Alaska Foster Teen Kills Foster Father UPDATED

“Peter John Henry is accused of shooting 64-year-old Marvell Johnson, a longtime radio host for KSKA, in an upstairs bedroom of the Island Drive home where they lived.

“Detectives learned that Henry had been recently grounded for using the illegal drug Spice,” police wrote in a release. “Henry was also angry with Johnson for searching his room and taking his vapor cigarette charger.”

Police believe that after the killing Henry attempted to make the incident look like a botched robbery by stealing a wallet, iPad, watch and phone from Johnson’s bedroom, then discarding the wallet in front of the house.

“Henry then enlisted help from a juvenile male to destroy evidence, threatening to kill him if he didn’t do so,” police wrote.

Officers responded to the home shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday after being tipped off by a student who knew what happened and told a school resource officer.

Henry was asleep in a downstairs bedroom when officers arrived, and he was transported to APD and questioned throughout the day.

The teen is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, second- and fourth-degree theft, evidence tampering and coercion. He is being held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex without bail.

Patrick Yack, chief content officer for Alaska Public Media, said the close-knit organization is shocked by the news.

“He’s been so devoted and caring not only to the station but to the community,” Yack said. “His show was special, and he was special.””

Police: Teen shot foster father to death[KTUU  10/7/14 by Chris Klint]

“Police found one of Johnson’s foster children, Peter John Henry, asleep in a downstairs bedroom. Henry was detained and taken to police headquarters for questioning, police said.

 

Johnson was host of the “Soul to Soul” music show on Anchorage public radio station KSKA for nearly four decades. He and his wife, Sheri, raised four biological children, and for at least 25 years, the couple took care of foster children, many of them considered “at-risk,” said Johnson’s sister, Sarah Jane Johnson.

“They just wanted to give it back, just wanted to pay it forward,” she said from her home in Sacramento, Calif.

 

Investigation revealed that Henry had recently been grounded for using the synthetic drug Spice. He was also angry at Johnson for searching his room and taking his vapor cigarette charger, according to police.

 

Police said that after the shooting, Henry stole an iPad, watch and phone from Johnson’s bedroom. He took cash out of a wallet and left the wallet in front of the home in an effort to indicate a robbery had occurred. Henry asked another boy to help destroy the evidence and threatened to kill him if he didn’t comply, police said.

 

On Tuesday evening, Henry was in custody at the Anchorage Correctional Complex. He faces charges of first-degree murder, coercion, theft and tampering with physical evidence. He will be tried as an adult, police said.

 

Reached by phone Tuesday evening, former foster child Shyla Fleming, 19, spoke over tears as she recounted the six months she and two younger siblings spent living with Johnson and his wife, whom she referred to as Mr. Marvell and Ms. Sheri.

 

The four-bedroom home on Island Drive was the last foster home Fleming lived in before returning to her mother’s care in 2006. She described it as “the happiest foster home we’d been to.”

 

Fleming said Sheri Johnson is blind. As a family, they would take bicycle rides in the neighborhood, the Johnson couple traveling on a tandem bicycle with Marvell Johnson steering in front.

 

“They were super nice and he loved his wife, Ms. Sheri,” said Fleming, who was 12 at the time. “He would do everything for her.”

 

Chris Turletes, associate vice chancellor for facilities and campus services at UAA, said Johnson worked at the university for about 12 years supervising contract custodians.

 

“Marvell was always positive, always wanted great things for everybody” Turletes said. “You’d give him a problem, he’d solve it.”

In the KSKA studio, Johnson played late-night soul, hip-hop and rhythm-and-blues music during the show he called “Flight Soul to Soul” and co-hosted with his wife on FM 91.1. Over the air, he read dozens of letters from inmates written to people on the outside.

 

Lori Townsend, news director for the Alaska Public Radio Network, part of the Alaska Public Media group that also includes KSKA, said a staff member received a text message Tuesday about Johnson’s death.

 

“Everybody was just devastated today,” she said.”

Foster son, 16, charged with murder of longtime KSKA radio host [ADN 10/7/14 by Tegan Hanlon]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update: “A 16-year-old boy was arraigned Wednesday in Anchorage on murder, coercion and theft charges in the shooting death of Marvell Johnson, his foster father and a longtime local radio host.

 

According to police, Peter John Henry shot 64-year-old Marvell Johnson several times in the foster family’s East Anchorage home, then fell asleep in a downstairs bedroom, where officers found him early Tuesday morning.

In jail court Wednesday, Henry quietly paged through the charges against him. He told Judge Jennifer Henderson that he was not employed. When asked if he had assets or money of his own in a bank, he responded, “Um, I don’t think so.”

 

Henderson set Henry’s bail at $500,000 cash, in line with a request from Gustaf Olson, a state prosecutor.

 

Olson told the judge that Henry “presents the most serious of dangers to our community, as reflected by this premeditated crime.”

 

When Henry spoke to police Tuesday, Olson said, “he had just a stone-cold demeanor when he described how easy it was for him to kill Marvell (Johnson).”

 

A woman in the courtroom who identified herself as Henry’s mother left quickly after the arraignment, crying as she walked out the doors. She declined comment.

