A Poplar Bluff man is to make his first court appearance Thursday after being charged with shooting his mother’s boyfriend in the head.
Kayln Trasell Johnson is to appear before Associate Circuit Judge C. Wade Pierce for arraignment.
The 22-year-old was charged Wednesday afternoon with the Class A felony of first-degree assault, the unclassified felony of armed criminal action and the Class D felony of unlawful possession of a firearm by Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kacey Proctor.
Johnson is accused of shooting Ernest Taylor on Tuesday afternoon at a 1312 N. Main St. residence.
Poplar Bluff Police officers were sent to that location at about 3:55 p.m. in reference to a report of a subject, later identified as Taylor, having been shot in the head.
Upon his arrival, Sgt. Dusty Johnson, reportedly was directed to Taylor, who was laying face down in front of the residence.
“Taylor was bleeding from a gunshot wound to his head,” Sgt. Johnson wrote in his report. “Taylor was breathing and could open his eyes.”
Taylor, according to Sgt. Johnson, identified Johnson as the person who shot him.
Taylor was taken by ambulance to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center and subsequently transferred to an out-of-town medical facility for further treatment. Taylor’s condition was not known at press time.
Sgt. Johnson said he contacted a man at the scene, who reported he was driving north on Main Street when he looked over and saw a black male, later identified as Johnson, run south from the 1312 Main residence.
“(The man) also stated it appeared the male was stuffing something in his pocket as he ran,” Sgt. Johnson said. “(He) advised he turned around due to a black female in the yard screaming.”
The man, Sgt. Johnson said, reported seeing Taylor “crawling on the ground, saying ‘I’ve been shot; don’t let me die.’”
While officers were on the scene, they reportedly contacted the black female, who was identified as Johnson’s mother, Yvonne Decarlo Tate. She also is the girlfriend of Taylor.
In a subsequent interview, Tate reported her boyfriend and son had been “arguing” on Tuesday, according to Detective Andy Cleaveland’s probable-cause statement.
“Tate indicated that this argument was due to Kayln being high on methamphetamine or heroin,” Cleaveland said. “(He), according to Yvonne, has been disrespectful to (Taylor) and Yvonne lately and will not obey their house rules.”
Tate, Cleaveland said, further reported this argument became “more and more heated as time passed, and she (Yvonne) believed that it was about to turn physical.
“Yvonne fled the house in the hopes to have neighbors call the police before this happened.”
Cleaveland said Tate reported she was up the street, trying to get someone to call police, when she “heard several gunshots come from the immediate location of her residence.”
Tate, he said, reported seeing her boyfriend come out of the house with blood on his head and face.
“As Yvonne was approaching the house, she observed (him) collapse on the ground and stop moving,” Cleaveland said. “(She) indicated the police arrived shortly after this.”
Johnson was taken into custody, Cleaveland said, during the time he was interviewing Tate.
Johnson, according to Sgt. Johnson’s report, contacted authorities, indicating he wanted to surrender and was at a residence in the 900 block of Gardner Street. Johnson was arrested without incident.
Patrolman Jeremy Elless, Cleaveland said, contacted the Gardner Street occupant, who reported “Johnson had come to his residence and told him … that he had hurt someone.
“Kayln Johnson then elaborated and stated that he had shot somebody,” later indicating it was his mother’s boyfriend.
Cleaveland said the occupant had secured Johnson’s clothing, as well as a Rohm .22-caliber revolver, all of which were turned over to officers.
At the time of his arrest, Johnson was a convicted felon, which was the basis for his unlawful possession of firearm charge.
Johnson has previous convictions for the Class D felony of delivery or possession of a controlled substance at a correctional facility in January 2017 and the Class D felony of second-degree burglary in October 2018. Both convictions were in Butler County.
Johnson initially was given a suspended imposition of his sentence and placed on probation on his possession case; however, his probation later was revoked in May 2018, and he was sentenced to five years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.
After pleading guilty to the burglary charge, Johnson was sentenced to five years in prison, and his sentence was ordered to be served concurrently with any other sentence he was serving.
A Probation and Parole official reports Johnson was released on parole on May 28.