Bio 

Cecil Johnson Jr. was born on August 29, 1956, in Maury County, Tennessee. He was the oldest of ten children. Reports described his childhood as difficult and marked by poverty and abuse. Johnson left school in the ninth grade, but later earned his GED while in prison in 1987.

By 1980, Johnson was living in Tennessee and working as a dishwasher and cook at Vanderbilt University. He was 23 years old at the time of the Bob Bell’s Market murders. He was married and had a child by the age of 21.

After his conviction, Johnson spent nearly three decades on death row. While incarcerated, he worked as a cook for death row inmates and became involved in religious life. Supporters and ministers who knew him in prison said he changed over time, although he continued to maintain his innocence in the 1980 market killings.

Murder Story

On July 5, 1980, Bob Bell’s Market on 12th Avenue South in Nashville, Tennessee, was robbed by an armed gunman at about 9:45 p.m. Inside the store were owner Bob Bell Jr., his 12-year-old son Bobby Bell Jr., and Louis Smith, who was helping repair a boat motor.

The gunman ordered Bell and Smith behind the counter, where Bobby was standing near the cash register. When a woman and two children entered the store during the robbery, the gunman hid his weapon and ordered the people behind the counter to act normally. After the customers left, he ordered Bobby to fill a bag with money from the register.

The gunman then searched Bell and Smith and took Smith’s wallet. When Charles House briefly entered the market, the gunman ordered him to leave. Moments later, the gunman opened fire. Bobby Bell Jr. was shot first and killed. Smith tried to protect the boy and was shot in the throat and hand. Bell was also shot in the wrist when he raised his arm as the gunman aimed at his head.

As the gunman fled, two more shots were fired outside the store. James Moore, a taxi driver, and Charles House, who was sitting in the cab, were both shot and killed.

Cecil Johnson Jr. was arrested on July 6, 1980, after information from Bob Bell led police to him. At trial, Bell, Smith, and another witness identified Johnson as the shooter. Victor Davis, who had earlier given statements supporting Johnson’s alibi, later testified for the prosecution after receiving immunity.

Johnson denied being at the market and testified that he had been with Davis elsewhere at the time. His father also testified that Johnson arrived at his home around the time of the killings. The jury rejected the alibi and convicted Johnson of three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to commit murder, and two counts of armed robbery.

Johnson was sentenced to death for the three murders and received additional life sentences for the other convictions. In 1985, while already on death row, Johnson was also involved in the fatal beating of fellow prisoner Laron Williams at the old Tennessee Penitentiary. He was later convicted in connection with that killing.

After years of appeals and requests for clemency, Cecil Johnson Jr. was executed by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 2, 2009. He was pronounced dead at 1:34 a.m.