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Tampa Police: Man Killed Girlfriend, Then Went To Party

News Channel 8 photo by ANTHONY ALLRED

Levery White, left, and Rachel Johnson hold up pictures of Jennifer Johnson and her ex-boyfriend Vincent Brown during happier times. Brown is in jail charged with the murder of Jennifer Johnson. Jennifer Johnson was Rachel Johnson's sister and White's niece.

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2009

Updated: 01/09/2009 06:04 pm

TAMPA - In the hours after he killed the mother of his child, Vincent George Brown Jr. recorded an eerie greeting on his cell phone, attended a party in East Tampa and drove the car from whose trunk the woman had called 911 for help, police said today.

In the cell phone greeting he says, "I did what I had to do, and it's done," police said. "Y'all will probably never see me again. Just don't forget about me."

A grand jury on Thursday indicted Brown, 39, on felony first-degree murder and kidnapping charges in the strangulation of Jennifer Johnson, the mother of his 2-year-old daughter, Je'Neiyce. The indictment was unsealed today because Tampa police have a warrant for Brown's arrest.

Brown is serving 13 months in a state prison for violating probation in an unrelated drug case. Now in Chipley, he will return to Hillsborough County to face the new charges in the next week, police said.

Brown surrendered on the probation violation Nov. 16. Before entering prison, he told a Hillsborough County jail inmate that he knocked Johnson unconscious and put her in the car trunk before killing her, an affidavit states.

Relatives of Johnson, 31, reported her missing Nov. 15 after she missed her daughter's birthday party. She was found strangled in an abandoned house in Lakeland on Nov. 18.

"It would be the biggest surprise in the world if it wasn't him," said Tony Singleton of Dermatec Direct in Tampa, where Johnson sold medical supplies for six years. The week Johnson died, she confided to a co-worker that she had visited the domestic-violence shelter The Spring of Tampa Bay, he said.

Tampa Police Department Maj. George McNamara said the investigation into her death is active. He would not specify whether police have other suspects. "We're going to see where the investigation takes us," he said. "I'm not ruling anything out."

Investigators can't pinpoint where Johnson died. The charges were filed in Hillsborough County because the kidnapping originated in Tampa, police said.

Johnson was seen arguing with Brown late on Nov. 14 at a Tampa nightclub, police said. She also was seen at his parents' house at 3221 E. Cayuga St. about 3 a.m. Nov. 15.

About 5:30 a.m. Nov. 15, Plant City police received a 911 call from Johnson in the trunk of a car. Police dispatched a unit to the general area where cell towers indicated she was but couldn't find her.

Jennifer Johnson's sister, Rachel Johnson, said today that she thinks about her sister every day and is glad Brown was charged. She remains upset about the dispatcher's questions to Johnson, saying better questions during the call from her sister might have helped with the case.

"They're out there to save people's lives, and they didn't do that," she said. "I'm mad because they could've done a better job than they did."

Levery White, Jennifer Johnson's aunt, said Johnson is a "warrior" and that Brown could not have acted alone. She has heard the 911 call and said that on it, Johnson told the dispatcher, "'They got me.' "

Police said Brown phoned a friend about 9:40 p.m. on Nov. 15 and said Johnson was "stiff" in Lakeland, an affidavit states.

Also that evening, at least two people saw Brown driving Johnson's black 1996 Infiniti I-30 after leaving a party in East Tampa, an affidavit states.

When police recovered the car at Oak Park on Nov. 17, in the trunk they found a silver hoop earring Johnson wore the night she disappeared. The earring's mate was in Brown's parents' driveway, police said.

Johnson's cell phone was in her bra when they found the body. Phone records indicate that from about 8:15 a.m. Nov. 15 until the phone ran out of power, its signal had been pinging from a cell phone tower about 500 yards from where her body was found, an affidavit states.

Police and court records indicate Johnson and Brown's relationship was marked by episodes of violence. As recently as 2008, she reported he had grabbed her by the throat, choked her and slammed her into a coffee table. Brown was not prosecuted because Johnson recanted her statements, gave conflicting statements and would not cooperate with authorities.

Singleton said he often urged Johnson to leave Brown but that she wanted him involved in her daughter's life. The little girl is being raised by her grandmother and appears to be doing well, Singleton said.

"Here's the thing: I'm a father," he said. "How does a father – no matter how he feels about his wife or his baby's mother – how does he do that to his child? It's beyond my comprehension."

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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