Jury views video of defendant’s interrogation in Joliet murder trial

A jury watched 13 hours of a sometimes contentious interrogation by two Joliet police detectives of a man who is charged with the 2017 fatal shooting of his girlfriend.

Between Dec. 2 and Tuesday, the jury viewed the detectives’ questioning of Jasper Johnson, 35, which was conducted after the June 5, 2017 fatal shooting of Johnson’s girlfriend, 30-year-old Kia Johnson.

Johnson has been on trial since Dec. 1 on charges of first-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.

Prosecutors have alleged Johnson deliberately shot and killed his girlfriend at close range with a .22-caliber revolver at her apartment in Evergreen Terrace, which is now known as Riverwalk Homes.

Johnson’s attorneys have contended the shooting was an accident.

Many times throughout the interview, Johnson paced around room and talked to himself. He verbally expressed regret over Kia Johnson’s death, saying, “I’m sorry baby, I hope you survive.”

“It’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life,” Johnson said to himself.

He later said, again to himself, “That’s why they say don’t play with guns.”

During Johnson’s interview with Joliet police Detective David Jackson and another detective, he repeatedly insisted the shooting was an accident and he was playing with the gun.

Johnson kept asking about Kia Johnson’s status at the hospital and claimed he couldn’t remember details of the incident because he had been drinking and smoking marijuana.

“This was a real freak accident, bro,” Johnson said.

Johnson became upset several times with Jackson as he was asking him questions to obtain details about the incident and accused Jackson of “trying to make me say something.”

“I’m not trying to get you to say anything other than the truth,” Jackson said.

When Jackson asked about the position of the gun, Johnson said he was making him “relive this (expletive)” and that he can’t “pinpoint every little detail.”

Johnson said he and his girlfriend were smoking marijuana. He said they were not arguing but rather “talking (expletive)” to each other prior to the shooting.

At one point, Johnson told detectives he tried to kill himself by stabbing his neck with a knife after the shooting but the knife was dull.

Johnson refused to answer Jackson’s questions on whether the shooting was premeditated or to give details of the physical distance between he and his girlfriend at the time. Johnson later said he “did not do this intentionally.”

“I’m not no cold-hearted son of a (expletive),” Johnson said.