FLINT, Mich. (AP) - A man whose first murder trial ended with a deadlocked jury has pleaded no-contest to second-degree murder in the robbery-shooting of a Flint store owner seven years ago.
Twenty-nine-year-old Harvey L. Johnson made the plea Tuesday in circuit court. Sentencing is May 5.
A no-contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt but lets a judge find the defendant guilty.
Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton says Johnson and Markcus McGill robbed Wajdi Badr on March 7, 2007. Leyton says Badr was struggling with McGill when Johnson fired several shots, hitting both men.
The 29-year-old McGill survived and pleaded guilty in 2008 to second-degree murder.
McGill and DNA evidence later linked Johnson to the crime, and he was charged with first-degree murder in 2011. His first jury deadlocked Jan. 31, 2013.
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