CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A Chesapeake woman, Tia Johnson, was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting and killing her boyfriend, 40-year-old Martario Gee, on February 12, 2024.
The jury saw a bunch of evidence during the trial, including Ring camera video that captured Gee leaving Johnson’s house, looking back, and then with Johnson's 1-year-old child in her arm, she admitted to firing the gun and killing him.
The jury also heard the 911 call Johnson made minutes before the shooting, in which she said, "I got a registered gun. He won't leave my house, and he is standing here, threatening to hurt me and my kids." Additionally, they heard a call to an inmate in a jail after she was arrested.
We are following through on this case that we first told you about back on March 6.
Watch previous: Lawyer of woman convicted of murder wants new trial after WTKR uncovers 911 call
Prior to the trial and standard in criminal proceedings, Johnson's defense attorney, Eric Korslund, requested evidence from the Chesapeake Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, including any previous 911 calls made by Johnson regarding domestic incidents with Gee.
Records show Korslund wrote on January 22, 2025, “If there is a way for you to check if the defendant called the police on him before this incident perhaps by her address or her name or his name, will you please provide that information?”
According to court records, the Commonwealth's Attorney responded on January 24, 2025, stating, "We did confirm with Detective **** that there were no calls for service between the parties in Chesapeake regarding a domestic... He is going to look through Linx to see if there is a call in a different jurisdiction. Do you know a date for this call to help narrow his search?"
It states, Korslund wrote back, “I do not. Thank you for looking.”
Records state on January 27, 2025 the Commonwealth’s Attorney again emailed Korslund and wrote, “Det. **** did look through their database and there was nothing found between Johnson or Gee all the way back to 2016 in way of a call for a domestic...” It went on to state there was one domestic call that involved Johnson and another person from 2019.
However, WTKR News 3 Investigative Reporter Margaret Kavanagh later obtained 911 call records through a Freedom of Information Act request. 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.
Korslund said he was shocked by WTKR’s discovery of a previous 911 calls from Johnson’s home.
He said 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."
After the WTKR News 3 Investigative Team uncovered the previous 911 calls, Korslund put file a Motion to Compel in court, again requesting all prior 911 calls.
Our investigative team also put in another Freedom of Information Act request and got six body camera videos that show what it was like when police responded to the house a few weeks before the shooting on January 3: the date when Johnson and Gee called 911 on each other, according to records.
The following body camera video shows the start of both police responses to the two 911 calls the night of Jan. 3.
We requested the audio of the 911 calls but were told, "The police department reports that the 911 recordings have been purged from their system in accordance with the Library of Virginia’s retention schedules and no longer exist."
Korslund believes that the previous 911 calls and the body camera footage from the police response should have been turned over to the defense before Johnson's trial.
He argues that this evidence is "highly exculpatory" and that Johnson did not receive a fair trial.
"I have done everything I can to give this woman a fair trial and she doesn't get a fair trial when the jury doesn't hear evidence that they should have heard," Korslund said.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney issued a response to Korslund’s Motion to Compel saying, in part, “In those videos, there is never an allegation of assault or physical contact by either party, neither of the parties alleged or showed any injuries to the officers.”
They said Johnson and Gee were both uncooperative and wouldn’t identify themselves to law enforcement.
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.”
However, Korslund disagrees and is continuing to fight for a new trial for Johnson.
WTKR News 3 asked the Chesapeake Commonwealth's Attorney if they wanted to make a comment after we ran a follow-up story regarding this situation and why the information from the 911 call wasn’t released.
They issued us this statement on March 18, 2025: “We have fully responded to all requests made my Ms. Johnson’s attorney, and we have filed a responsive pleading to the only motion the attorney has filed on her behalf. Should her attorney file any further motions with the Court, we will continue to address any issues raised in the courtroom and not the media.”
