Attorney: Wrong man is in prison for wounding law officer
Sheriff accused of concealing corruption
LONG BEACH, Wash. — A man convicted of shooting a Washington state trooper in 2010 is seeking a new trial, saying that another man confessed and that the trooper deliberately misidentified him — something the wounded trooper, now a sheriff, adamantly denies.
Martin Jones, 53, is serving a 50-year sentence after being convicted of shooting Scott Johnson in Long Beach, a tourist town in Pacific County on the southwest Washington coast. Johnson is now the county sheriff.
Jones’ lawyer has filed a new appeal, including sworn declarations from local drug dealer Peter Boer that on the night of the shooting, his brother Nick, a repeat felon, “took credit” for it and sent Peter Boer to dispose of gun parts. Peter Boer also alleged a motive: Johnson had been shaking down his brother for money in lieu of arrest. Jones’ lawyer, Lenell Nussbaum, said that explains why the trooper’s statements differed from those of the only other witness — a tow-truck driver who was with Johnson when he was shot.
“Johnson falsely identified Jones as the shooter to conceal his own corruption,” Nussbaum wrote.
“That’s ridiculous,” Johnson said. “It’s not true.”
Nick Boer, who says he has been clean for six years, also denied it, calling his brother “exotic in his imagination.” He and Johnson said they didn’t know each other.
“If that guy’s in there innocent, I feel bad about that,” he said. “But I don’t want the story to be spun like I’m some kind of vigilante killer, or that there was some kind of corruption. Those officers, any I’ve ever had dealings with, they’ve done nothing but try to help me.”
Johnson was helping the towtruck driver impound a minivan a little before 1 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2010, when a man approached and asked what they were doing. The man walked off. Johnson would later describe him as appearing extremely angry, while the towtruck driver, George Hill, testified that he was “real neutral, like no emotion at all.” Moments later, the man returned from behind and shot the trooper in the head. The .22-caliber bullet broke apart and remains lodged near the base of Johnson’s skull.
Feeling “like a crowbar had hit me,” Johnson later testified, he locked eyes with the man and shot back twice.
Hill, who had known the trooper for 27 years, described the attacker as white but somehow ethnic, possibly tan or olive-skinned.
Suspicion fell on Jones, the minivan’s owner. A tower crane operator, he was home in bed when his wife, Susan Jones, was arrested for drunken driving in the vehicle. He says he stayed home all night.
The next morning, he let investigators search his house, told them where to find his three rifles, and agreed to stand out front to see if a witness would identify him.
Police rolled slowly by in an unmarked car with Hill inside.
At Jones’ 2011 trial, a State Patrol detective, Matthew Hughes, recalled the tow-truck driver’s reaction: “No, that’s not the guy. … That’s Marty.”
Hill had given the Joneses estimates for auto-body work.
That afternoon, Hill worked with a sketch artist. Several people told police the drawing looked like Nick Boer.
Police found Boer and his brother at their mom’s mobile home. Nick denied involvement.
Johnson, meanwhile, was in a hospital bed. He saw the sketch on the news and said it didn’t look anything like the shooter. He repeatedly asked for a picture of the minivan’s owner.
A corrections officer showed him Jones’ driver’s license photo, with Jones’ name underneath it.
That’s him, Johnson replied.