Former fellow inmates testify against Bradenton man charged in fatal shooting

BRADENTON -- Former fellow inmates took the stand Thursday in the case against a Bradenton man charged with the slaying of a pregnant 19-year-old woman.

Everrick Houston, 33, is facing two counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed burglary. He could face life in prison without parole if convicted.

In the early hours of July 12, 2009, Crystal Johnson was shot during an armed home invasion of the apartment in DeSoto Village Apartments in Bradenton she shared with her mom, sister and boyfriend, the father of the baby she was carrying. The suspects exchanged gunfire with Lawrence Funsch, Johnson's boyfriend. Shortly after the armed home invasion, Houston arrived with a gunshot to the chest. He said he was randomly shot while walking down the street. Johnson was taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital where she died moments later. At her death, an emergency C-section was done to deliver her premature baby, Lariah Faith

Funsch. The baby was then taken to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg where she died eight hours later.

Testimony grew dramatic Thursday, as attorneys questioned prison inmates who say they heard Houston confessing the armed burglary and fatal shooting.

Bruce Canestra, convicted of 11 felonies, testified about conversations he said he had with Houston while they were both incarcerated at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution in Louisiana.

Assistant State Attorney Art Brown questioned Canestra on how he came to learn Houston had previously been shot and the circumstances of the shooting. Canestra said they spoke on several occasions about the shooting.

"Did he ever describe the person who shot him?" Brown asked.

"Yeah, a cracker," Canestra replied.

When asked if Houston described the person he or his companion shot, Canestra replied, "Yeah a white chick."

Canestra also said Houston told him the woman was pregnant.

"He said he felt bad because she lost the baby," he answered, following a subsequent question.

"You were involved in a home invasion when you got shot weren't you," Assistant Public Defender Carolyn Schlemmer later questioned him.

Canestra agreed and also confirmed that the suspects were black with ski masks and that his girlfriend was five months pregnant at the time. "The case of home invasion you were a victim of, nobody has ever been arrested right?" Schlemmer asked.

Canestra answered yes.

"That makes you mad doesn't it?" Schlemmer said. "Yeah," Canestra answered.

The defense also questioned Canestra's motive for testifying. Letters written by Canestra to lead detective Jeffrey Bliss and to another former fellow inmate were introduced.

"You wrote these letters to Detective Bliss so you could get a reduction on your sentence?" she asked him.

Canestra agreed that was his goal. An excerpt from a letter to another inmate was read and she asked him if he wrote that he "had to do what was right for Bruce."

Canestra answered, yes.

"Didn't you mean by that you have to do what's best for you, isn't it getting a reduction in your sentence?"

Canestra rebutted, "Not by lying."

Schlemmer questioned Canestra on why he wanted to come to Manatee County, including being nearer to Fort Lauderdale where he is from.

"Going back to Atlanta is like going back to a death trap because I've turned snitch," Canestra said.

Circuit Judge John Lakin, presiding over the case, cautioned attorneys on the case to heed his warning from earlier in the week.

Not sure where the line of questioning was going, Lakin said wanted to avoid going down "the slippery slope of soap opera."

Lakin was concerned about the timing of the case, he said.Jurors have already been warned testimony will likely go into Monday.

Houston was first charged in the fatal shooting in the days following the crime. Days from going to trial in 2010, the State Attorney's Office dropped the charges when a judge ruled the DNA evidence collected from Houston's bloody clothes in the hospital was inadmissible because it was not legally obtained.

Mark Houston, another inmate at Oakdale, also took the stand for the state. Not related but once mistaken for one another, he said he heard the defendant telling others the story about a burglary gone bad one day when he was in the television room at the prison.

"He said a girl got killed and he felt bad about it," Mark Houston said. Schlemmer questioned Mark Houston whether he was wearing headphones to listen to television.

"You don't have to wear headphones," he said. "I wasn't watching TV; I was just sitting there waiting on a poker game to start."

He was then asked about emails that he had sent while incarcerated, in which he said he was just trying to contact the prosecutor not get information about the case.

"By reading these emails it still seems very clear you want to testify for the state," Schlemmer asked.

Throughout the testimony, Mark Houston insisted he did not intend to apply for a reduction in his sentence for his cooperation in this case. "I really need this. I can get at least three to five years off my sentence," he said in one of the emails read out loud in court.

Brown asked whether the email was actually for another case in Louisiana where Mark Houston is cooperating in exchange for sentence reduction. Yes, Mark Houston answered.

Houston is not the first person charged in the Crystal Johnson case.

This story was originally published November 21, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Former fellow inmates testify against Bradenton man charged in fatal shooting ."