital in Cook County.

According to Friday's testimony, Krajnik informed the courtroom that she analyzed numerous DNA samples obtained during the police investigation. The DNA samples included those belonging to Baird, the murder victim, as well as Gordon Nolte Jr. and his wife, Judith, whose Hyundai Santa Fe was stolen from their open garage in Lockport on the afternoon of May 9, 2020. The SUV was driven to the New Lenox gas station, where the gunman emerged from the vehicle and shot Baird before the vehicle sped off into the night.

Krajnik also obtained DNA samples from the murder defendant and a number of other the acquaintances of Kevin Johnson.

Based on her DNA analysis, the swabs taken from the door handles and other sections of the stolen Lockport vehicle often contained DNA profiles from as many as four to six different people, Krajnik told the courtroom. She indicated that it would not surprise her if several people had access to the vehicle over the course of several days.

However, there was one item of evidence recovered by the police from inside the stolen Lockport SUV that excluded the DNA profiles of Baird as well as the Noltes. In fact, that item of evidence only contained a DNA sample from one known contributor.

Vukmir asked Krajnik to identify the person whose DNA could not be excluded as the DNA contributor of the blunt-style tobacco cigarette that she analyzed.

"Kevin Johnson could not be excluded," Krajnik told the courtroom.

In fact, the odds of the DNA specimen coming from another human being other than Johnson were one in 7.7 octillion, she testified.

As far as other objects collected by the police as part of the investigation, a dental floss toothpick found in the stolen vehicle contained the DNA profile for Gordon Nolte Jr., the Lockport man who owned the SUV. The same was true for a black fabric face mask that was retrieved from inside the vehicle; the car was stolen during the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, when millions of people were wearing masks when they were out in public.

As far as a hairbrush recovered from the stolen car, it contained a major DNA profile from a female, and Judith Nolte was excluded as being the source of that DNA sample.

After Vukmir finished her line of questioning, Will County Public Defender Jaylen Windham handled the cross-examination for her client. Three attorneys from the public defender's office are handling Johnson's defense. The other two are Samantha Kerins and Jason Strzelecki.

Windam asked the prosecution's witness to explain her role in analyzing the blunt-style cigarette that contained her client's DNA on it.

"I received the actual cigarette. I just took one cutting," Krajnik explained on the witness stand.

Windham inquired whether the DNA testing was able to learn the race of the person who had smoked the blunt cigarette recovered from the stolen car linked to the New Lenox gas station pump murder.

"Race is not done by the lab," Krajnik answered. "We cannot tell race."

Windham then inquired whether multiple samples were taken from the blunt cigarette that linked her client to the New Lenox murder scene.

"It's a sample taken from the mouth of the cigarette butt," Krajnik informed the courtroom. "It's lab protocol not to consume (the evidence item) unless it's a necessity."

"No further questions," Johnson's public defender announced.

Friday Afternoon Testimony

Prosecutors called Will County Sheriff's Sgt. Sean Audy to testify. The sheriff's employee of 23 years works in the intelligence unit at the Will County Jail. He explained the jail's phone system and that inmates have the ability to call someone, use a messaging text system, video visitations as well as postal mail and sending photographs.

Two lengthy jailhouse phone calls involving Johnson, the murder defendant, were played for Judge Bertani-Tomczak to hear. The first call was extremely noisy and hard to understand because there were several other people talking and making noise in the background.

In that particular jailhouse video, Johnson appeared to be holding up several different police reports that he and his Will County Public Defender's Office lawyers had obtained through the pretrial discovery process. The video showed Johnson trying to get the people on the other end of his jailhouse video call to use their smart phones to take photographs of various police reports, he was holding up, presumably ones that contained names of people who had cooperated with the New Lenox police investigation. One of the main names being brought up during that video call involving Johnson was the name Marquez Whitfield, the same young man who was called to the witness stand on Thursday in Courtroom 405. Whitfield testified on Thursday that he saw Johnson commit the New Lenox gas station murder and that Johnson obtained Whitfield's gun from inside their stolen vehicle to commit the slaying of the 19-year-old gas station customer.

Whitfield was given immunity in exchange for his testimony.

The second phone call played in Courtroom 405 on Friday involved Johnson and the young woman who also testified this week, Amiya Savage, now 21. In that phone call, Johnson kept asking her why she spoke with the police and how she got his name in reference to the New Lenox murder. Throughout the call, the young woman insisted she did not know Johnson and that left Johnson puzzled as to why she brought up his name when interviewed by detectives.

Johnson brought up the term "self-preservation" and he asked the young woman "did it ever occur to you to just lawyer up?" Johnson told her that he's looking at "45 years to life" in prison and then there was lots of laughing during the phone call.

"What do you laughing so much? Then you say my name," Johnson remarked in the recorded jailhouse phone call.

According to that jailhouse call from last year, Johnson appeared to be of the mindset that he would finally be getting out of the Will County Jail in another "24 days." Johnson then made a reference to "gangster shit" and "once you in these streets, you ain't never coming back."

The last prosecution witness on Friday was New Lenox Police Officer Ethan Hanly.

On June 25, 2020, Hanly drove the 16-year-old Johnson from the New Lenox Police Station to the River Valley Juvenile Detention Center on Joliet's McDonogh Street. Only a very small portion of the police car's in-camera video was played for the judge to watch and listen.

The New Lenox officer testified that Johnson made the unsolicited comment during the prisoner transport that "he was being snitched on, and he wanted to know if the other people in the car were being charged."

The New Lenox murder trial will resume mid-morning on Monday with additional witnesses being called by the Will County State's Attorney's Office prosecution team of Lauren Senko, Christine Vukmir and Katie Rabenda.

The public defender's office announced at the start of the bench trial that Johnson's older brother Chris will eventually testify on their side's behalf, and provide Kevin Johnson with an alibi for the time of the New Lenox murder.

Related:

• Eyewitness: Kevin Johnson Fatally Shot Charlie Baird At Gas Station
• Murder Of Charlie Baird: Daring Daytime Crime Preceded Shooting
• Murder At New Lenox Gas Station: 'It's My Son Charlie'
• Defendant In New Lenox Homicide Says He Has Alibi, Victim's Mother Says 'BS'