Men laugh and smile in court before receiving life sentences for Schuylkill River Trail murder

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Two 24-year-olds convicted of what prosecutors called an “execution” on the Schuylkill River Trail last year were both sentenced to life in prison on Monday.

In June, a jury found Cody Reed and Marquise Johnson guilty of shooting and killing 25-year-old Daquan Tucker along the Schuylkill River Trail , near the border of Norristown and West Norriton Township. A cyclist found his body the next morning, on March 3, 2023, with three gunshots to his head.

Reed, of Norristown, and Johnson, of East Mount Airy, smiled and laughed in court on Monday. As they were led from the Montgomery County courtroom to begin serving their life sentences, they both said they expected to be granted a new trial.

“I’m not really pressed,” Johnson said. “I’ll be back in less than a year.”

John McCaul, Johnson’s lawyer, said Johnson “respects the process” but is “very much looking forward to his opportunity on appeal to right a wrong that he feels was the result of his trial.”

“There’s a lot that’s unknown as to what specifically happened,” McCaul continued. “What’s sufficient to carry the day for a murder charge, conspiracy to murder charge, who did what? Whose role was what? What is speculation? What is fair argument?”

Prosecutor Kathleen McLaughlin pointed to video evidence presented at trial showing the three men walking onto the trail, then Reed and Johnson walking off the trail with Tucker’s phone.

“And as soon as they got back to the apartment, they fled,” she said. “All of that is not speculation. Those are known facts, which point to what the jury found is that they are both guilty of first-degree murder.”

Johnson and Reed were caught 35 days later by U.S. Marshals in Atlantic City.

Their first trial in February ended with a hung jury . The two men were found guilty on all counts in the June retrial .

McLaughlin added that it’s obviously been hard on Tucker’s family.

“Not only just the loss of their brother and nephew, it was also the actions of defendants since then and how callous they were, and the laughter, how it … pours more salt in the wound throughout this whole thing,” she said.