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Jury finds Lamont Johnson guilty of second-degree murder

The jury recommended Johnson serve 25 years and six months in prison on the second-degree murder charge.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Warning: details presented in this trial may be disturbing to some readers.

Day 4, May 27

A jury found Lamont Johnson guilty of second-degree murder and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Bellamy Gamboa's father, Emmanuel Gamboa, said he feels relieved the jury decided on a guilty verdict. He said he has no hatred in his heart for Johnson, but nothing will bring back his daughter.

"I'm glad that this is finally over and we can move on with our lives," said Emmanuel in front of the Virginia Beach Courthouse.

He and his family waited almost four years to hear a jury find Johnson guilty of killing his daughter.

"We did it for her and her children and we achieved what we had been longing for the past four years," said Emmanuel. "Justice, that's what we wanted. And she can finally be laid to rest and in peace."

Emmanuel said he feels like they closed a chapter in this tragedy, but for Bellamy's younger sister, Charisse, moving on isn't that easy.

"We don’t know if it’s necessarily closure yet," said Charisse as she took a deep, emotional breath. "We haven’t been able to move on, so we don’t know yet.” 

Charisse said she and her family powered through these past few years for Bellamy's twins.

"He first got arrested because he left the twins home and then he confessed. So, because of Ellis and Laylani...that's why he was arrested and I just wanted people to know that," said Charisse.

In a final testimony to the court before the sentencing, Emmanuel took the stand. He talked about the burden of raising Bellamy and Johnson's twin children since his daughter's disappearance and Johnson's arrest.

Emmanuel broke down crying on the stand, saying he hopes the loss of Bellamy will serve as a wake-up call to Johnson, but there's nothing he could do to bring Bellamy back.

Johnson's younger brother, James, then took the stand. He called Johnson a "gentle giant" and said it's still unbelievable what happened four years ago.

While on the stand, Johnson's brother gave the Gamboa family his condolences, saying he wished he took the opportunity to change what happened when he saw Johnson and Bellamy's relationship fall apart.

The jurors then deliberated over how many years they believe Johnson should face in prison.

Jurors told the judge they recommend a sentencing of 25 years and six months.

The jury also recommended Johnson serve an additional six months on the charge of leaving his twins home alone at the time of the murder.

The judge will now determine an official sentencing in August.

Day 3, May 26

Virginia Beach Police Detective Sgt. Lanis Geluso, a witness for the prosecution, testified about a recording jurors heard that came from Lamont Johnson's cell phone.

Geluso said police found the recording on Johnson's phone after they carried out a search warrant that covered the device. She said the recording was from June 28, 2018, about three days before Bellamy Gamboa's disappearance.

In the recording, Gamboa and Johnson can be heard fighting over rent and the electricity bill. Jurors then heard Gamboa's say: "You're saying you're going to kill me and get away with it. That's disturbing!"

Johnson then can be heard saying: "Are you trying to ruin me?"

The defense cross-examined Geluso about the recording. Then, prosecutors projected multiple photos and surveillance videos from the night Gamboa disappeared.

The first piece of surveillance footage was from a camera at a BP gas station around 1:30 a.m. of July 2, 2018. In the video, you can see Johnson walk into the convenience store there wearing a gray T-shirt and was "soaking wet on the shoulders and chest," as detectives testified.

The depiction of the shirt in the video matched a description Johnson gave of himself in a confession to police. In it, he said that he sweated profusely the night he strangled Gamboa.

The video from the service station shows Johnson paying for gas, pumping his gas, and driving away.

The prosecution then showed surveillance footage at a different gas station at around 3:20 a.m. In the video, prosecutors pointed out a car matching the description of Gamboa's car driving past the gas station.

Just a few minutes later, the video shows Johnson walking through the gas station in the direction of his home. In this video, he is wearing a different clothing.

The prosecutors brought in another detective with the Virginia Beach Police Department to testify. The detective said in July 2018, she was called to investigate Gamboa's car, which police had found around that time.

The detective said following the investigation, her team immediately searched through piles of trash from the dumpster at the townhome complex where Johnson and Gamboa lived.

The detective said after 10 hours of searching, they found the key to Gamboa's care in a garbage bag.

