Sheldon Johnson, a man convicted of attempted murder and robbery who was freed 25 years into his 50 year sentence, didn’t even make it a full year out before being arrested and charged with murder this week.
Johnson had rebranded himself a “criminal justice reform advocate” after his release from prison, and, according to the New York Times, was one of the leading public faces for “rehabilitation, and even redemption.” Among those who sung his praises included the George Soros-backed Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who he’d been photographed shaking hands with.
Just a month ago he appeared on the popular Joe Rogan podcast with an advocate from the ironically-named “Innocence Project” to extol the virtues of “rehabilitation” and talk about how he turned his life around - right before being charged with murder.
As the NY Post reported:
Johnson, a 48-year-old staffer for the public law firm Queens Defenders, was led out of the 44th Precinct stationhouse in handcuffs Thursday after police made the grisly discovery — a human torso in a blue bin and a head stashed in a freezer in the sixth-floor apartment, police said.
Sources said the victim in this week’s slaying, identified as 44-year-old Collin Small, may have had a beef with Johnson while both were doing time at Sing Sing prison in Westchester County.
Neighbors told cops the victim was heard desperately pleading with his killer shortly before two shots rang out in the apartment near Odgen Avenue and West 162nd Street shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, sources and neighbors said.
As one of the top comments on Johnson’s appearance on the Rogan podcast now reads: He turned his life around - he did a full 360.
It sure seems like the criminal justice system was working fine before, and has only been broken by those attempting to “fix” it.
