Deadly Innocence - The Johnnie Beck story
By: Tre Benson
On the evening of November 24, 1995, 18 year-old Johnnie Beck used a hunting rifle to shoot twice into the chest of Jeffery Watts,19, in the parking lot of the Whiteville, NC Burger King. Watts had just stabbed Johnnie Beck’s twin, Ronnie Beck three times in the chest and once in the arm, just before turning on Johnnie Beck and slicing off Johnnie’s left thumb. Jeffery Watts succumbed immediately to his two gunshot wounds, dying face down in the parking lot.
Johnnie Beck was brought in for questioning
by Detective Ron Guyton of the Whiteville Police, immediately after
Beck was released from the hospital. Beck still groggy from pain medication
administered in the hospital’s emergency room, was excused by Det.
Guyton from questioning and placed under arrest for 2nd Degree Murder.
The charge was later changed to 1st Degree Murder and Beck was ultimately
released, to await trial, on a one million dollar bond.
At trial, Beck claimed self defense. Witnesses said that Watts, while
in route as a passenger with Daniel and Jonathan Norris, had said that
he was going to the Burger King “to kill the Beck boy” as
a result of an earlier confrontation with brother Ronnie Beck.
The State claimed that Johnnie Beck saw his brother being attacked by
Watts, knew that Ronnie Beck had closed the door to his car and was thus
safe from further attack. They claimed that even with Jeffery Watts attacking
both Ronnie and Johnnie with a knife, Johnnie Beck was out of danger once
he shot Watts the first time in self-defense and that the second shot
was premeditated murder, even though both shots were seconds apart.
Nearly every witness places the two gunshots within one to two seconds
apart. The State’s key witness Daniel Norris, said that by the time
he ran 30 feet away, Johnnie had fired his second shot, and that after
the first shot ,“Jeff didn’t have no time to run”, before
getting shot the second time. Another State witness, Jonathan Norris,
23, Daniel’s first cousin from nearby Molly, NC, said that he too
ran for cover. He said he “broke camp” when he saw Johnnie
Beck pull out the gun used to shoot Watts. Daniel Norris said that by
the time he ran 20 – 30 feet Johnnie Beck had fired two shots.
A 2000 study has shown that the world's fastest man can run 12 meters (39.4 feet) in one second. The average man can easily run 26 feet in one and one-half seconds. Witnesses say that Jeff Watts (six feet, two inches tall and 170 pounds) was 6-8 feet from Johnnie when he fired the first shot. Jeff Watts reach, without lunging, is nearly 3 feet. In the time it would take to cock a bullet into a chamber Watts could have very easily lunged at Beck again fatally stabbing him as he did prior slicing off Beck's thumb. see picture of injury to Beck's thumb.
Johnnie Beck was convicted of Second Degree Murder, in February 1997.
Beck was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison. His appeals have
been rejected, motions for a new trial were also rejected and Governor
Mike Easley has refused to intervene. Johnnie Beck is currently in prison
at 0-25 just across from the New Hanover International Airport.
This particular case is interesting because of the
laws dealing with the use of deadly force to defend yourself from
perceived felonious attack. Already we have seen a case involving Dana
Davis, a 53-year-old former Durham County Sheriff's Deputy, when he
fired at Native American, Charles Alexander Gokee, 39, killing him with
a fatal gunshot into the man’s back. A Carolina Beach Detective
said that the deadly shot was taken after the man had left the house,
striking him from a distance of over 50 feet. The dead man had no weapon.
The shooter was not charged with a crime by then District Attorney John
Carricker.
Recently two armed robbers, Kinny Bethea Jr., 34, and Cary Scott Sherman,
42, were killed in two separate and unrelated events. Both the dead men
were shot numerous times. Neither of the shooters, Richard
A. Wilson or Michael Lewis Strickland, were charged with an offense.
Nearly everyday in America someone uses deadly force to defend
themselves from attack. The law is quite specific about ones right
for self-defense.
Johnnie Beck had his day in court and lost. Notable attorney Joseph
Cheshire of Raleigh, wrote upon learning of the Beck case, that he
thinks that the Beck case warrants another look. Alan
Gell, just released from 7 years on death row for wrongful prosecution,
said, upon review of the Beck situation, that he felt that Beck should
not have been convicted. Yet, Beck was indeed convicted and because he
has only three more years to go on his sentence, The
Innocence Project will not take up his case and options and momentum
seems to be running out.
But Johnnie Beck’s father is not taking this laying down. He has
spent his life savings to try and free his son. He will talk to anyone,
at anytime, about the suspicious events surrounding this case. Jury tampering,
a last minute switch of Judges just prior to trial, Jeff Watts being related
to Senator RC Soles, the Beck family business was broken into and files
and photographs related to the case went missing, death threats, witnesses
never called by the police, a bungled crime scene, missing evidence,
a plea agreement offered by District Attorney Rex Gore prior to trial
that would have yielded a 6 month sentence,( that plea was never delivered
to Beck by his attorneys), indictments not handed down to the two Norris’s
who were, as Mr. Beck puts it, co-conspirators to attempting to murder
Ronnie Beck by driving Watts and by accompanying Watts in his attack of
Ronnie Beck. There is a lot for Donnie Beck to talk about as he attempts
to defend his son. So much so, that Judge William Gore of Whiteville ,
has asked that Mr. Beck be silent in his protest and accusations.
Many Beck supporters are confident that this Beck case should lay at the
same end of the spectrum of the three other cases of self-defense mentioned
above and because of that a campaign is beginning to take shape to illustrate
that justice is only justice when all are treated fairly and judged by
the exact same measures. Justice continues to fail Johnnie Beck. Proof
of that can be found in the sand and gravel of a driveway in Carolina
Beach, on the floor of Lake Waccamaw’s Hill’s Grocery and
at the bottom of some back-porch steps in Tabor City. Three dead attackers,
two armed and dangerous and judged by the District Attorney to be justifiable
examples of self-defense. Yet a young man sits in the cold yard of North
Carolina State Prison 0-25, thinking of a night 9 years ago, thinking
he should’ve taken his chances facing a knife wielding attacker
bare handed and bare-chested, rather than stand his ground and defend
himself with deadly force.
Sometimes justice gets it wrong, we have seen that in the past few months
in the Alan Gell’s case, we have seen it recently, in Brunswick
County when a child rapist was set free after
20 years and it is entirely possible that justice was not served when
Johnnie Beck was charged by a Grand Jury for First Degree Murder. “It
may be a lost cause, but it is a cause worth fighting for, this could
easily happen to you or one of your kids.” says Johnnie’s
father, Donnie Beck. “And the sad thing is, with all these killings,
people will get the idea that they can shoot someone and not face serious
consequences and that’s not the truth, the truth is that the nightmare
is just beginning.” To shoot or not to shoot, it is an important
question.
SPEAK OUT IN THE FORUM
