Tensions simmered between the park employee and guests throughout the wedding at a Chantilly park in August, but police said things came to a shocking and seemingly senseless head in an argument over folding chairs, of all things.
Kempton A. Bonds, 19, of Clifton, Va. , lashed out at the caterer, Tyonne Johns, 35, of D.C. and stabbed her, police said. The up-and-coming caterer who owned her company died shortly afterward, and the soon-to-be college student was charged with second-degree murder.
The story as told to police by witnesses and relayed by prosecutors in court was enough for Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Daniel E. Ortiz to deny bond last month for Bonds. But on Thursday, Bonds’s attorney argued that the narrative was flawed and that he had new evidence to support his assertion at a second bond hearing.
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Peter Greenspun presented an eight-minute cellphone video of the encounter filmed by Bonds and other evidence, saying it showed that Johns was the aggressor and that Bonds stabbed her in self-defense after she and other wedding guests hurled threats at him and picked him up.
Ortiz said the video was enough to make him reconsider bond and set it at $250,000, although he said he did not “necessarily agree” with Greenspun’s interpretation of the facts.
The ruling drew a gasp from friends and family of Johns, who sat in the courtroom. They then angrily walked out. One said, “Murderer.”
Courthouse sheriff’s deputies thought the situation was tense enough that Greenspun was ushered out a back door of the courtroom after the hearing.
The video was not played at the hearing but was entered into evidence, and a copy was obtained by The Washington Post. A brief exchange about a count of folding chairs is part of the video.
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The action mainly occurs off-screen, but audio of the encounter was captured, including the moment when prosecutors said Bonds stabbed Johns with a pocket knife twice.
“I’m gonna knock you out,” a woman is heard saying just before the stabbing. In court, Greenspun said the woman likely is Johns. A scuffle ensues, and a man can be heard saying, “You hit a girl.”
“Oh, you stabbed me,” a woman says.
A man begins calling for police, and people shout that the man calling for police is going to go to jail. The video ends soon after.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Brandon Shapiro acknowledged that the video appeared to show Johns being verbally aggressive, but he said that none of the five witnesses who saw the encounter said Johns laid a hand on Bonds.
“The defendant had a chip on his shoulder all night long,” Shapiro said.
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Greenspun said Bonds was a well-mannered teen who had no criminal record and no complaints against him as a Fairfax County Park Authority employee. Greenspun said Bonds was on his last day on the job — overseeing the Aug. 6 wedding at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park — before he would head to Virginia Commonwealth University.
During the wedding, Bonds had called police and his boss to complain about the behavior of wedding guests, police and Greenspun said.
Guests and Johns’s employees said Bonds seemed to be acting erratically. One said Bonds cut off power during the reception, halting the music. The bride and groom had yet to share their first dance.
The video begins as people are cleaning up after the wedding. Bonds says little, but people pepper him with insults and threats.
Bonds’s family declined to comment after the hearing. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 31.
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