Using surveillance footage and photos, prosecutors showed jurors the dumpster in Chesapeake where Johnson admitted he disposed of Gamboa's body the night of July 1, 2018.

The prosecution mapped out how a garbage truck took that dumpster to an incinerator at a waste and energy site called "Wheelabrator" in Portsmouth about one day later.

Prosecutors showed surveillance video taken inside site. A former site manager testified the workers there use a big machine, which breaks down garbage into two to four inch pieces and eventually burns it to create fuel.

The prosecution said that’s why police could not find Gamboa's body or any traces of it.

In a response to a lack of DNA and physical evidence, the defense asked the judge to strike the Second-degree Murder charge against Johnson. The defense team said there is no physical proof that Jonson killed Gamboa and that prosecutors only had Johnson's confession.

The defense also said there wasn't enough evidence to prove Johnson left his twin children home alone when he tried disposing of Gamboa's body, which meant that two counts of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor should be dismissed.

Prosecutors argued against the motion, saying Johnson's confession and the surveillance footage supporting his confession stand strong enough to use as evidence .

The judge denied the defense's motion.

The prosecution rested its case. Johnson told the judge he would not testify, and the defense said it did not intend to present any evidence after the judge denied its motion to dismiss.

Day 2, May 25

Prosecutors first called Bellamy Gamboa's co-worker to the stand to testify in court Wednesday.

The co-worker described Gamboa as a punctual and conscientious worker who would notify her supervisor immediately if she was going to be a minute late for work. So, when Gamboa didn't show up to work at all on Monday, July 2, 2018, that's when her co-worker said she got suspicious.

The co-worker said she called Gamboa's direct supervisor to check if there was scheduled time off for her that she didn't see in the calendar. When the supervisor said Gamboa was supposed to be at work that day, that's when her co-worker called 9-1-1, asking police to do a welfare check at Gamboa's home in Virginia Beach.

Virginia Beach Police Officer D. Shoenbach, who responded to that welfare check that day, testified next.

Shoenbach said he came to the home to find Lamont Johnson but said he did not see Gamboa there. He described the condition of their townhome as in "disarray" with boxes filled with clothes strewn about the home. He said the house was cluttered, but it didn't indicate anything bad happened there recently.

Another detective with VBPD testified. She said she helped in the missing persons report when family officially reported Gamboa missing.

The detective said when she asked Johnson details of the past 48 hours, he was answering in a generic way and would not go into specifics.

Prosecutors then brought in Detective Sgt. Lanis Geluso with Virginia Beach police. Geluso testified she responded to the report of Gamboa's disappearance.

She said she spoke to Johnson multiple times in the following weeks. She said Johnson told her he fought with Gamboa about rent and she went upstairs to sleep that night, despite Johnson telling police he and Gamboa actually slept on separate couches on the first floor.

According to Geluso, Johnson said after Gamboa went to sleep on Sunday night, he dozed off on the couch, got up at 1 a.m., bought cigarettes and a drink, and went back to sleep. He told detectives he noticed Gamboa was gone when he woke up Monday morning.

Geluso asked Johnson if he had ever tried finding her. Johnson said he never searched for her because he "didn't know where to look." He said he assumed she "just ran off with someone and was believed to be alive."

Geluso said that's when things appeared suspicious.

During this testimony, prosecutors brought out a video of when Geluso and another detective spent hours interrogating Johnson in a small room, about four weeks after Gamboa's disappearance.

Johnson asked detectives for a smoke break. With an audio recording device, police escorted Johnson outside. In the audio file, jurors heard detectives telling Johnson it’s okay to admit what happened. Johnson then could be heard breaking down crying and hugging detectives, saying he was “sorry for lying.”

Detectives brought Johnson back into the room when he started telling in detail what he did to Gamboa the night of July 1, 2018.

Johnson told police he got into a fight with Gamboa over rent that Sunday. He said she kept yelling at him and wouldn’t answer him as to why she felt uncomfortable transferring him money to pay for rent.

Johnson talked about how the two had several fights similar leading up to this date.

He said he had his 20-month-old son in one arm when he and Gamboa kept fighting. His son’s twin sister was downstairs in the playpen.

Johnson said she when walked upstairs, he got angry with Gamboa and shoved her with his other arm. He said Gamboa fell down the stairs and he then tripped and fell, still holding his son.

