Published: December 24, 2008 05:04 pm      

Lawyer: Parts of player’s head have been removed

Jackson — An independent pathologist hired to investigate the death of a high school football star couldn’t determine if the shotgun blast was self-inflicted because portions of the boy’s head had been removed, the family’s attorney said Tuesday.

Billey Joe Johnson Jr. apparently died of a gunshot wound to the head after being pulled over for traffic violations Dec. 8 in George County in south Mississippi. Authorities say the 17-year-old junior was wanted for an attempted burglary and shot himself after a deputy walked back to his patrol car to run a license check.

Johnson was George County High School’s star running back and had been offered scholarships to some of the best football programs in the country. His family believes he had too much to live for to commit suicide. They asked Jerome Carter, an attorney from Mobile, Ala., and an independent pathologist to look into the death.

The pathologist, however, could not determine the cause of death “because portions of the wound were extracted and were not present when he conducted his examination” on Saturday, Carter told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

“What our pathologist anticipates is that they were removed by the original pathologist who conducted the autopsy,” Carter said. “We’re not trying to say it’s missing, we’re saying it wasn’t present and we’re hopeful that the ... pathologist who conducted the initial autopsy still has that.”

District Attorney Tony Lawrence said Carter had not spoken to him “one single time” about portions of the body possibly being removed.

Lawrence said “trace evidence” sometimes is taken from bodies during investigations, but said he doesn’t know if that has happened in this case.

“I don’t have any idea what he’s talking about,” Lawrence said.

George County Sheriff Garry Welford asked the district attorney’s office and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to look into the shooting “to avoid the appearance of impropriety” since one of his deputies was at the scene.

Officials in the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which oversees the state crime lab, did not immediately respond to messages Tuesday.

Carter said the family’s investigation determined that Johnson was outside his Chevrolet truck with the driver’s door open when the gun went off, which seems to be consistent with police reports. The deputy who was at the scene said he looked up after hearing the shot to find Johnson on the ground outside the truck with the door open and a shotgun on top of his body.

Johnson was an avid hunter.

“The family suspects that it was his shotgun,” Carter said. “They tell me he did have a 12 gauge shotgun that he kept in the back seat of his truck.”

Still, Carter said a lack of answers has tormented the family.

“We’re just asking to move this thing forward so this family can have some peace,” he said.

Carter also disputes that Johnson tried to burglarize a home the morning of his death. He said Johnson went to the home of a girl he had dated and knocked on the door and tapped on a window before leaving. The girl called her mother, who called police, according to a report by a Lucedale police officer.