Johnson Sentenced to Death in FSU Student Slaying

A Louisiana man convicted of First Degree Murder and Kidnapping to Facilitate a Felony was sentenced to death Tuesday, September 16, 2014. Kentrell Feronti Johnson, 43, had previously been convicted of those charges at the end of June of this year. Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano, who presided over the trial and penalty phase of Johnson’s case, followed the jury’s unanimous recommendation of death.

Johnson kidnapped Florida State University graduate student Vincent Binder and robbed him as he walked home from a party in Tallahassee. Binder’s body was found two hundred miles away in a field in St. Augustine. Johnson and two codefendants, Quentin Truehill and Peter Hughes, escaped from a Louisiana detention center before kidnapping, robbing, and ultimately brutally murdering Binder.

Truehill previously had been convicted of the same charges and was sentenced to death. Hughes was also convicted and received a life sentence.

“The defendant committed violent and torturous acts upon Vincent Binder – an innocent and unsuspecting Victim,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said after the sentence was handed down, “The defendant’s criminal past was rife with brutal and violent crime. He deserved no less than a sentence of death.”