Trial begins in South Bend in drug dealer’s murder

SOUTH BEND — Some little blue pills found during a traffic stop and a pair of blood-stained Nike shoes recovered from an abandoned garage helped police solve the murder of a South Bend drug dealer, prosecutors said Tuesday. That evidence led prosecutors to charge Martel Johnson with the March murder of 31-year-old Andrew Griffin, St. Joseph County deputy prosecutor Joel Gabrielse told jurors during opening arguments in his murder, felony murder and robbery trial. Police found Griffin, a drug dealer, dead on the living room floor of his apartment at the southwest corner of Lincoln Way West and Huey Street. He had been shot twice in the head with a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun. Gabrielse told jurors that testimony will show Johnson was involved in Griffin’s death. He faces charges of felony murder, murder and robbery. After killing Griffin, he and two accomplices, Aaron Johnson (no relation), 31, and Jermaine Bradley, 28, stole more than $1,000 in cash, electronics, marijuana, crack cocaine and some blue ecstacy pills, prosecutors say. During a traffic stop nine days after the murder, police found a woman, Aaron Johnson’s girlfriend, possessing some ecstacy pills, marked with little blue pistols, that matched those stolen from Griffin. She ultimately told police about the crime, Gabrielse said. Aaron Johnson later told police that because he had stepped in Griffin’s blood at the crime scene, he had tossed his Nike shoes into a dilapidated garage on a nearby vacant lot, metro homicide crime scene investigator Ken Cornellus testified. Police then recovered the shoes and determined the blood matched Griffin’s. Martel Johnson’s attorney, Phillip Skodinski, kept his opening arguments brief, saying only that prosecutors will not be able to prove that Martel Johnson was the shooter, or that he knew Griffin would be killed or even robbed. Among the state’s witnesses taking the stand Tuesday were Griffin’s father, Sylvester Griffin, who found him, dead, lying in a pool of blood on his living room floor, and a girl who said she had dated Griffin for about a year leading up to his murder. Both broke down in tears on the stand. Gabrielse said he expected testimony to end Wednesday. Aaron Johnson has plead guilty to murder and was sentenced to 55 years in prison. Murder, felony murder and robbery charges against Jermaine Bradley remain pending. Prosecutors have yet to say which of the three defendants they believe pulled the trigger. "In the midst of litigation, for tactical reasons, we cannot disclose who we think the shooter was," Prosecutor Michael Dvorak told The Tribune Tuesday. Staff writer Jeff Parrott: jparrott@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6320