The state Court of Appeals has ordered a Macomb County judge to determine whether a defense attorney’s inability to secure certain witnesses in a Clinton Township double-murder case prejudiced his convicted client to the jury, a development that could lead to a new trial.

In a ruling released Tuesday, a three-judge panel unanimously remanded the case of Henry Jermaine Johnson to Macomb circuit Judge Joseph Toia after it determined Johnson’s attorney, Joshua Jones, should have done more to contact three people who claim they saw the victims — Tina and Krissy Geiger — after Johnson and his brother, Tony, had supposedly killed them in their apartment in July 2013.

“Jones failed to reasonably investigate” Anderia Douglas, Terris Walker and Regina Kendle “as potential witnesses for defendant’s defense,” the judges wrote in an eight-page opinion. “Jones’s failure to adequately investigate Douglas, Walker, and Kendle rendered Jones’s performance objectively unreasonable because the testimonies (the trio) clearly would have aided defendant’s defense, and there was no strategic reason to not call them as witnesses.”

Henry and Tony James Johnson were convicted of both premeditated and felony first-degree murder for the stabbing deaths of Tina, 47, and Krissy, 11, on July 23, 2013, in their unit at Parkway Village Apartments minutes after escorting them to their apartment from a nearby 7-Eleven store. Evidence showed Tony Johnson raped Krissy, and that act served as the underlying charge for felony murder. They were sentenced to life without parole.

The case was unsolved in 2019 when Clinton Township police reopened the investigation. A resubmission of a bloody palm print on a closet door in Krissy’s Geiger’s bedroom matched the prints of Tony Johnson, who had been subsequently arrested for driving a stolen vehicle in Detroit, thereby placing his fingerprints in the statewide detection system. DNA found under Krissy’s fingernails also matched Tony Johnson, and Henry Johnson’s blood was found on a hallway wall and handrailing, prosecutors said.

During the trial, Jones presented witness Samantha Bell, who testified she saw the Geigers two days after the Johnsons killed them.

“But Bell also admitted that she had a brain injury that impacted her memory,” the judges say.

That contradicted the strong testimony of Pamela Mitchell, the victims’ neighbor, who testified “she spoke to Tina almost every day and had no contact with her after July 23,” the same day the Johnson brothers were seen with the victim at the convenience store, the opinion says.

Assistant Macomb County Prosecutor Steve Fox also presented phone evidence that shows Tina Geiger made no outgoing calls after July 23.

After an appeal was filed, Henry Johnson’s appellate attorney sought a new trial from Toia based on Jones’ failure to secure the witnesses. Toia conducted an evidentiary hearing after which he ruled “Jones’s performance did not fall below an objective standard of reasonableness because he tried to contact Douglas, Walker, and Kendle but was unsuccessful,” according to the opinion.

But the appeals judges disagree, saying he didn’t go far enough.

They say Jones, who properly delegated the task to contact 20 to 30 potential witnesses to an investigator, failed to emphasize to the investigator to prioritize reaching the trio of witnesses who indicated they saw the Geigers after July 23, 2013. The investigator, who was limited by funds to contacting witnesses remotely, only tried to reach them by phone and failed to seek alternatives, such as social media, email or text, the judges note.

Jones knew the potential value of the trio’s statements from the police reports, the judges indicate, and “despite knowing of their favorable statements to police, Jones never asked (the investigator) how she tried to contact them.”

Jones, who was court appointed as an assistant Macomb public defender, testified at the evidentiary hearing in front of Judge Toia, that he “trusted” the investigator’s “discretion.”

“This is problematic not only because Jones was responsible for defendant’s defense but because (the investigator) believed that it was ‘not really (her) place to prioritize witnesses,’” the opinion says. “The lack of direction provided to (the investigator) led her to expend the same effort and resources trying to contact all of the 20 to 30 witnesses that Jones asked her to contact instead of focusing on witnesses who made statements helpful for defendant’s defense.

“If funding was scarce, it is unclear why Jones believed it best to use the limited resources available to conduct a broad and directionless investigation instead of a targeted investigation into witnesses whose testimony could aid the defense based on what the witnesses told police.”

Jones did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.

The situation between Jones and the investigator led to a “feedback loop” in which the investigator conducted “a cursory investigation into all of the witnesses instead of a targeted investigation into witnesses who could aid the defense, and then Jones relied on Piotrowski’s cursory investigation to make decisions about how to proceed at trial.”

The judges also point out an investigator hired by Johnson’s appellate attorney was able to reach Douglas and Walker using “‘standard techniques’ — reaching the witnesses by phone and going to their known addresses.”

Kendle is deceased, according to the judges.

Henry Johnson, 40, is being held at the St. Louis Correctional Facility in St. Louis, Mich., while Tony Johnson, 45, is being held at the Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia.

No date has been set for Henry Johnson to appear in circuit court in Mount Clemens.