Death penalty sought in Johnson slaying case

District Attorney Ashley Wright will seek the death sentence for a suspect in the killing of a Hephzibah woman and the wounding of her husband during an August robbery.

Ms. Wright filed notice of her intentions Friday in Richmond County Superior Court, where Kelvin S. Johnson faces charges that include murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery and burglary.

Mr. Johnson, 24, was indicted Oct. 27. He has been held in jail since shortly after Martha and Tilman Coley "T.C." Greene were attacked in their Plantation Road home Aug. 26.

According to previous reports and court proceedings, Mr. Greene was working in his open garage when a man rode up on a bicycle and pulled a gun. Mr. Greene was shot in the face as he tried to wrestle the gun away.

Sheriff's investigators believe the assailant then entered the Greenes' home, where he shot Mrs. Greene to death.

The robber made off with a big-screen television and the couple's Chevrolet pickup.

Mr. Johnson was arrested that night at his Boykin Road home. He had been released from prison in May after serving 16 months of a three-year prison sentence for forgery, according to an earlier report in The Augusta Chronicle .

Now that Mr. Johnson's case has become a potential death penalty case, his defense will be assigned by the Georgia Capital Defenders' office in Atlanta, unless he is financially able to hire his own counsel.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.