Right around closing time outside a Hyannis bar last March, Alex Greene allegedly held a gun to Tony Johnson’s face and pulled the trigger. The single gunshot, fired so close that police say some of Johnson’s blood ended up inside the barrel of the gun, killed him.
Cape Cod authorities quickly charged Greene with first-degree murder, and he was ordered held in jail, facing the possibility of life in prison without parole. But in December, Greene was granted bail, $100,000 in cash. He posted it immediately and was able to walk out of jail the next day, with the standard condition he wear a monitoring bracelet — a rare release for a defendant in a first-degree murder case.
But race and socioeconomic status add other dimensions to the bail decision: Greene is white, a firearms instructor at a popular local gun range who was set to begin working as a Barnstable County sheriff’s deputy that week, with the financial means to obtain a high-powered legal team and post high cash bail; Johnson was Black, an ex-con who floated between jobs and most recently worked at Cumberland Farms and Fed-Ex.
Now, Greene’s release has raised alarms on the Cape, with some seeing an example of how the justice system can afford more leeway to white defendants who have the means to hire aggressive lawyers.
“If it would have been my child who shot a white person in the face, he would have had no bond,” Johnson’s mother, Mattie Johnson, 60, told the Globe. And, she said, the unusual decision to grant bail in a first-degree murder case makes it feel like her son’s life and death don’t matter.
“My baby was a human being,” Johnson said. “Don’t let this go undone and don’t let this go unnoticed.”
The Cape and Islands district attorney’s office is asking Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone to reconsider her decision to grant Greene bail. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 30.
The case is also distinguished by the unusual defense that Greene’s lawyers plan to raise: that the onset of a diabetic episode made him act irrationally that morning outside the bar after Johnson allegedly made some comments to Greene’s wife.
Greene’s lawyers say he was acting in self-defense. Their client, a father of two, maintains his innocence and has a serious condition, they say.
“This judge just did what anyone else would have done,” his attorney Kevin Reddington told the Globe, noting the large amount of cash required to post bail, and requirement Johnson remain on house arrest. And before this, he’d had no criminal record: “This kid’s an absolute star American citizen.”
The shooting occurred at the end of a night of drinking at The Auld Triangle, an Irish pub in Hyannis, the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day, according to court documents. Greene, then 36 and a resident of Yarmouth, had been there with his wife, Margaret Greene, after bar hopping around town.
In the same bar, Johnson, 41, was drinking with friends. The Greenes and Johnson, by all accounts, didn’t have any interaction inside the bar.
Their paths crossed as the Greenes were leaving. Alex Greene already had gone out to start his pickup truck in the parking lot. Johnson, meanwhile, was returning to the bar from getting a coat from a friend’s car, according to court documents. While he was outside, according to police, Johnson unzipped his pants and began to urinate.
That’s when Margaret Greene walked out the back door, she later told police. She saw Johnson and asked him why he was relieving himself in public when there was a bathroom inside.
Then, she told police, he responded: “Do you want to see what I can do with this?”
The two exchanged some words — “cursing each other out,” a prosecutor later said — but he did not physically threaten or try to hit her, she told police.
The exact details about what happened next are unclear in police reports. Margaret Greene told police that a few moments later, while still in the parking lot, she heard a single gunshot, but didn’t see what happened.
As she got into the truck, she told police she could see the man she’d been talking to down on the ground; her husband was already in the driver’s seat, and appeared calm, she added.
The couple left, but after a short drive, Greene pulled over; his wife took his gun and called 911, saying she believed her husband had shot someone, according to police.
When officers arrived, they found Alex Greene with his hands up, sobbing, and incoherent.
Back in the parking lot, police found Johnson in a pool of blood. He’d been shot in the face, according to police, and was declared dead at a local hospital. Officers said they found two pocket knives on him, but prosecutors wrote he’s not believed to have pulled any weapon in the parking lot.
Inside the police cruiser, Greene had gone silent and was slumped and unresponsive when it arrived at the police station. Thinking he had overdosed on drugs, officers administered naloxone, which reverses opioid overdoses, and began chest compressions. He came to, and authorities brought him to the hospital.
There, according to his lawyers, doctors found his glucose levels were spiking. He was, for the first time, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, his lawyers have said. The statement of the case filed by prosecutors does not mention whether he was tested for alcohol sobriety.
After his arraignment in March, Greene’s lawyers pushed for bail, but were denied by a district court judge who cited the seriousness of the charges against him, according to court records. His case was transferred to Plymouth Superior Court, to avoid an appearance of conflict, a judicial spokeswoman said, because Johnson had a “longstanding relationship with a Barnstable Superior Court employee.”
After being denied bail a second time, in October, Greene hired high-profile Boston-area attorneys Reddington and Rosemary Scapicchio, who then filed for his release. At a hearing Dec. 2, Scapicchio asked for bail to be set at $25,000, citing his diabetes, which she said has been out of control while he had been in custody.
Additionally, she said undiagnosed diabetes “may have caused him to react in an irrational way” that day on the Cape, she said.
Prosecutors from Cape & Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois’ office opposed granting Greene bail.
“He shot — execution-style — and killed Tony Johnson,” Cape & Islands Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Isaacs said.
The judge presiding over the December bail hearing, Beverly Cannone, is perhaps best known for presiding over the Karen Read murder trials. She granted bail at $100,000 cash, saying, “His diabetes is a major factor in my decision here today.”
While first-degree murder defendants in Massachusetts are typically held without bail, the state’s highest court ruled as recently as 2019 that judges have discretion to grant bail in such cases. A court spokeswoman said the system does not track how often people are granted bail on the charge.
Lynne Rhodes, president of the Cape Cod NAACP, questioned whether Greene received preferential treatment, saying there are others with health concerns who remain jailed.
“Unfortunately, there’s very little other than that this is somebody who seems to be well connected in the community to have doors open for him like this,” she said.
The DA’s office has urged Cannone to reconsider her decision, arguing Greene’s claims his diabetes could not be managed while in custody “were wholly unsupported by any documentation.” The DA’s office said the jail has a diabetes clinic and offers “diabetic diet” meal plans.
While diabetic episodes can cause confusion and unusual behavior, according to the Mayo Clinic, the weight it would carry for a legal defense remains to be seen.
Greene’s lawyers are also claiming he acted in self-defense, citing Johnson’s criminal history involving drugs and violence, which further angered Johnson’s family and supporters: They say such claims should not play a role in granting bail in a first-degree murder case.
Johnson’s mother, Mattie Johnson, acknowledged her son had problems: “He’d been in and out of jail, true enough.” But, she said, “At the end of his life, he didn’t have no violence.”
Now, he’s buried in Mississippi, where he was born.
“I know God wants me to forgive everybody, but right now, my heart ... ” she paused, and took a breath in and out. “It’s hard.”
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