Conflicting testimony in murder trial

Jurors heard two sides of a story of how a man was shot to death Nov. 9, 2013, in a Havre residence.

The prosecution contends Shane Johnson, born in 1968, went to his bedroom, took a Browning .22 caliber pistol out of its case after he got into a fight with his brother, Travis Johnson, and shot him in the head.

But the defense said Shane Johnson was fighting for his life and collapsed on his bed in shock after a fight over the gun. The end of an ongoing struggle came when Travis Johnson “just would not let it go” and took the gun out of its case to shoot his brother.

Shane Johnson was arrested when his mother and stepfather, Donna and Robert Biem, returned home from a birthday celebration to find Travis Johnson lying in a hallway downstairs near he and his brother’s bedrooms, which face each other at the end of the hall, bleeding from a head wound.

The suspected murder weapon and spent cartridges were found in Shane Johnson’s bedroom. Two Havre police officers testified that, as they took him to a Havre police patrol car, Shane Johnson said, “It’s OK. It was self-defense.”

Testimony got intense at one point when Donna Biem told prosecutor Catherine Truman, an assistant Montana attorney general, that she did not recall an interview with a Havre police officer. She continued her insistence even after Truman showed her what she said was a transcript of the interview.

When Truman asked how Travis Johnson’s attitude was that afternoon, Biem said, “He was mad at me because I wouldn’t let him come with us (to the birthday celebration).”

Truman asked if Biem recalled telling the officer that Travis was happy that day.

“What?” Biem exclaimed. “He was mad at me. How could he be happy?”

Under repeated questioning — over objections from the defense — Biem said she did not recall ever giving the interview to which Truman referred.

She did testify that she never saw the brothers fight in 2013 — Shane had lived with the Biems for about two years at that time, and Travis for about two or three months — and that there did not seem to be an issue Nov. 9 between the brothers even if Travis was mad at her.

“Shane and Travis together, there was no problem between them,” she said.

In the opening arguments, Truman said that when the Biems left, the brothers seemed happy with no tension between them.

“Then something happened between the defendant and Travis,” she said, with the end of an argument coming with Travis punching Shane in the nose, which “began to bleed as only a nose can.”

After the altercation calmed down, she said, Shane Johnson walked through the kitchen, downstairs and into his room, pulled out and unzipped the case of the .22 caliber Browning pistol — a drop of blood from his nose was found on an envelope put in the case by Browning, she said — zipped it back shut and then began shooting at his brother.

The Havre emergency medical technicians found Travis sprawled awkwardly in the hallway, with one shoe on and one in his bedroom, Truman said.

After Travis was transported to the hospital — where he died shortly after arrival — and law enforcement officers later did a sweep of the house, they found Shane lying on his bed under a blanket in his dark bedroom, she said, never moving until the officer shone a light on him. That included during the “chaotic” scene just outside his door while EMTs and a police officer were trying to stabilize Travis Johnson and transport him to the ambulance, she said, with an EMT at one point walking into Shane Johnson’s room to radio the hospital.

“That’s how Travis Johnson died,” Truman said.

But defense attorney Thomas Schoenleben, former Hill County public defender and now Ravalli County public defender, said there is a different part of the story.

“The state is going to give you their theory of what happened and then we will fill you in and you will hear Shane’s story,” he said.

He said that afternoon, Shane Johnson had been doing chores around the house “as he always did” when Travis Johnson came home about 4 or 4:30 p.m. already drunk — Donna and Robert Biem each testified to that later — and Shane Johnson was going to go to the store to buy some more beer for his brother to drink while they watched television together.

“Little did he know he would soon be struggling for his life,” Schoenleben said.

He said the two got into an argument, and then Travis Johnson nonchalantly walked across the living room and cold-cocked his brother, hitting him hard enough that blood from his nose spattered on the mantle.

Shane Johnson tried to get away, and eventually did, but his brother pursued him and again attacked him, Schoenleben said. Shane Johnson again got away, but his brother reached him at the head of the stairs and tried to throw him down the stairs, Schoenleben said.

Shane Johnson again got away and made it to his room, Schoenleben said.

“But Travis would not let it go,” he said. “He came after Shane a fourth time. He walked into Shane’s room and … without saying a word, reached under the bed and pulled out a .22 automatic pistol that Shane had found some months earlier with his mother. Shane had no other option but to fight for his life.”

Schoenleben said that during the fight shots were fired, and after his brother fell, Shane Johnson was “was physically, psychologically, exhausted, broken, beaten, covered with blood, terrified after a fight for his own life, emotionally drained and collapsed in his own bed.”