Man charged with murder in shooting death of Towson woman

Baltimore County Police arrested a man this week in the fatal shooting of a woman in Towson earlier this month, police said.

Michael Burnett, 37, was charged with first-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the death of India Johnson, 32. A judge ordered that he be held without bond at a bail hearing Wednesday afternoon.

Several of Johnson’s relatives were present in court and gathered to pray after the proceedings. “India is a beautiful woman,” her mother, Carmen Byrd, 48, said outside the courthouse. “A mother above everything else and a light in the world that has been snatched away from me.”

Police responded to Treeway Court at 11:53 on Aug. 2 after Johnson’s sister, Kimani Byrd, 20, requested a wellness check. Johnson’s son had texted her that he heard fighting and a gunshot, according to charging documents.

Responding officers broke down the door and found Johnson’s son and two other children hiding in their bedroom, unharmed, the documents say. Johnson was in a different room and was found with a single gunshot wound to her face. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Byrd and Johnson’s son told officers that she had been dating a man they knew as “Mike” for around a year. Byrd said that her sister confided in her that there had been other instances of “domestic altercations,” including one a month prior to her death, when “Mike” had choked her until she passed out, according to the charging documents.

Using a cellphone number Byrd had shared with her younger sister, police were able to identify “Mike” as Burnett. As part of their investigation, detectives saw that his phone had been at the address in Towson from around 7 p.m. on Aug. 1 until about 11:43 p.m. Aug. 2.

When detectives went to interview him in Gwynn Oak on Aug. 6, Burnett was with his mother, the charging documents say. He told detectives that Johnson was “his best friend in the past tense” and that their relationship had never been intimate. He told them that he had not seen or heard from her since leaving her house on Aug. 2 at 9:30 p.m.

When detectives told Burnett and his mother that Johnson had been killed, his mother “became physically and emotionally upset,” according to the charging documents. His mother told detectives that she had been trying to reach Johnson for several days without receiving a response. When she had asked her son if he had spoken with her, he said he hadn’t and had not tried to contact her since leaving the apartment.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Michael Tomko, Burnett’s attorney, said that Johnson and Burnett were best friends and were not dating.

Burnett has a previous conviction involving a handgun and served time in prison before being released on parole and probation, Tomko said. He asked that Burnett be released to home confinement and GPS monitoring.

“He has rehabilitated himself and reintroduced himself to the community in a successful way,” Tomko said.

Burnett’s next court date is Sept. 4.