Parents neglected boy after wasp attack, attorney says

The 2-year-old died after yellow jacket stings

Miami Herald/August 2, 2000
By Vickie Chachere

TAMPA-- (AP) -- Harrison Johnson was stung 432 times by yellow jackets, but instead of calling for medical attention, all the 2-year-old boy's parents did was give him a bath and some juice, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Kelly and Wylie Johnson are on trial for aggravated child abuse in the September 1998 death of their son. Prosecutors don't contend the Johnsons caused the boy's death, but do allege they neglected his medical needs. The six-member jury won't be told that the Melbourne couple belong to an evangelical Christian sect that does not believe in medical treatment nor that the couple previously were acquitted of failing to report the death of a friend's infant daughter.

Assistant Hillsborough County State Attorney Chris Moody told jurors Tuesday the Johnsons didn't call for an ambulance until seven hours after the yellow jacket attack even though welts covered Harrison's small body. ``That was the only chance he had, and that chance was denied by Kelly and Wylie Johnson,'' Moody said.

Defense attorney George Tragos said the child's death was a tragedy, but the parents had no way of knowing the child was near death before he suddenly went unconscious. Harrison watched a video and asked for juice to drink; Tragos theorized that Harrison's body anesthetized the pain.

The Johnsons were thought to be members of a tiny Brevard County evangelical group called Bible Reader's Fellowship when the attack occurred. The group equates medicine with sorcery, and detectives said the Johnsons' were uncooperative in the investigation.

Earlier in 1998, the Johnsons were acquitted in an unrelated case in which they were charged with failing to report a death of a 1-month-old Palm Bay girl whose parents reportedly were members of the same religious sect. The Johnsons were visiting friends at a wooded mobile home park in Tampa when Harrison, while on a walk with his father, stepped on a nest of more than 1,000 yellow jackets.

After he was stung, Harrison was given an oatmeal bath and other home remedies to treat the stings.

Lillian and Clarence Collier, friends of the couple, testified that several adults were in the trailer home where the boy was being treated. The Colliers testified it didn't occur to them either that the boy needed emergency medical treatment.