By Lawrence Buser
The Commercial Appeal
After a deputy jailer shot her police officer-boyfriend to death in her home in September, she and her teenaged son wrapped the body in a quilt and went to see the movie “Snakes on a Plane” before hiding the body that night.
Monique Nicole Johnson, 37, who is charged with first-degree murder, waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday in the case involving the death of officer Tony M. Hayes.
Hayes, 37, a nine-year veteran, was shot multiple times Sept. 4 at Johnson’s home at 9458 Afton Grove in Cordova.
Johnson’s son, 16-year-old Donald Wallace, was bound over to a grand jury on charges of being an accessory after the fact of first-degree murder after a hearing before General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Louis Montesi Jr.
Homicide Sgt. J. M. Oliver testified that Johnson and Wallace gave statements admitting their involvement in the shooting, though the hearing focused only on Wallace.
According to investigators and court documents, Wallace told police he heard gunshots coming from the master bedroom and saw Hayes’ body on the bathroom floor.
His mother told police she shot Hayes with his service revolver during an argument over a cell phone, though police said there also were domestic issues. Hayes was married.
Johnson and her son wrapped Hayes’ body in a quilt and put it in the trunk of his 1999 Lexus. Then they went to see the movie “Snakes on a Plane” and had dinner at a restaurant.
At dark, Johnson drove the Lexus to Lynnfield Place Apartments, where her son picked her up in another car.
While police were questioning her several days later, Johnson text-messaged her son to “get rid of the guns” and he disposed of two pistols, including the murder weapon, and Hayes’ bulletproof vest that was in the trunk of his car.
Wallace later took police to a dumpster in The Gleneagles Apartments in Hickory Hill, where the items were recovered.
Johnson is being held on a bond of $1 million and Wallace is being held on $250,000 bond.
Although Wallace’s accessory charge likely would carry only a year in prison, he also has eight aggravated robbery charges pending in Criminal Court and has a $100,000 bond on those cases.
According to indictments, he was involved with a group of Vice Lords in a series of robberies of Hispanic victims in September of last year in Fox Meadows and other areas of the city.
Copyright 2006 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.