Johnson on trial for Rendezvous Club fire

The criminal trial of Eric Johnson on charges of aggravated arson and obstruction of justice involving the burning down of the Rendevous Dinner Club in late July 2013 began earlier this week in District 13 Judge Chuck West’s courtroom.
The first prosecution witnesses Tuesday included an investigator with the State Fire Marshall’s Office, Mark Dupuis, and David Landry, who knew Johnson. Both testified about a video security system that was taken from the Rendevous Club and thrown into a Bayou Toureau in a remote area of northeast Evangeline Parish.
Dupuis testified that a security video taken from a motel adjacent to the dinner club showed club employees leaving the club late on July 20 and that someone remained behind in the club, then was seen on the video coming outside to look around, then went back inside.
Dupuis also testified that a computer and severed wires coming from it, found where they were dumped into Bayou Toureau, matched wires that were severed inside the dinner club. The defense argued that Dupuis had no specific information about the make of the security system that was used in the dinner club. Landry testified that he helped Johnson remove a computer box and other items from the dinner club, put them in Landry’s truck and drove to Bayou Toureau and threw them into the bayou.
Dupuis also testified that the investigating team he was a part of determined that the fire that engulfed the dinner club was intentionally set.
Landry testified that he went to the dinner club to pick up Johnson the night of the fire and at one point went inside the club and saw the fire behind the bar, spreading from a trash can there. During cross-examination, the defense attorney questioned at length several statements Landry made after the fire that conflicted with his testimony earlier this week in court. Landry said, ”I was scared” and didn’t disclose all of the information he had because he was afraid he would be implicated in the arson involving the dinner club.
Landry also testified that he heard Johnson say, before the fire, that he was going to set the dinner club on fire because “business was bad.”
The trial continued after press time on Wednesday.