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Wednesday, December 24, 1997

Former funeral home owner goes free in killing of wife

ANGLETON, Texas (AP) -- Former Sweeny funeral home owner Jay H. Johnson is a free man, days after he was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in his wife's death.

Johnson was accused in the 1991 shotgun slaying of his common-law wife, Edwina Prosen, who was shot as she lay in the couple's bed above the mortuary.

Johnson, who did not testify at the trial, told Sweeny police that he suffered muscle cramps while holding the gun, causing it to fire into Ms. Prosen's abdomen and strike her heart.

However, District Attorney Dale Summa contended that Johnson killed Ms. Prosen so he could collect on her life insurance policies, many she wrote herself as a licensed insurance agent.

Last week, a jury determined the shooting was an accident. On Monday, Johnson was sentenced to one year in jail -- the maximum for the misdemeanor crime -- and Johnson walked out a free man because of credit for 418 days spent in jail awaiting trial.

Summa, who was unable to introduce copies of Ms. Prosen's life insurance policies as evidence, said he still believes Johnson committed capital murder.

"I'm satisfied in my mind beyond a reasonable doubt that Jay Johnson knowingly killed Ms. Prosen for financial benefit," Summa said. "(But) I can understand why the jury, based on the evidence they had before them would have trouble with the capital murder charge."

The policies were not allowed because of a judge's ruling in 1993 that they were obtained during an illegal search of the funeral home by Ms. Prosen's son, Jeff Prosen. That decision, which was appealed by the district attorney's office, was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last March.

After the sentencing, Jeff Prosen, who is convinced Johnson deliberately killed his mother, confronted him.

"I hope you remember every day for the rest of your life what you did to my mother," Prosen said. "I don't have any words for the way I feel about you. You destroyed one of the most perfect women in my life."

Prosen, who's serving five years' probation for taking Johnson hostage at gunpoint outside the Houston Veterans Affairs Hospital last April, said he would make sure Johnson did not get any money from the insurance policies. He vowed to keep his mother's estate tied up in probate for years.

"It's going to be a cold day in hell before you see a penny of that money," Prosen told Johnson.