Jury hangs on Johnson murder charge but convicts of negligent homicide

After deliberating more than 4½ hours, a jury today was unable to reach a verdict in the main charge in the Shane Johnson murder trial in Havre, but convicted Johnson of the lesser included offense of negligent homicide.

Johnson, born in 1968, was accused of murder in the Nov. 9 death of his brother, Travis Johnson.

The state accused Shane Johnson of taking a pistol and assaulting his brother after the two had been in a fight, in which Travis Johnson punched his brother including giving him a bloody nose.

Shane Johnson said Travis Johnson was the aggressor and he was defending himself, and that he was trying to get the pistol away from his brother when Travis Johnson was shot.

Closing arguments were completed and the jury sent to deliberate before 3 p.m. today.

The jury notified District Judge Dan Boucher before 8 p.m. that it had reached a verdict, then sent a note saying it may have filled out the verdict form incorrectly, marking it not guilty on the charge of deliberate homicide when it could not reach a verdict on the charge.

After an hour-and-a-half of discussion and drafting a new copy of a verdict form, the jury was called back in, given the new form and sent back to the jury room.

In about 10 minutes, approximately 9:50 p.m., the jury announced it had a verdict and had completed the form.

After the verdict was read — no answer on deliberate homicide and guilty on negligent homicide and that the defendant used a deadly weapon in the offense, Boucher thanked and dismissed the jury, ordered a presentence investigation and set sentencing for Nov. 24.