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HAMILTON — A Butler County jury is expected to begin deliberating today, May 6, to decide if Harvey "Shawn" Johnson Jr. will receive the death penalty.

Johnson, 33, is expected to testify today as the last witness in the penalty phase of the trial, one day after his 5-year-old daughter, his half-brother and his mother asked the jury to spare his life.

Johnson on Friday was found guilty of the April 2007 kidnapping and strangulation death of Liberty Twp. mother Kiva Gazaway, his longtime girlfriend.

To testify, Johnson's daughter sat Monday, May 5, in a child-size chair in front of the jury box.

Izzilla said she has talked with her father on the phone since he has been in jail. They talk about cartoons, she said.

In a small voice, Izzilla said she wants to continue to talk to her father "because I love him."

Johnson's younger half-brother, Pierre Brinson, a former Fairfield resident now living in Orlando, Fla., said he has had sporadic contact with Johnson in the past 10 years, but said "he has been a good brother to me."

Brinson said he looked up to his brother, who "could play (basketball) ball real good." He said at one time he tried out for the Philadelphia 76ers.

The brothers shared a smile — one of the few shows of emotion by Johnson during the trial — after the statement about basketball tryouts.

Brinson said he does not believe his brother should die even though he has been convicted of killing the 38-year-old Gazaway.

"I feel like he is a good man, but I think growing up his father had a deep impact on his life."

Johnson's mother, Shirley Brinson, also took the stand. Her testimony was interrupted by a fire alarm in the Butler County Government Services Center, causing the building to be evacuated.

When Shirley Brinson took the stand again, she cried as told the jury she would always love her son and that she had also loved Gazaway.

"I think he is punished already ... Nobody can tell me he is not suffering because he is," she said. "I just have to ask God for his mercy."

The Panama native said she divorced her husband, a Philadelphia police officer, when Johnson was 6 years old.

She said Johnson Sr., known as "Big Harvey," abused both her and her young son.

"He beat (Johnson) with a belt ... for little things," she said.

She said, "I wanted to take Little Harvey (Johnson) with me but he wouldn't let me, he (Johnson Sr.) told me he would kill me."

Shirley Brinson said "Little Harvey" ran away to live with her when he was 14 and stayed with her until he got in trouble in high school and returned to live with his father.

She said she went to see her son in a federal prison when he was arrested on a probation violation after leaving Ohio. Gazaway was missing at that time and Johnson was a suspect in her death.

"As a mother, I knew something was wrong when I looked into his eyes," she said. "I can't explain it. I can't put it into words. My heart leaped because I knew something was wrong with Kiva."

Johnson is a convicted bank robber who is already facing 18 years in prison for trying to escape by grabbing a bailiff's gun in Fairfield Municipal Court.

The jury can sentence Johnson to: life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years; life in prison with the possibility of parole in 30 years; and life in prison without the possibility of parole; and death.

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