BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. - A Chico man was found guilty of first-degree murder regarding the 2020 killing of then-21-year-old Joshua Elysee, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said.
On Friday, 30-year-old Johnny Jamar Osby was found guilty of murdering Elysee in 2020, Ramsey said. Osby was also found guilty of assault with a firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The jury also found true the allegations that Osby was lying in wait and fired from a car at the time of the murder, Ramsey said.
On April 14, 2020, at about 9 p.m., the Chico Police Department responded to a report of multiple gunshots being heard in the 1500 block of Nord Avenue, Ramsey said.
When officers arrived on the scene, they found that Elysee had been shot in the head, Ramsey said. Then later, Elysee succumbed to his injuries at Enloe Hospital.
During testimony, the jury heard that Elysee wasn’t the only victim of the shooting, Ramsey said. A 16-year-old friend of Elysee was sitting in the passenger seat of Elysee’s car but only sustained a minor injury to his arm, Ramsey said.
Officers who were investigating the crime scene testified that 24 bullet casings were found at the entrance to the Nord Gardens Townhomes, Ramsey said.
Then a ballistics expert from the California Department of Justice testified that those casings were shot from a pistol that Osby video-recorded himself test-firing two days before the murder, Ramsey said.
After serving a warrant, detectives then found the video on Osby’s Snapchat account.
Osby was arrested seven days later, after the murder, Ramsey said.
Witnesses testified that Obsy was mad over an incident on March 26, 2020, when Osby was beaten and robbed at a party that Elysee was at, Ramsey said.
The jury saw two videos that were posted by Osby on his Snapchat account the morning after the robbery, where he threatened to murder the people responsible for his beating, Ramsey said.
The jury watched an interview where Osby admitted he murdered Elysee as revenge for the beating he received a month prior, Ramsey said.
Osby testified on his behalf during the trial and said that he was scared of Elysee and went to Stockton the weekend before the murder, where he bought a black-market Glock-style “ghost gun” from one of his cousins, Ramsey said.
He then said he installed a device that converted the pistol into a machine gun, Ramsey said. Osby said that he shot at Elysee and the 16-year-old in self-defense after he saw them reaching for what Osby thought was a gun, Ramsey said.
Deputy District Attorney Jeff Greeson told the jury that the physical evidence didn’t support Osby’s claim of self-defense, Ramsey said. Greeson said the evidence showed that Elysee was ambushed and couldn’t have known what happened.
“The people of Butte County can rest a little easier tonight knowing this dangerous person is facing spending the rest of his life behind bars without parole,” Greenson said.
“Our community cannot tolerate this kind of senseless violence on our streets and will hold those accountable that commit these terrible crimes,” Ramsey said.
The allegations that Osby suffered a prior strike conviction for robbery were found true by Butte County Superior Court Judge Virginia Gingery.
Osby’s sentencing is set for July 18, where he will be facing life without the possibility of parole.
