Inmate said Bucks man confessed to killing

The week that Marcel Johnson was sent to Bucks County prison on a drug charge, George Lewis said, Johnson tearfully confessed to murder.

It was November 2013. News had been percolating around the cell block about a gruesome killing in Levittown, Lewis said. Lewis, held for a parole violation, was assigned to watch over Johnson, a new inmate.

And almost immediately, Lewis recalled Tuesday, Johnson told Lewis he'd killed two people: "Ebony," referring to 22-year-old Ebony Talley, and her 4-year-old daughter, later identified as R'Mani Rankins.

Johnson would later be charged with killing Talley's unborn daughter as well.

"I was very surprised," Lewis testified in a Doylestown courtroom Monday, the last witness in Johnson's death penalty murder trial.

Lewis, who is still in jail, admitted he was motivated to share the apparent confession with authorities because it might help his own case. Additionally, when pressed by defense attorney Craig Penglase on the details of Johnson's admission, Lewis grew flustered at times, once pleading with Judge Diane Gibbons to move past questions about specific details.

Still, when he stepped down from the stand Monday afternoon, prosecutor Matt Weintraub rested his case. Penglase said he may have one witness to present on Johnson's behalf Tuesday and that he was still trying to convince his client not to testify.

Deliberations could begin Tuesday following closing arguments.

- Chris Palmer