Published: July 22, 2008 11:36 pm         

Judge upholds Jessie Johns’ recommended life sentence

WATONGA — An Oklahoma district judge upheld a Garfield County jury’s recommended sentence of life without parole for a 57-year-old drifter convicted in the murder of a 23-year-old Kingfisher woman in 2005.

Jessie Floyd Johns received the sentence for the role he played in the death of Amber Matthews during an attempted robbery in November 2005. Johns and Wendell Arden Grissom both were convicted of first-degree murder. Grissom, the gunman in the incident, was sentenced to death in March.

District Judge Ronald G. Franklin, who presided over Johns’ trial in Garfield County after a change of venue from Blaine County was granted, read the sentence aloud and asked Johns if he wished to waive his right to stay in the Blaine County Jail for 10 days to file an appeal.

Johns waived his rights to the 10-day stay and was remanded to the custody of the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office until it can transport him to a Department of Corrections intake facility.

On Nov. 3, 2005, Grissom entered Lauren Drue Kopf’s home, northeast of Watonga, shooting her several times. Grissom then shot Matthews twice in the head, once while she was holding Kopf’s 5-week-old daughter and again as she lay on the floor of the children’s room. Johns was in the house as Grissom executed the woman.

Johns was found guilty of first-degree murder and grand larceny July 11, with the jury recommending a five-year sentence for the larceny conviction.