June 21, 2018
City News Service
The California Supreme Court refused today to hear the case of a man convicted of kidnapping and robbing a 79-year-old woman inside her South Pasadena home and burglarizing the home of another senior citizen in Pasadena less than two months earlier.
Alonzo Bernard Johnson was convicted of kidnapping to commit robbery and first-degree residential robbery involving the Aug. 6, 2012, attack on the 79-year-old woman, who suffered a brain bleed and ruptured ear drum.
In an April 16 ruling, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense's contention that a judge should have granted Johnson's motion for acquittal on the kidnapping charge.
Johnson surprised the woman in the kitchen, struck her across the side of her face with her phone, demanded her money, struck her again in the face, grabbed her and pushed her into the bedroom, where he struck her over and over with a closed fist on Aug. 6, 2012, the appellate court panel noted in its ruling in April.
The justices found that Johnson's movement of the woman was sufficient to ensure that she was no longer visible from the front of the house, reducing the likelihood of detection by others.
The attack ceased only after Johnson was discovered by the woman’s grandson, according to the panel’s ruling.
Johnson was also convicted of first-degree burglary with a person present involving a June 22, 2012, home burglary in Pasadena, in which another 79-year-old woman walked into her bedroom and found him stealing jewelry before he fled from the home.
Johnson — who was 49 at the time of the crimes — was sentenced in August 2016 to 95 years to life in state prison.