Black And Missing

Charges dropped in Phylicia Barnes murder case

All charges have been dropped against the man charged with the 2010 homicide death of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes

Published

10 years ago

January 20, 2015

UVM Staff

Phylicia Barnes

All charges have been dropped against the man charged with the 2010 homicide death of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes.

Charges dropped in Phylicia Barnes missing case

According to the Charlotte Observer, Michael Johnson, who was charged in connection with Barnes’ death, has had two trials in Baltimore that were inconclusive. Because of this, a judge has now concluded lack of evidence and has dropped the charges. Johnson has spent more than two years in jail.

Teen went missing while visiting family

Barnes, a 16-year-old honors student who was visiting relatives in the city, went missing on Dec. 28, 2010, from her older sister’s Northwest Baltimore apartment.

Johnson was in the process of breaking up with Barnes’ sister when Barnes went missing. Four months after she went missing, Barnes’ body was found in the Susquehanna River.

Johnson was charged in 2012.

The jury in his 2013 trial convicted him, but then the judge threw out the conviction, saying prosecutors did not disclose key information about a witness.

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UVM Staff

Unheard Voices is an award-winning news magazine that started in 2004 as a newsletter in the Asbury Park, Neptune, and Long Branch, NJ areas to broadening into a recognized Black online media outlet. The company is one of the few outlets dedicated to covering social justice issues. They are the recipient of the NAACP Unsung Hero Award and CV Magazine's Innovator Award for Best Social Justice Communications Company.