Killer's mother makes appeal for his life

When he was 5 years old, Donte Johnson rescued his mother when he flung open a door and allowed her to escape a beating by his father.

Eighteen years later, Eunice Cain is in Clark County District Court hoping to save her son from a possible death sentence.

Cain was the first witness called this morning during the second day of a hearing before a panel of judges convened to decide whether Johnson should be sentenced to death for a 1998 quadruple murder.

More of Johnson's family members are expected to testify today as defense attorneys hope to convince the judges that he does not deserve the death penalty because a traumatic childhood in a Los Angeles ghetto gave Johnson little hope of a normal life.

Johnson, 23, was convicted last month on four counts of first-degree murder for the 1998 deaths of four men during a home robbery. But the same jury that convicted Johnson deadlocked on whether he should receive the death penalty.

The hearing began Monday when prosecutors outlined Johnson's lengthy criminal past and witnesses described events leading up to the fatal encounter inside a home on Terra Linda Avenue. It resumed today after a one-day break on Tuesday.

Tracey Gorringe, 20, Peter Talamantez, 17, and Matthew Mowen and Jeffrey Biddle, both 19, were found dead inside the home on Aug. 14, 1998. The four had been bound at the hands and feet with duct tape and killed by a single gunshot to the head.

Johnson and two others, Sikia Smith and Terrell Young, were arrested for the crime within weeks. Smith and Young were sentenced to life without parole following seperate trials last year.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Johnson because they say he was the triggerman.

In Nevada, a panel of three judges is convened when jurors cannot agree on a sentence in a death penalty case. Johnson's public defenders, Dayvid Figler and Joe Sciscento, tried unsuccessfully last week to stop the hearing on grounds that the panel is unconstitutional. The issue could surface again on appeal.

The panel deciding Johnson's fate includes Judge Jeffrey Sobel, who presided at the trial, and Judges Michael Griffin and Steve Elliot, both of Northern Nevada.

Johnson, whose birth name is John White, grew up in a Los Angeles neighborhood controlled by gangs, his family members testified at the first penalty hearing. His father left the family when Johnson was still young, and he was raised by his drug-addicted mother.

At one time, the family lived in a garage with no water or power and used a bucket as a toilet.

Cain said Monday her son lacked any male role models as a child, although he desperately wanted contact with his father.

"He always wanted to be with his father, and his father didn't have time for him," she said.

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