Brothers convicted of killing Clinton Twp. mother, daughter
A Macomb County jury deliberated less than two hours before convicting two brothers of first-degree murder in the vicious stabbing deaths of an 11-yearold girl and her mother in their Clinton Township apartment over nine years ago.
Tony and Henry Johnson were found guilty of two counts each of both premeditated and felony murder Monday for the stabbing deaths of Tina Geiger, 36, and her daughter, Kristine “Krissy,” in 2013, following a six-day trial in Macomb County Circuit Court. The underlying charge for felony murder was first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
They face automatic penalties of life without parole at their Dec. 15 sentencings by Judge Joseph Toia.
“This was an unnecessary tragic loss of life of a mother and daughter,” county Prosecutor Peter Lucido said in a news release. “However, today justice was delivered to the family and loved ones of the victims. Now the convicted await the sentencing which is well overdue.”
The cold case was reopened in 2019 by township police. Tony Johnson, 42, was charged in August 2020 and Henry Johnson, 37, was charged in September 2020. A resubmission of a bloody palm print on a closet door in Krissy’s Geiger’s bedroom matched the prints of Tony Johnson, who had been arrested for driving a stolen vehicle in Detroit. DNA found under Krissy’s fingernails also matched Tony Johnson, and Henry Johnson’s blood was found on a hallway wall and handrailing, prosecutors said.
Assistant Macomb Prosecutor Steve Fox, who prosecuted the case as head of the cold-case unit, said in the release: “I am so thankful to the Clinton Township Police Department for their relentless efforts, and grateful to our Macomb County jurors for holding Tony and Henry Johnson accountable. It’s not every day victims get to speak through evidence 9 years later. Thank God that little Krissy was a fighter, or else we might not be here today.”
Fox during his closing argument said evidence shows Krissy “fought back. She scratched and she clawed,” resulting in Tony Johnson’s DNA under her fingernails.
Prosecutors said the Johnsons walked the woman and her daughter to their home at about 1 a.m. July 23, 2013, from a Seven/11 store, where they had gotten a Big Gulp, near their apartment at Parkway Village Apartments, off Harper Avenue north of Metropolitan Parkway. Inside the apartment, Tony Johnson began raping Krissy in her bedroom. When Tina Geiger grabbed a knife from her kitchen and went toward the bedroom to defend her daughter, she was attacked outside the door from behind by Henry Johnson, Fox contended during closing arguments.
Tina Geiger was stabbed 61 times, and Krissy Geiger was stabbed over 20 times, both suffering gashes to their necks.
Krissy’s body in an autopsy photograph showed large abrasions on her inner thighs, and her genitals showed signs of rape, prosecutors said.
Fox told jurors although it may not be clear exactly how many times each brother stabbed the victim, it doesn’t matter because they acted as a team. “They’re both guilty, no matter who plunged the knife or who (sexually) penetrated Krissy.”
“It’s been nine years,” he added. “It’s been long enough. It’s time for Tony and Henry to answer to you, and answer to Krissy and answer to Tina.”
Tony Johnson’s attorney, Randy Rodnick, told jurors his client was not identified by any witness during the trial.
But Fox said a Michigan State Police fingerprint expert identified Henry Johnson’s palm print on the bedroom closet door.
Henry Johnson’s attorney, Joshua Jones, tried to poke holes in parts of the case, contending there was “question upon question” in the case. He called Fox’s version of the events as his “story,” and told jurors they cannot rely on “assumptions.”
He pointed out there was no evidence to place his client in the apartment, arguing that his client’s blood in the hallway could have been left there at another time. Henry Johnson resided in another apartment building in the complex and had visited the building where the Geigers resided.
He tried to convince jurors that even if his client was involved, his alleged actions constituted seconddegree murder, not first degree.
“Where is the deliberation, a thought-out plan to do this?” he said. “It’s a big stretch from walking them home to killing them, murdering them.”
He told jurors they could not base their verdicts on emotion.
“This is a horrific thing that happened, a horrific crime,” he said. “(But) we have to take the emotion out.”
But Fox countered that emotions are part of the case, and that the evidence against the brothers is “overwhelming.”
“These defendants are guilty, and it’s OK to get emotional about that,” Fox said. “I’m not asking you to find them guilty based on emotion. I’m asking you to find the defendants guilty for what they did.”