Jury finds Mount Union double homicide suspect guilty

HUNTINGDON COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — A double homicide trial in Huntingdon County has come to an end after Morico Johnson was found guilty Friday.

A jury deliberated Friday morning and returned a guilty verdict for both counts of first-degree murder. Johnson will remain in prison with his sentencing scheduled for Oct. 17.

The verdict came the day after closing arguments from Assistant District Attorney Ethan Wilt and from Johnson’s defense lawyer.

Johnson’s lawyer argued that investigators of the 2009 double homicide couldn’t recall details and that evidence was compromised He added that there was no evidence showing that Johnson was violent or temperamental.

Wilt then closed by saying motive isn’t needed and that multiple blood lifts from the scene matched Johnson’s DNA. He added that Johnson took off Dec. 31 and had a three-day weekend then returned to work and pulled two double shifts to create his own alibi.

Johnson was arrested in 2022 after said DNA led police to believe he was involved in the double homicide of Christine McWhorter and Beatrice Daniels in 2009 — a homicide case that went cold for more than a decade.

Last week, McWhorter’s mother took the stand and gave emotional testimony about the days leading up to the homicides. After explaining that her daughter and Daniels were at her Philadelphia home for New Year’s Eve before heading back to Mount Union, she left the stand in tears before collapsing outside of the courtroom.

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Her testimony came the same day the defense argued inconsistencies and “mistakes” made by the doctor who did the original autopsy of the two women.

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