Jury selection begins this morning in Sioux City in the federal death penalty trial of Angela Johnson. The 43-year-old Klemme native is the former girlfriend of Dustin Honken, who was convicted last fall in the drug slayings of five people, including two children, in the Mason City area in 1993. The jury recommended the death penalty. Johnson is charged with conspiring with Honken in the execution-style slayings. Attorneys predict Johnson’s trial will last about as long as Honken’s eight-week trial and feature much of the same evidence…but Johnson’s trial will also feature some unique twists, including testimony about her mental state in the days after the bodies were discovered. Johnson tried to commit suicide in jail after the bodies were found by investigators who used a map she drew and gave to a jailhouse informant.
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