Pal Defends Suspect in Killings

A Villa Park teen accused of stabbing his best friend’s parents to death could not have committed the crime, according to another friend who says he was with the suspect during much of the night of the slayings.

Vincent Torres Jr., 18, said that he, defendant Gerald Thomas Johnson, Jose Najera Jr.--the slain couple’s son--and another friend were together until shortly before Najera discovered his parents’ bodies. The four were in Johnson’s Villa Park home playing video games and watching movies until the wee hours of the morning, Torres said, and Johnson was not out of his sight for more than 20 or 30 minutes.

“He couldn’t have done it,” said Torres, of Huntington Beach.

Johnson, 19, made his first court appearance Thursday, for a scheduled arraignment, shackled and wearing a jail jumpsuit. The arraignment was postponed to Jan. 31.

His attorney, John Barnett, said he could not comment on the case. Johnson was arrested this week at a psychiatric hospital to which he was admitted several days after the slayings. He is being held at the county’s Intake/Release Center, in Santa Ana, without bail.

According to authorities, Johnson murdered Jose and Elena Najera in the couple’s Garden Grove home Dec. 28. They said they found DNA evidence linking Johnson to the crime scene. The couple’s son, Jose Jr., 19, found the bodies about 4:30 a.m. and called police.

Appearing in court to support Johnson, three fellow graduates of Santa Ana’s Mater Dei High School said Johnson was an affable type who never displayed violent tendencies.

“I know Gerald can’t be capable of murder,” said friend Jennifer Jones, 19.

Torres said Johnson did not have access to a car and was not allowed to drive by his parents because of a history of seizures. Torres said his friend could not have gone from Villa Park to Garden Grove and come back in the 20 to 30 minutes Torres didn’t notice him in the house.

Garden Grove Police Capt. Dave Abrecht said Torres’ account conflicts with evidence detectives uncovered in the case. He declined to elaborate but said “there’s been some involvement by the boys, by the son.”

No one else has been named as a suspect in the crime. Police said they believe that more than one person committed the crime, but they do not yet have a motive.

Torres said police came to his house Tuesday morning and took an old Halloween costume with “some fake blood,” kitchen knives, his clothes and all his shoes.

A court affidavit filed shortly after the slayings shows that detectives took nearly 50 items from the Najeras’ house, including nearly $5,000 in cash, bloodstained clothes and bedsheets, an assortment of knives and a black ski mask tucked behind a bed.

Torres said Thursday that the close-knit group of friends often spent time at Johnson’s house. On the evening of the killings, he and Jose Jr. were watching movies in an upstairs room, Torres said. The teenagers had been drinking and were “just hanging,” he said.

Torres said he didn’t spend the entire evening with Johnson but said they spent no more than half an hour apart at any given time.

About 4 a.m., Torres said, Najera decided it was time to go home. The two were chatting outside the house when they saw Johnson arriving from somewhere.

“He startled us. . . . I had not seen him leave,” Torres said. “He sounded kind of out of breath. He said he went jogging.”

Torres said it was not unusual for Johnson to go jogging in the middle of the night to clear his mind.

“He had some problems, like any other teenager,” Torres said.

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Times staff writer Jack Leonard and correspondent Louise Roug contributed to this report.