It took a Manhattan jury less than four hours to reject the insanity defense of a psychotic, racist gunman who had held an East Village wine bar hostage in June 2002, announcing, “White people are going to burn tonight!”
Steven Johnson, a black, AIDS-infected, unemployed Brooklyn barber, had spent the 40-minute siege at Bar Veloce on Second Avenue pistol-whipping and holding guns to the throats of his 15 hostages, while ranting, “Die, motherf–king cracker!”
“White people must die and pay for what they have done to my people,” the barbecue lighter-waving fiend had shouted at his terrified captives, all of whom were white.
He had left home that night with a homemade catheter strapped to his leg and a bag packed with dozens of plastic wrist cuffs, three handguns, a 30-inch sword, a barbecue lighter and a squirt bottle of kerosene.
He shot two — plus a young passerby, also white.a female hostage in the leg, and a sushi chef who’d peered into the bar to see what was going on.
Johnson’s previous two trials, at which he also used the insanity defense, ended in a mistrial and an overturned verdict. He now faces life in prison for kidnapping and attempted murder.