
Mugshot of a battered Michael Johnson who has been charged with the murder of honors teen Phylicia Barnes. Johnson's attorney says his client was batered when city police arrested him.
For over a year now the tears have been flowing for a 16-year-old studious kid who was found nude floating in a river. Her dad, Raheem Mustafa said the ordeal was far too much for his wife to bear. Janice Sallis-Mustafa and her remaining kids were so heartbroken that they all slept huddled in the same bed for months. The reality that young Phylicia Barnes, the lively spirited child that once filled the Mustafa home with so much joy, happiness, and would be no more was simply a nightmare. Her grief filled parents stood tall in the face of tragedy while comforting their other kids, even went public via National News outlets, Talk Radio, and Social Media crying for justice for their fallen child. They were not alone in a simple quest for justice. A pretty book smart kid who traveled to Baltimore to reunite with older half-siblings and ended up dead while under the watch of her biological father’s other kids sparked outrage from the public. Followers of Phylicia’s murder turned cyber-detective while producing text, emails, tweets, and pictures to aid police with this complexed case. It has been long suspected that Michael Johnson, Phylicia’s sister Deena Barnes ex-boyfriend was somehow involved in the child’s murder. Around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday night the Baltimore Police Fugitive Task Force executed an arrest warrant on Michael Johnson’s home. Johnson was taken into custody and charged with first degree murder in the Barnes killing. Authorities declined to comment of specifics that led to the arrest. I’m sure many within the public and the media are extremely curious as to what evidence the cops may have gathered against Johnson, but those findings would only be superficial at this point. Even Bryan Barnes, the late teens older half-brother stated during a TPC interview, “It all points to him”. It remains to be seen what cops have now that they didn’t have a year ago. Here are some interesting facts about the Barnes killing:
1. Johnson was the last person to see Phylicia Barnes alive.
2. He told Deena Barnes that the child had gone to get food.
3. Police investigation into the food allegation was determined to be false.
4. Johnson was seen struggling with a large container in the apartment building hallway by a neighbor.
5. Police cadaver dogs lost the teen’s scent at the doorway of the apartment building and only footsteps away from where Johnson’s vehicle had been parked that day.
6. Johnson obtained an Attorney even while cops say he wasn’t a suspect.
7. Johnson unexplainably couldn’t be reached by Deena Barnes in the early hours of the child’s disappearance.
8. Johnson says he last saw Phylicia around 1:30 p.m. on December 28, 2010, but twitter tweets from his kid brother Glenton puts him in a car smoking pot in the Rolling Road area, around the time Glenton tweeted violence referencing beating a female, and at the same time he said he saw the child at Deena Barnes’ apartment.
9. The F.B.I. discovered nude photos of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes on Johnson’s cellphone, with the teen streaking nude with Johnson and others at the child’s older sister Deena Barnes apartment.
There has been enough circumstantial evidence to justify an arrest of Johnson as far back beginning when the “went to get food” account he offered was determined to be bogus. The Barnes case seemed ice-cold but suddenly cops appear to have sufficient evidence to charge Johnson with the pretty little girl’s murder.What happened now that didn’t happen a year ago? Did police finally get the help from the public they needed to break the case wide open? Many of these questions won’t be answered until the entire matter is played out in our justice system, but for now the most likely suspect has been taken off the streets, and I can’t help but wonder if dominos will start to fall now that cops have some one in custody. Justice for Phylicia Barnes must continue to march on.
The People’s Champion
I’m David Adams
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