CENTENNIAL, Colo — An Arapahoe County jury found a man charged with second-degree murder guilty in the deadly 2019 shooting of former University of Colorado (CU) football player Anthony "T.J." Cunningham.
The jury also had the option to find Marcus Johnson guilty of first-degree murder, but instead chose the lesser charge of second-degree murder.
Sentencing is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Dec. 2. Johnson faces a maximum of 48 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Johnson was accused of shooting Cunningham several times, including in the head and chest, in the parking lot of Eaglecrest High School on Feb. 17 over an ongoing parking dispute, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office.
>The video above is from February 2019.
Johnson and Cunningham had been fighting over a parking spot, eventually leading to a physical altercation between them in February 2019, the sheriff's office said.
The pair continued to taunt each other over text afterward and agreed at Eaglecrest to "settle it," a spokesperson for the sheriff's office said.
According to the probable cause statement, Johnson said Cunningham had a bottle and then opened fire.
A passerby called at 9:20 a.m. on Feb. 17 to report the shooting, according to the sheriff's office.
A few minutes later, Johnson called and told dispatch he'd shot his neighbor and that he'd been attacked by Cunningham earlier in the day, the sheriff's office said. He told police he was going to go home and deputies responded there. He came out of his house and said the gun was in the car and was then taken into custody, the sheriff's office said.
During closing arguments on Tuesday, the prosecution argued Johnson decided Feb. 17 was the day he was going to resolve the parking dispute with Cunningham by arranging a fight in which he brought a gun to.
They argued that Johnson was not justified due to self-defense, but instead went into the parking lot with the intention of ending Cunningham's life after previous threats. They also said the previous agreement to a fight meant there was an expectation and understanding that physical force would be used.
Johnson intentionally parked across the street at the bottom of the hill leading into the school's parking lot to then position his car for a quick getaway, and because the security camera coverage was not as comprehensive as other locations around the school, the prosecution claimed.
According to what the surveillance cameras were able to see, the prosecution claimed it was apparent Cunningham was not charging at Johnson but actually running away after Johnson ran halfway up the hill, where he had a gun and shot Cunnigham from about 25 yards away. The defense disputed in its argument that Cunningham was not charging Johnson, who claimed he fired when Cunningham was roughly within arm's length of him.
The prosecution pointed out that the two gunshots that hit Cunningham in the face and chest each would have been fatal, and argued were intentionally fired with the intent of killing him. The defense claimed that someone intendeding to take someone's life would've emptied the entire clip in the gun.
Johnson told 911 he was attacked by two men including one with a gun, in which the prosecution argued was a fabrication intended to paint himself as the victim. Johnson, they claimed, was not physically hit and did not respond with physical violence, but instead went straight to firing his gun at Cunningham.
The defense claimed during its closing argument that Johnson had never threatened Cunningham, and that Cunningham was always the aggressor in the dispute.
They argued Johnson wanted a peaceful resolution over the dispute, saying it was over a parking spot on a public street across from Cunningham and adjacent to Johnson's home. The defense claimed that Cunnigham did not like how Johnson's car looked or that Johnson had an AirBnB on his property, and thought he was damaging the neighborhood's curb appeal.
Cunningham, with his brother tagging along as support, lured Johnson to the parking lot in order to "kick his a****" and defended himself, where the defense claimed that it was within his legal right but not Johnson's desired outcome.
The defense then argued Cunningham had used threatening language towards Johnson and his girlfriend in the past, and that authorities allowed Cunningham's brother to move his car, providing an opportunity to hide a gun.
Johnson told Cunningham that he did have a gun, to which Cunningham replied that he "didn't give a s***," charged Johnson, and was only then that Johnson made a split-second decision to shoot and defend himself, the defense said.
The defense argued Johnson had every reason to be scared of Cunningham, because he thought Johnson was a joke and acting tough. They said Johnson was acting tough because he was terrified of Cunningham.
Cunningham was a star football player at Overland High School in Aurora. He was recruited to the University of Colorado where he played for four years before being drafted by the NFL's Seattle Seahawks as a safety.
After his football career, Cunningham achieved a graduate degree in teaching and eventually became an assistant principal at Hinkley High School.
“As his wife, I want to tell you he is our angel now,” his wife Kristi Cunningham said at the funeral. “He is your biggest cheerleader. I know the devastation of this is so hard, but I want you guys to think about the leader T.J. was for you and go to all your classes and respect your teachers and gain knowledge every single day.”
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