New trial can move forward in NC teen’s death

ANNAPOLIS, MD (AP) – A Maryland court has ruled a new trial can proceed against a man charged with killing a North Carolina teenager.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals, the state’s intermediate appellate court, issued the ruling Wednesday.

The case involves Michael Maurice Johnson, who was charged with killing 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes. Her body was found in the Susquehanna River months after she disappeared while visiting family in Baltimore in 2010.

Johnson was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013. But he was granted a new trial after a judge ruled prosecutors withheld evidence. In December, a judge declared a mistrial in the second trial.

But the higher court says the judge didn’t have the authority to grant acquittal after a mistrial was declared and the jury was dismissed.

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