Accused man testifies it was self-defense

By George P. Hassett

The jury in a murder trial for two men accused of killing over a gold chain began their deliberations Tuesday.

Walter Norris, 23, and Valentino Facey, 22, are charged with murdering Bernard Johnson in front of his girlfriend just hours after she accepted his marriage proposal.

“This is not a dream,” Johnson told his fiancée, on their last night together, as she asked friends to take a picture of her new diamond ring, witnesses at the trial said. “This is real.”

Prosecutors said Norris shot Johnson six times in a Linden Street parking lot after Facey tried to snatch his gold chain.

“The chain was the reason Mr. Facey went after Mr. Johnson. He didn’t formulate a plan. Mr. Facey decided he wanted it and went after it,” said Assistant District Attorney Joseph Gentile in his closing argument.

“Bernard Johnson was out manned, outgunned and under attack,” he said.

Johnson, however, was armed with a gun when he was shot, according to prosecution witnesses that included his girlfriend. They testified that Johnson was pointing it at the ground when Norris came from the side and began to fire. In his closing argument, Gentile said Johnson took the gun from Facey as they struggled.

Facing life in prison, Norris took the stand this week to try and convince the jury that he acted in self-defense. He said he was a street-level drug dealer carrying a gun, high on marijuana and cognac the night he met up with Johnson.

Norris and Facey were part of an impromptu party at the Somerville apartment of a cousin of Johnson’s girlfriend. Johnson and his girlfriend stopped at the apartment to announce their engagement.

At approximately 1 a.m., Norris said he ran into the Linden Street parking lot to break up a fight between his friend Facey and Johnson, who he never met before that night.

Three more of Facey’s friends ran from the party to the parking lot with Norris, according to witnesses. Johnson had a gun in his hand, Norris said, and told the group “I’m a shooter” while he slid the rack of the gun back and pointed it. That’s when Norris fired six shots into Johnson, killing him.

“I didn’t want to die,” Norris testified.

When police found Johnson on the ground moments later, he was dead – the gold chain off his neck and covered in blood. He also had $6,784 in his pocket.

Norris’ attorney, Steve Neyman, said in his closing argument that his client ran to the parking lot when Johnson robbed Facey of a wad of cash he had been carrying all night.