Johnson said Gamboa looked at him after falling, called him crazy, and said he could “go to jail for this.” She then proceeded to grab her phone and tried calling 9-1-1.

That’s when Johnson said he put his son in the playpen and said, “Jail? What do you mean I’m going to jail?”

That’s when Johnson said he snapped. He told detectives he grabbed her phone, chucked it across the room, pushed her down, and started choking her until she stopped moving. While this was happening, Johnson said his twins were watching and crying from their playpen.

Johnson said he wrapped Gamboa’s body in a comforter and waited for hours until it got dark enough outside where he said neighbors wouldn’t be able to see him. He told police he stuffed Gamboa’s body in the trunk of her car, put some of her belongings in a bookbag, and drove her car out to a dumpster behind the General Dollar Store in Chesapeake.

In the interview, Geluso is heard asking Johnson why he went all the way out to Chesapeake. He said he knew if he hid her body somewhere in Virginia Beach, police would find her quickly.

Johnson said he put Gamboa’s body inside the dumpster, left her car there, and went back home. He said he threw her keys in the garbage bin at their townhome complex.

When Johnson said he came back home and the twins were sleeping, he felt “relieved.” He said his home felt “quiet and peaceful,” referring to the absence of Gamboa.

Johnson told Geluso he considered calling police immediately after he disposed of Gamboa’s body, but he didn’t call them because he was afraid of what would happen to his twins. He said he chose not to call anyone he knew because he didn’t want to get anyone else involved in what he did.

When Geluso testified, she told prosecutors Johnson did not express remorse for killing Gamboa. He only expressed regret for lying to police.

Prosecutors said they hope to wrap up their arguments on Thursday’s trial date.

Day 1, May 24

The trial for a man who police say confessed to killing a Virginia Beach mother began on Monday.

Prosecutors in the case of Lamont Johnson are calling this trial “unconventional,” since detectives never found Bellamy Gamboa’s body following her disappearance. The prosecution said this leaves a gap in evidence they can use in their arguments of the case.

"When you're in the courtroom hearing about the possibility because it's called a 'no body trial', so you get somewhat discouraged,” said Bellamy’s sister, Charisse Gamboa.

Johnson walked into Virginia Beach court in a suit as his family and Gamboa family members sat in the pews. The 45-year-old father of twins faces a second-degree murder charge and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in this case.

A spokesperson for the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office said the first two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in this trial stems from July 2, 2018, one day after Gamboa’s disappearance. Another set of two counts on the same charge stems from an incident on July 3, 2018, but the spokesperson said those two counts will be tried in a different trial.

A judge seated 12 jurors and two alternate jurors for the trial.

Prosecutors started opening statements to jurors by going into detail about Johnson’s confession to police. They showed video of an interview he had with detectives, saying he got into a fight with Bellamy about rent. He then told police he pushed her down the stairs while holding one of their twin children in his hand. He said in the video after he put his child in the playpen, he proceeded to push Bellamy to the ground and choked her until she died.

Prosecutors also presented video of Johnson showing detectives where he said he dumped her body and then proceeded to show video of the trash unit where her body was reportedly dumped. Prosecutors pointed out the trash in the dumpster where Johnson said he threw her body was then put into an incinerator, leaving no evidence behind.

Family members of Gamboa testified in court. Gamboa's father, Emmanuel, was the first to take the stand.

He testified he last heard from Bellamy in June 2018 when she texted him "Happy Father's Day," just days before her disappearance on July 1.

The next person to testify was the grandmother of Bellamy's oldest child from a separate relationship. She told jurors the family got suspicious of Bellamy's whereabouts when they didn't see her at a baseball game.

Bellamy's close childhood friend then took the stand. She told the jurors Bellamy would text her at least once every day. She recalled she knew something went wrong when she didn't get a text from her friend the day family reported her disappearance.

Charisse Gamboa held onto her family members in the pews as witnesses testified. She said she hopes this case won't ruin her sister’s memory and is happy to have her family around for support.

We just want to remember Bellamy Day, which was July 16th, and that's for her children and that she just wanted to be a great mother,” said Charisse. "They're mentally strong, so resilient. So, I just want to focus on them and being with them... I guess for the end."

This trial is expected to last until Friday, May 27. The next trial date resumes Wednesday morning.

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