WITNESS 'SCARED' OF ARREST

A friend and classmate of Christie Christie's said he didn't go to
police immediately after she was shot because he was afraid they were
looking for him.

Khalil Francis, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in August of last
year for his role in 16-year-old Christie's death, was testifying for
the second day at the first-degree murder trial of Junior Johnson.

Johnson, 19, has pleaded not guilty to shooting Christie in her
Scarborough apartment during a robbery Jan. 29, 1996.

Francis, who was carrying "a small knife," and Johnson, with a loaded
sawed-off shotgun, burst into the Glamorgan Ave. apartment where
Christie, her 8-month-old brother and her closest girlfriend were
sitting in the kitchen, the Ontario Court, general division jury has
heard.

The teens were looking for marijuana and cash, but as Francis was
leaving, he said he heard the gun go off. He and Johnson fled.

Crown counsel Tony Loparco questioned why Francis, who liked Christie,
would not report that she was just shot by a man he said he barely
knew.

"I don't know," Francis, 19, replied.

"It didn't trouble you enough to go to the police and say that guy
shot Christie Christie to death?" Loparco asked, turning to Johnson in
the courtroom.

"I don't want to answer that question. The police were looking for
me," Francis replied.

"You didn't turn yourself in for 11/2 days. You didn't call 911 or
Crime Stoppers?" the crown continued.

"No, I didn't," he snapped.

Francis, who was a youth at the time of his conviction, received a
4-year sentence. Although he was tried as an adult, he's being held in
a juvenile facility until he turns 20, when he'll be moved to an adult
prison.

"I was confused, afraid, scared," Francis told defence counsel Rob
Nuttall when asked how he felt during the robbery.

How does he feel now?

"I think it was stupid, it wasn't planned. It was the wrong thing to
do. I was angry, upset, sad" when Christie was killed, he said.

Nuttall said his client will not be testifying.

Final submissions in the case are scheduled for Dec. 14, followed by
Mr. Justice Harry Keenan's instructions to the jury.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry