Johnson pleads not guilty in St. Germain homicide case

The 56-year-old man who’s accused of killing his sister at their St. Germain home on March 21 appeared in Vilas County court for an arraignment on Monday and pleaded not guilty.

James Johnson was suspected of killing his 61-year-old sister Kelly Johnson after Johnson’s other sister, who lived with them, came home to the victim wrapped in a blanket, legs tied with a yellow extension cord and covered in blood laying near the front porch of the 7100 State Highway 70 residence.

If convicted of 1st degree murder, Johnson faces life in prison, with that sentence increasing no more than five years for use of a dangerous weapon. 

According to the criminal complaint filed on March 24, Johnson was apprehended in his vehicle at a hotel nearby the home, the same place where investigators took his sister who discovered the victim for further questioning. 

In Johnson’s vehicle, investigators found a 9-inch knife, according to the complaint, which matched the description of the knife Johnson said he used against his sister in a subsequent interview with investigators. 

He told investigators during the interview he waited for his sister to fall asleep before using the knife against her because after he was released from the hospital he spent the previous two weeks in, his vehicle he lended her to use had no gas and one of his bank accounts was “somehow drained.”

Johnson, a 1987 graduate of Lakeland Union High School, was released from prison in 2022 after being convicted of an armed robbery of a gas station in Minocqua in 1998. More recent court filings show Johnson was found guilty due to plea on a first time operating while intoxicated offense, besides three other charges that were dropped, near the end of 2022 and 2023. 

Johnson is currently being held on a $1 million bond, which includes the conditions of not to have contact with two individuals who made contact with law enforcement during the investigation, not to visit the address where officers identified the deceased and to have a GPS monitoring device fitted upon release.

The suspect is expected to be in court next on July 15 at 11 a.m. for a judicial pretrial. 

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].