THE DARK SIDE OF IOWA
Harry Johnson
#0087130
Full Name: Harry Bernard Johnson
DOB: July 4, 1971
Charge: 2nd degree murder
County: Black Hawk
City: Waterloo
Current Status: Released
Partners in Crime: Daniel "Maurice" Claybon, Keith Walker, Richard Smith
Date of Crime: March 11, 1990
Victim: Jeffery "Jeff" Wood
DOB: July 4, 1971
Charge: 2nd degree murder
County: Black Hawk
City: Waterloo
Current Status: Released
Partners in Crime: Daniel "Maurice" Claybon, Keith Walker, Richard Smith
Date of Crime: March 11, 1990
Victim: Jeffery "Jeff" Wood
On March 11, 1990, just one day after Jeffery "Jeff" Woods' bachelor party, and 40 days before his wedding, Jeff was murdered. It was an unseasonably warm Sunday evening so the couple decided to go for a walk. Little did they know, they were being stalked by a car of seven gang "wannabes." They had a gun and they wanted to use it. They parked their car in a church parking lot where four of the young men got out and followed the couple. Two of the young men acted as "look outs" and the other two men came up behind them and shoved Jeff. They kept pushing him until he was pinned against a house. Then they shot him. As soon as the gun went off, they ran away.
Jeff's fiancee didn't realize right away that Jeff had been shot. She kept asking him what was wrong as he stumbled along the house holding his left side, heading to the back yard. Jeff finally said that he had been shot. He fell and struggled to his feet twice before falling a third time. He never got up again. He struggled to live. At one point he stopped breathing. His fiancee took his shoulders and said, "We're getting married, you have to breathe," and he did. But the damage was done. The bullet went through Jeff's left side, destroying his heart and piercing his lungs.
Daniel "Maurice" Claybon, 18, Richard Smith, 19, Keith Walker, 18, and Harry Johnson, 18, all of Waterloo, were charged with first-degree murder. Twenty witnesses, including one of the three others charged in the slaying, testified against Maurice, the alleged triggerman in the unprovoked attack. Maurice initially told police he knew nothing about the killing, but some of his companions in the incident testified that they were there and that Maurice fired the gun. "I saw Maurice's hand come up and I saw him shoot the gun. I know I saw him shoot the gun," Richard Smith testified.
Six of the seven youths in the car that night were members of the Black Gangster Disciples gang. A 16-year-old gang member testified that after the fatal shooting, Maurice said, "Man, I popped him." Manzell Hughes, an admitted member of the "Black Gangster Disciples" gang was given immunity from prosecution for testifying, as he admitted he was one of the youths who spotted Jeff walking with his fiancee and decided to jump him. Manzell said that the day after the shooting, he told Maurice, "Man, you killed that dude," and Maurice replied, "I know man. Don't tell nobody." Manzell also testified that before the encounter, "Maurice said he wouldn't mind popping someone with the gun." Another member of the gang "was jumping around and saying, 'Let's get stupid,'"when they got out of their car to attack Jeff.
Manzell testified that a week before the shooting, he and his fellow gang members jumped two men and beat them up as they walked alone on the city's west side. He said they attacked them "just for the fun of it." In the intervening week, the group acquired the .22-caliber handgun that would end up killing Jeff.