It took a Manhattan jury less than four hours today to reject the insanity defense of a psychotic, racist gunman who had held an East Village wine bar hostage in June, 2002, announcing, "White people are going to burn tonight!"
Steven Johnson, an African American, AIDS-infected, unemployed Brooklyn barber, had spent the 40-minute siege pistol-whipping and holding guns to the throats of his 15 hostages, while ranting, "Die, mother f---ing cracker!" Johnson's previous two trials, at which he also used the insanity defense, ended in a mistrial and an overturned verdict; he now faces life in prison for kidnapping and attempted murder.
"White people must die and pay for what they have done to my people," the barbecue lighter-waving fiend had shouted at his terrified captives, all of whom were white.
He had left home that night ten years ago with a homemade catheter strapped to his leg, and a bag packed with dozens of plastic wrist cuffs, three handguns, a 30-inch sword, a barbecue lighter and a squirt bottle of kerosene.
Even before he barged into Bar Veloce on Second Avenue, he'd shot a young passerby, who was also white, on the street outside the bar. During the siege, he also shot a female hostage in the leg, and a sushi chef who'd peered into the bar to see what was going on.
The harrowing standoff only ended when the bezerk bigot was jumped by two female hostages, young women barely in their 20s who sprang into action even though they were bound at the wrists and soaked in kerosene. Both took the stand against him for the third time in December.
"Shoot him again!" Ann-Margret Gidley, now 33, remembered screaming to cops as she and fellow hero Annie Hubbard grappled with Johnson on the wine bar floor.
"They showed amazing bravery," one female juror, who declined to be named, said after today's verdict. "They were amazingly cool young women," she said. "They were pretty gutsy."
Johnson was quickly convicted today of the entire kidnapping and attempted murder case against him, save for the one count of attempted murder involving the shot Johnson fired at the sushi chef, who suffered a gunshot wound to the hand.
At each of his three trials, defense lawyers told jurors that Johnson, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and prosecutorial delusions, could not appreciate that his actions were wrong. The first trial deadlocked due to a lone, pro-acquittal holdout juror in 2004; the second resulted in a 240-year prison sentence, but the conviction was overturned on a technicality on appeal.
Defense lawyer Michelle Gelernt, who represented Johnson at all three trials, argued that Johnson did know that his actions were illegal, but suffered command hallucinations and believed that God had ordered and sanctioned his actions.
This trial had a new spin -- Johnson for the first time took the stand in his own defense, not doing himself any favors by telling jurors personally that he believed himself to be just fine.
"To be frank, I don't particularly agree with my defense as a delusion," Johnson had testified. "I'm perfectly sane."
"I didn't object to it because my advisor, who is God, told me to let it go," he explained of going along with the insanity defense.
"Everybody should be proud of me," he told jurors. "I stood up for my people. . .I didn't do this. God did this. He put the ideas in my head," he said, calling himself "the next Malcolm X."
On cross, though, assistant district attorney Steinglass reminded Johnson that days after the standoff, he had told a doctor at Rikers Island that, "White people killed my girlfriend and I am out for revenge." The girlfriend had died of AIDS, according to testimony.
Steinglass also reminded Johnson that during the standoff itself, he was caught on a 911 tape taunting cops and proclaiming that he was having "mad fun." When a female hostage started crying and praying, telling Johnson, "Jesus loves you," Johnson answered "Shut the f--- up" and kicked her repeatedly in the face. "Correct," Johnson answered when reminded of those kicks.
In one bizarre exchange, Steinglass asked Johnson whether God had told him specifically who he wanted killed.
"The enemies of my people," he answered.
"And who are the enemies of your people, Mr. Johnson?" the prosecutor asked.
"The white man," Johnson explained.
"All white men?"
"I said not all white men," Johnson answered.
"So how," the prosecutor asked, "do you decide which white men are worthy of killing?"
"They all look the same to me," he answered.
Sentencing has been set for March 8 by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel FitzGerald.
