Toledo man sentenced to 16 1/2 years for fatal shooting in Springfield Twp.

8/9/2001

A Toledoan who fatally shot a Springfield Township man last year was sentenced to 16 1/2 years in prison yesterday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

Michael A. Johnson, 19, whose last known address was in the 5100 block of Golden Road, was sentenced by Judge Charles Wittenberg for the involuntary manslaughter death of Andrew Willis.

He was convicted after entering a no contest plea to that charge as well as the additional counts of shooting from a car and carrying a concealed weapon.

Johnson leaned out his car window to shoot Mr. Willis, 19, of Nebraska Avenue, while Mr. Willis was running up to the car shouting threats, said Gary Cook, an assistant county prosecutor.

The shooting took place Nov. 18 at an apartment complex in the 6900 block of Oakfield Drive.

Johnson had been charged with aggravated murder, but a plea agreement was offered because it might have been difficult to prove that he acted with prior calculation, Mr. Cook said. At the sentencing hearing, Angela Willis, the victim's mother, spoke about receiving the phone call telling her that her son had been shot.

"I couldn't control myself,'' she said. “I started to scream his name over and over. When I got to the place where he was shot, there he was, on the ground.''

Johnson apologized to Ms. Willis during the hearing.