CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A Chesapeake woman convicted of first-degree murder is expected back in court on Friday after the WTKR News 3 Investigative Team uncovered potential evidence, causing her attorney to take legal action for her.
Defense attorney Eric Korslund filed motions that claimed prosecutorial misconduct after previous 911 calls were not turned over during her trial.
Previous coverage: Lawyer seeks to overturn client's murder conviction, citing prosecutorial misconduct
Tia Johnson was convicted in January 2025 for the shooting death of her boyfriend, Martario Gee.
The shooting was captured on a Ring camera as he was walking away from her house with his back to her back in February of 2024.
Watch: Body cam video shows police responding to 911 calls made from Tia Johnson’s home
Johnson claims she acted in self-defense and feared for her life that night. She said the two had only been dating for a few months and the fights would sometimes turn physical.
WTKR News 3 interviewed Johnson from jail, where she shared, "I didn't mean for him to die. I was trying to protect my children."
Korslund has made a motion to dismiss the entire conviction, claiming, “the Commonwealth, through its prosecutors, has engaged in systematic and purposeful withholding of highly exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland,” according to the filed document.
Through court filings, the Commonwealth Attorney has denied that accusation.
Previous coverage: Defense said 911 call didn't exist in murder trial, but WTKR found it
Prior to the trial, Johnson told her attorney that she had previously called 911 on Gee a few weeks before she shot and killed him, requesting help to get him to leave her house.
The Commonwealth's Attorney told Korslund police searched and could not find any record of any previous 911 call involving Gee and Johnson.
During her trial, the prosecutor said, “So what fear could she possibly have had? Even if you believe that from past experiences—because she did tell you there were times in the past where Mr. Gee had been physical with her. May he was. May he wasn’t. I don’t know because there’s no evidence of it, and the reason I say there’s no evidence of it is because you heard Detective **** say he search. He tried to find reports of domestic calls, of assault calls, of something between Mr. Gee and the defendant and couldn’t find any reports. She said she called police. No report.”
WTKR News 3 Investigator Margaret Kavanagh started looking into the case after the conviction. Through a Freedom of Information Request, Kavanagh obtained records that show there was a domestic incident call along with a citizen assist call made on January 3, 2024, just a few weeks before the shooting.
This discovery caused Korslund to file motions stating that Johnson did not get a fair trial due to this information not being turned over to him.
The prosecutors have denied the accusation of misconduct, saying that Johnson refused to give her name during the January 3 call, which is why it did not come up in the database.
They also said they were not aware of the calls during her trial.
Previous coverage: Lawyer of woman convicted of murder wants new trial after WTKR uncovers 911 call
Prosecutors say the accusations by the defense are erroneous and outlandish and they deny wrongdoing.
They say, “[The] defendant’s contention that the Commonwealth has engaged in this matter in such a way as to intentionally deprive the defendant of a fair trial and competent counsel by, ‘lying and misleading her attorney' is patently false.”
They say during cross examination, the defendant testified that there were no instances of domestic assault between Christmas and February.
Korslund repeatedly requested for the record of the previous 911 calls through email and was told there was no record of it.
The Commonwealth's Attorney wrote in response, “…counsel could have retrieved the information through a FOIA process. Apparently, a reporter from WTKR was able to obtain this evidence through the same process available to defense counsel or any other member of the public.”
Korslund said he was shocked when WTKR presented him with the findings.
He said his client did not get a fair trial and claims she was made to look like a liar.
He said, "I believed them (prosecutors) when they told me it doesn't exist. I believed the detective when he testified at trial that he scoured everything and looked through everything and couldn't find the calls. I believed the Commonwealth's Attorney when he told the jury maybe she (Johnson) was abused or maybe she wasn't but there's just no report of it, so when I discovered that in fact it existed, it was shocking.”
Prosecutors claim the police body camera videos from the call on January 3 do not provide evidence of domestic violence. They say Johnson was not cooperative with the officers and wouldn’t give her name to police.
Both Gee and Johnson are heard arguing about having the other person’s phone and the interaction gets heated at times.
Johnson would not let the officers in the house and repeatedly said she wanted Gee to leave the home, but not with her phone. He claimed she had his phone.
Gee's extensive criminal record was not presented during Johnson’s trial.
The judge will now have to decide how to proceed with the case, as Johnson's defense attorney is fighting to have the entire conviction thrown out while the prosecution is arguing against it.
This article was researched, reported, and written by a WTKR News 3 journalist. AI was used to minimize typos and ensure style continuity.