 

Henry faces charges of first-degree murder, coercion, tampering with physical evidence and theft. He is being tried as an adult. If convicted of first-degree murder, Henry could face from 20 to 99 years in prison.

 

On Wednesday night, Henry was in custody at the Anchorage Correctional Complex with a court date scheduled for Thursday.

Shooting reported through school officer

 

Police say the investigation into Johnson’s death began Tuesday morning.

 

At about 7:15 a.m.  police received a report from a school resource officer at Bartlett High that a student told her Henry had shot his foster father during the night, according to a complaint filed by Monique Doll, an Anchorage police detective.

 

When officers entered the home on Island Drive in East Anchorage, they found Johnson’s body with multiple gunshot wounds, face down on a bed in an upstairs room, Doll wrote.

 

In a downstairs bedroom, police found Henry asleep. He was taken to police headquarters for questioning.

 

Doll wrote that Henry told detectives he went upstairs Tuesday with the intent to shoot and kill Johnson. He said he was angry with Johnson for searching his room and taking his e-cigarette charger.

 

Henry said he stole ammunition from a local department store, Doll wrote. It was unclear where Henry obtained the gun.

 

The student who reported the crime — whom Doll referred to as “the juvenile” in the complaint — said he woke up in the house to the sound of several loud bangs early Tuesday, Doll wrote.

 

The boy said Henry was recently grounded for using Spice,  a “designer” drug that is illegal in Anchorage. He said Henry told him the night before that he was going to kill Johnson, but he didn’t believe him, Doll wrote.

 

He said Henry admitted to shooting Johnson and told him he would kill him if he told anyone, Doll wrote.

The boy told detectives “Henry gave him the murder weapon and told him to ‘put it in the water’ — meaning a nearby creek,” Doll wrote. Henry also instructed him to take the home’s surveillance system, put it in the bathtub and run water over it.

 

Henry told detectives he wanted the boy to put the gun in the creek in order to “wash off the fingerprints,” Doll wrote.

 

In efforts to make it look like the home had been robbed, Henry said,  he stole Johnson’s wallet, iPad, watch and phone, throwing the wallet’s contents in front of the home, Doll wrote.

 

“Henry stated he put the iPad and watch into his backpack — intending to sell it at a later date,” she wrote.

Foster parent to more than 100 kids

 

At Johnson’s home Wednesday — more than 24 hours after the shooting —  an American flag hung outside and a sign in a flower bed warned of the home’s security system. A red pickup was parked in the front driveway, a San Francisco 49ers sticker on its back window.

 

Johnson lived in the home with his wife, who his sister, Sarah Jane Johnson, said was out of town the night of the shooting. Between the two of them, Marvell Johnson and his wife raised four children, she said.

 

Information on how long Henry lived with the Johnson couple is confidential, said Susan Morgan, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.

 

Karen Forrest, director of the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice, said Johnson had been a foster father to more than 100 children in Alaska, primarily those coming out of the juvenile justice system.

 

“It really takes a foster parent who has the heart and the skill to work with teenagers who are having difficulty. So, Mr. Johnson was a wonderful foster parent and we’re so sorry to hear that this has happened,” Forrest said.

 

Johnson worked by day as a custodial services supervisor at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

 

On Saturdays, he took to the studio as volunteer host of “Soul to Soul,” a late-night mix of soul, hip-hop and rhythm-and-blues music on Anchorage public radio station KSKA. Between tracks, Johnson read letters written by prisoners to people on the outside.

 

Reggie Ward, host of “Friday Night Mix” on KNBA, said he and DJ Rick Neal will fill in on Johnson’s radio show at 10 p.m. this Saturday to pay tribute to the man who taught him much, including the art of radio production and “how to give back and be humble.”

 

“Marvell was a foster parent and he was a foster parent for over 100 kids,” he said. “He didn’t do that for the money, he did it because he has a huge heart. He was just a loving, giving-back type of guy.”

 

In an unpublished interview in 2012 with the Anchorage Daily News, Johnson said he began as a foster parent in 1992, typically taking in teenage boys.

 

“When you have kids you raise that aren’t yours, you do the best you can,” Johnson told a reporter. “Whatever you do, you do it good.””

Judge sets bail at $500K for foster son charged with murder of KSKA radio host [ADN 10/08/14 by Tegan Hanlon]

Update 2: “A teenager pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree murder after acknowledging that he killed his foster father two years ago because the man had taken away his vapor cigarette charger.

Peter Henry, 18, entered his plea in Anchorage Superior Court to fatally shooting Marvell Johnson, 64, a long-time foster parent and host of “Soul to Soul,” a music show on public radio station KSKA-FM for nearly 40 years.

A plea agreement calls for a sentence of 80 years in prison with 20 years suspended, leaving 60 years to serve, state prosecutors announced.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 30. Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby accepted the plea but can reject terms of the agreement with prosecutors.”

Man convicted of shooting foster father over vape charger[Belleview News-Democrat 12/2/16 by Dan Joling]

Update 3: “Peter Henry, 19, was ordered to spend the next 60 years in jail for the 2014 murder of his then-foster father, longtime public radio host Marvell Johnson, according to the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office.