CHESAPEAKE, Va. — In January, a mother of four was convicted of first-degree murder in Chesapeake after shooting her boyfriend who was leaving her house.
Now, defense attorney Eric Korslund is saying his client didn’t get a fair trial after the WTKR News 3 Investigative Team uncovered a previous 911 call made from her home.
Korslund wants a new trial for his client, but the Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney strongly disagrees.
“I didn’t mean for him to die. I was trying to protect my children," Tia Johnson told Investigative Reporter Margaret Kavanagh from jail.
Our investigative team obtained the 911 call that Tia Johnson made at around midnight on Feb. 12, 2024. You can hear her on the call say, “I got a registered gun. He won’t leave my house. He is standing here, threatening to hurt me and my kids.”
She’s heard on the call demanding dozens of times for her boyfriend of a few months, Martario Gee, to leave during a fight. She claims he threatened to kill her and assaulted her 1-year-old.
“He hit her in the head, shoved her head into the refrigerator. He had us blocked in the corner,” said Johnson.
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Johnson claims they would usually have a fight every two weeks.
“Anytime we get into an argument, it would turn physical," claimed Johnson. “Before he left, he said he would be back and shoot my house up. I didn’t know how to react. I was terrified he was going to come back and kill us."
Minutes after Johnson calls 911, Ring camera video captures Gee walking out of the house carrying a bag. The video shows him looking back, then getting shot.
Johnson admits to shooting Gee. She says she was holding her 1-year-old in one arm when she fired her gun.
“I did that to warn him: don’t come back. I wasn’t meaning to kill him. I didn’t aim the gun at him. I didn’t even know he was hit until I walked outside,” said Johnson.
In January, after two days of testimony, a jury found the 23-year-old mother of four guilty of first-degree murder. She is facing up to life in prison as she awaits sentencing.
Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Hamel issued the following statement in a press release after the conviction:
"The Commonwealth’s evidence established that on February 12, 2024, around midnight, police were dispatched by a 911 call regarding a domestic argument to a residence on Grady Crescent. Upon arriving on scene, police found Martario Gee laying unresponsive on the sidewalk near the residence. He was pronounced deceased at Norfolk General Hospital and an autopsy revealed that he had been shot once in back. The defendant was in the residence when the police arrived to investigate. A forensic examination of her phone revealed a video of her and the victim arguing prior to her 911 call, which was disconnected. She made a second call and stated police were not needed because the victim was no longer there. Ring doorbell footage from the residence then showed the victim leaving her residence and walking away out of view. Moments later, it captured the defendant pointing a gun in his direction and firing. A single casing was found outside her residence."
Korslund said he does not believe Johnson got a fair trial. He said Johnson told him she had called 911 a few weeks before the shooting about another domestic violence situation.
WTKR News 3 asked Johnson why she called 911 back on January 3.
"He choked me to the point that I urinated on myself. I thought I was about to die that night. I thought I was about to die,” said Johnson.
But she said she did not tell police about this because she didn’t want to get him in trouble. She said she called them because she wanted help getting him to leave.
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Korslund said he requested the evidence related to the previous 911 call from the Commonwealth’s Attorney. However, he said he was told by the Commonwealth’s Attorney and police that there was no record of a 911 call made in the weeks before the shooting.
He says a detective was even called to testify about this during Johnson’s trial.
“The purpose of his (law enforcement officer) testimony was to show that she was not telling the truth — that when she said she called 911, they looked it up and they could not find any proof of that," said Korslund. "We know that is not true. That is absolutely not true. She did indeed call 911 and there are records to prove she called 911."
Those records were uncovered by Investigative Reporter Margaret Kavanagh after she started looking into this case. She filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking for all 911 calls made from the Chesapeake home. The results showed on Jan. 3, roughly seven weeks before the shooting, two 911 calls were made: a domestic complaint and a citizen assist call.
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Korslund said he was shocked and filed a motion to, again, request all evidence of previous 911 calls. He says he's since received that evidence, along with six police body camera videos from Jan. 3.
WTKR News 3 reached out to the Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney, who issued the following statement:
“The Commonwealth is aware of the Motion filed by the Defense. We will file a responsive pleading as appropriate with the court.
As we articulated earlier, this matter is still pending sentencing on May 19, 2025, and therefore it is still considered an on-going case. Also, and as noted last week to you, It is our office’s policy, and in keeping with our ethical responsibilities as prosecutors, to not provide extrajudicial commentary on pending cases.”
However, court records we obtained give a better understanding of their position.
In part of their response to the defense’s motion to compile documents filed in court — in reference to the police body camera video from the previous 911 call — records state, “In those videos, there is never an allegation of assault or physical contact by either party, and neither of the parties alleged or showed any injuries to the officers.”
Records state she tells police she wants the man to leave the house, and he says he will, but she won’t return his property to allow him to leave.
It states both parties become uncooperative, won’t identify themselves to officers, and she refused to let police in her home. It states the man leaves and she says she doesn’t want police there anymore.
The Commonwealth states in their response that the previous 911 call is not evidence that they needed to turn over and they do not think this is a violation in any way. It states, “the Commonwealth asserts that the existence of these calls is not exculpatory. The Commonwealth vehemently disagrees with defense counsel’s assertion that not providing the above information prior to trial is a Brady violation and reserves the right to fully litigate such an issue should doing so become necessary.”
Court documents issued by the Commonwealth state that during the first 911 call made on Jan. 3, Johnson said that they were having a verbal argument. Documents go on to say she refused to give her name and the name of the man she was calling about before hanging up on the 911 dispatcher. On the second call, a male who identifies himself as “Terrance Smith” asked dispatch to send the same officers back to the house.
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Johnson admits she didn’t want to get Gee into trouble when she called on Jan. 3 and didn’t complain of any alleged assaults.
“I just wanted them to make him leave my house. That was it. I didn’t tell them he was abusing me," said Johnson.
The jury didn’t hear about his previous criminal record.
“He has a murder charge that he beat,” said Johnson.
According to the state court website, the first-degree murder charge was dismissed, along with almost of the over a dozen assault and battery charges on his record. He was found guilty of forgery, identity theft, false identity to law enforcement, assault, and other charges.
“There are certain kinds of evidence that the court would not allow us to put in. And I respect the court's decision and I respect the authority of the court, but when I never had the opportunity to have the jury listen to these 911 calls, to have my client essentially being called a lair when she was telling the truth, that is not a fair trial,” said Korslund.
When we reached out to Chesapeake police about the case, they issued the following statement: “Unfortunately, we are unable to comment further due to pending litigation.”
The Medical Examiner's Office said Gee’s cause of death was a gunshot wound through the thorax and the manner of death was homicide.
