By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

May 24, 2001

OAKLAND — The father of a Pleasanton man accused of killing his best friend’s dad took the witness stand Wednesday, identifying the bat authorities believe is the murder weapon and telling jurors that his son was a baseball fanatic.

During brief testimony, Ken Johnson said the wooden Louisville Slugger unsealed from a police evidence box appeared to be the same bat he had last seen in a home closet shortly before Vincent Henneberry, 55, was killed in January 1995.

“That’s the bat my son and I bought together so we could play baseball,” he said, glancing at times toward Daniel Christopher Johnson, 27, sitting at the defense table. “I remember it because I was giving him a bad time because he was still skinny. I wanted a bat I could swing and he could grow in to.”

Ken Johnson was initially evasive as Deputy District Attorney Colton Carmine asked whether the bat came from his Pleasanton house. He said it appeared to be similar to the one he had, but said he had owned multiple bats.

He later acknowledged the prosecutor’s contention that it was the one from his house. “The father loves his son,” Carmine said about Ken Johnson’s testimony.

Johnson’s words also helped paint a picture of his son different than the brutal killer Carmine labeled him during opening statements a week ago. Jurors were told of Dan Johnson’s favorite players and about a collection of 10,000 baseball cards still kept in the Johnson home.

“Baseball was very important to Dan,” Ken Johnson said. “We always played catch together. It was a way to talk.”

Dan Johnson is charged with beating Henneberry with the bat then flying off to Reno with his friend and the victim’s son Marc Vincent Henneberry, 27. They were arrested at a casino days later after using Vincent Henneberry’s credit cards on plane tickets and a hotel room.

Marc Vincent Henneberry will go on trial after a verdict in the Johnson case is reached.

Both face the death penalty if convicted.