HILLSBOROUGH - An accused gunman’s ex-girlfriend ended a weeklong parade of prosecution witnesses Friday by testifying that defendant Brian Minton appeared to be in charge when 20-year-old Josh Bailey was killed in 2008.

Sarah Krombach also testified that Minton appeared to be in charge when her boyfriend – Bailey’s alleged shooter Matt Johnson – was violently interrogated that summer at the Pittsboro Body Shop about working for narcotics officers and stealing from the group.

Krombach said Johnson told her in May that he was working with police to resolve his charge of breaking into his mother’s house. Bailey later told Minton that Johnson was collecting names for the police, she said. Krombach and Minton talked about the snitching and recent thefts from both their homes, she said.

On July 29, 2008, a group of people confronted Johnson and then Bailey in Minton’s garage, Krombach said. Johnson denied the thefts, implicating Bailey, and when Bailey arrived, he was assaulted, she said. Bailey and Johnson also fought to prove who was telling the truth.

Krombach, a senior UNC Greensboro marketing major in 2008, said she knew both men from high school and had seen them fight and call each other names but they always remained friends, and she wasn’t concerned.

That night, they fought a second time until Johnson had Bailey around the neck to the point where Bailey turned “bright red,” she said.

That’s when Krombach said she yelled at them to stop, which they did, and she, Chelsea Lipson and Garry Bright decided to leave.

“As I was leaving, Matt had a roll of duct tape and was unwinding (it),” while Bailey held his wrists together, she said.

Defense attorney James Glover asked Krombach if it made sense to her, knowing what they knew about Johnson, that Bailey was the target.

“No, it didn’t really make that much sense to me,” Krombach testified.

She also testified that she didn’t hear Minton threaten Bailey or see him assault either man that night.

Accused ringleader

Minton is being tried in Orange County Superior Court on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

The prosecution claims Minton was the group’s “ringleader.” He is one of nine people charged in connection with the murder and five charged with first-degree kidnapping in Chatham County.

Johnson, Maxwell, Jack Johnson, Ryan Lee and Brandon Green also were charged in Bailey’s death. Jack Johnson and Lee have since pleaded guilty to lesser charges and testified this week against Minton.

Krombach said Matt Johnson introduced her to Minton at a party July 21, 2008, she said. Johnson wanted to buy marijuana from a friend in northern Virginia and team up with Minton to sell it in Chapel Hill, she testified Thursday.

She later told investigators that Matt Johnson met with Minton, Maxwell and Bailey to talk about the scheme. Krombach testified hearing Minton say at some point that “he would need about $12,000 to start it up and get it running.”

Later, Johnson said it wasn’t going to work, and he wasn’t going back to rehab, she said. She heard them mention the plan again in August.

That month, Krombach said she started to spend more time with Minton, whom she considered a friend. Minton later returned guns that someone had stolen from her father and sister, she said. He also told her the same thing Matt Johnson did Aug. 17 about Bailey’s fate, she said.

“That he’d been taken out to the country, that he had the (expletive) scared out of him and that he was dropped off on Franklin Street,” she said.

More details added

Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall pointed out that Krombach added more details to her story every time she talked with investigators. Krombach said she recalled some details later and omitted others at first, because she didn’t want to get in trouble.

Krombach is charged with first-degree kidnapping in the Aug. 17, 2008, Chatham County case in which she, Minton, Maxwell, Jack Johnson and Kionne McLaughlin are accused of kidnapping and assaulting Matt Johnson.

Krombach said the interrogation was “loud … violent, shouting, tense.” She also slapped Johnson when he confirmed sleeping with his ex-girlfriend, she said. That’s when she walked outside to get some air, she said. When she returned, Johnson was bound with duct tape.

Krombach agreed with Glover that her Sept. 11 arrest in Johnson’s kidnapping didn’t make sense. Krombach testified that she invited Johnson to hang out with her at her uncle’s body shop, where she was restoring a car. She mentioned to Minton where they were going, and he and the others showed up later, she said. She didn’t know what they had planned, she said.

After interrogating Johnson, the group freed his wrists and took him to his mother’s house to retrieve some stolen items, she said. Once there, they decided to wait until morning, and Minton talked about binding Johnson’s wrists again, Krombach said. Instead, Matt Johnson and Jack Johnson, who are not related, spent the night at her house, Krombach said.

The next morning, Matt Johnson was moving stiffly and had a bump on his head from falling off a bench when Maxwell hit him the previous day.

He contacted his mother, who was at work, and he and Maxwell left in Krombach’s car, she said. Maxwell later returned alone; Krombach said she didn’t know where Johnson was. Later, she found a black duffel bag Johnson left behind, and a 9mm shell casing fell out.

The trial continues at 9:30 a.m. Monday.