On a summer evening in Nashville, Tennessee, James Moore, a 41-year-old male taxi driver, was waiting for a fare outside Bell's Market on 12th Avenue South. It was Saturday, July 5, 1980, a night that would end in a senseless act of violence, cutting his life short and leaving a wake of tragedy that would span decades. Moore was simply doing his job, unaware of the brutal crime unfolding inside the nearby convenience store, a crime that would spill out and inexplicably claim his life and that
of his passenger.
Inside the market, a 23-year-old dishwasher and cook named Cecil C. Johnson Jr. was in the midst of an armed robbery. Johnson, who had told a friend he intended to rob the store and leave no witnesses, forced the owner's 12-year-old son, Robert "Bobby" Bell Jr., to empty the cash register. Johnson then shot the young boy in the head, killing him. He also shot and wounded Bobby's father and another man in the store. As Johnson fled the market, he came upon James Moore's taxi. For reasons that remain unclear, he opened fire on the vehicle, killing both Moore and his passenger, 35-year-old Charles House. Both men died from single gunshot wounds.
The brutal triple murder shocked Nashville, which was experiencing a weekend of violent crime. Information provided by Bobby Bell's father, who survived the shooting, led police to identify Johnson as the suspect. He was arrested the following day, on July 6, 1980, and charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery. During his trial, Johnson denied his involvement, but his friend, Victor Davis, testified that he had dropped Johnson off at the store and that Johnson later said he "didn't mean to shoot that boy."
In January 1981, a jury found Cecil C. Johnson Jr. guilty on three counts of first-degree murder. He was also convicted of two counts of assault with intent to commit murder for wounding the two survivors inside the store, and armed robbery. The jury recommended a death sentence, and the judge imposed it, along with four life sentences. Johnson became the first person sentenced to death under Tennessee's newly reinstated capital punishment laws. His violent streak did not end with his incarceration; in 1985, while on death row, he and another inmate beat fellow death row prisoner Laron Williams to death over a dispute about using the prison telephone. For this, Johnson was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
For nearly three decades, Johnson lived on death row, filing numerous appeals that delayed his execution. His attorneys argued that the decades-long wait amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. Finally, after all legal avenues were exhausted, his execution was scheduled.
On December 2, 2009, Cecil C. Johnson Jr. was executed by lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. He was 53 years old. He declined a last meal and his final words to his family were, "You all stay strong, and keep trusting in the Lord." In a separate room, James Moore's brother witnessed the execution, along with the father of 12-year-old Bobby Bell. The victims' families chose not to speak publicly after the execution. The end of Johnson's life marked the final chapter in a legal saga that began with the violent, random, and tragic murder of three innocent people, including a taxi driver just waiting for his next passenger.
