Sullivan pleads Fifth, won’t testify for Farley
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The defendant, Margie Farley, 36, was in court asking Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to grant her a new trial or acquittal for her part in the May 2000 beating death and robbery of Louie Johnson, 63, outside his Old Smithville Road trailer. Farley has already been turned down during her first try for parole two years ago and must wait another three years for another appearance before the parole board, prompting her attempt at getting post-conviction relief from the trial court.
She is presently serving a 37-year sentence, two years more than the man who actually beat Johnson to death, Eric Sullivan, 42. Prosecutors proved Farley, who sometimes slept with Johnson for money, lured him outside his trailer as Sullivan laid in wait.
Sullivan then beat Johnson to death with a tire tool from Farley’s car, stealing his wallet before fleeing the scene. Both were arrested a short time later as Farley fingered Sullivan as her accomplice.
In asking for early release from prison, Farley maintains shae had no idea what Sullivan’s plans were for Johnson. She denies intentionally luring Johnson from his home, instead saying Sullivan went berserk and pummeled the victim to death. Farley maintains she was scared for her life.
While she did not testify at Sullivan’s trial, her changing stories helped Sullivan get a second trial following his first conviction after prosecutors did not tell Sullivan’s defense of Farley’s other stories in which she blamed the murder on another man. Sullivan later entered a plea to second-degree murder and received his 35-year term.
However, Sullivan did not return the favor for Farley as the prison inmate refused to testify during his appearance at the Warren County Courthouse. Instead, when asked questions concerning the case, Sullivan, sporting a tear-drop tattoo under his eye sometimes used in prison to indicate the person has killed someone, clung to his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, suggesting he may incriminate himself. After twice invoking the Fifth Amendment, Sullivan was taken back to prison.
Despite Sullivan’s lack of testimony, Judge Stanley said he will take the Farley request under advisement. Farley was also warned by prosecutors that should she win the right to a new trial, they will be seeking the original charge against her, that being first-degree murder, which could carry a death sentence.