Bill Johnson's Williamson County mug
WAYNE CO., Ill. - From the “things that make you say ‘huh?’” department comes this tidbit of information: Wayne County’s latest accused murderer has hired the area’s best defense attorney to represent him in court.
William (Bill) D. Johnson, the man accused of shooting to death Jeffrey Montgomery, a sex offender, on the west side of Fairfield December 5, was somehow able to hire Alan Downen, one of downstate Illinois’ pre-eminent criminal defense attorneys, after his court-appointed attorney, Matt Vaughan, dumped him.
Johnson, regular readers will recall, was in a dispute with Montgomery over a female on that Saturday for whatever reason (locals say she isn’t much to be fighting over) when, authorities allege, Johnson pulled a small-caliber handgun and shot Montgomery once in the chest, fatally wounding him, this in front of an eyewitness at a nearby trucking company, at about 7:30 that evening.
Typical of what happens in Wayne County, authorities didn’t let anyone know what was going on until much later that evening, including whether or not the general public was in danger.
Disclosure was able to confirm the identity of the accused early the next morning, however, because Johnson had fled south (ostensibly on the way to Arkansas, which from the looks of him seems like a good place to which he should escape) and was apprehended in Williamson County. Jail officials there had no compunction against giving his identity, since after all, that IS public information.
What the public didn’t learn until a couple of days later was Montgomery’s sex offender status, however (also courtesy of Disclosure)…and at that point, public sentiment sort of turned Johnson’s way. It also didn’t hurt that Johnson had been falsely accused, in an unrelated incident this past summer, of a child molestation situation himself.
A grand jury failed to indict Johnson, and he has been no longer under that suspicion. And most people are saying that Montgomery’s status had nothing to do with anything….except that now, not a lot of people are feeling sorry for the deceased, and more and more people are feeling sorry for Johnson.
Add to this mix the presence of Downen, one of the most reputable criminal attorneys in the state, and things might be looking up for the accused. We know for a fact that Downen has a hefty price tag, however, as he’s well worth it; how Johnson was able to come up with said funds is a matter of conjecture, although quiet crowdfunding isn’t out of the question, give public sentiment against sex offenders.
Johnson’s set for arraignment January 5. We’ll have an update as we can get it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hit our Facebook page (yes we still have one), and this post on it if you'd like to discuss this subject on Facebook; and be sure you check your "get notifications" selection under the 'like' button on our page; recent Facebook upgrades have booted many of our followers off from getting our posts. Also, check us on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Tumblr!