Associate Of DA Alvin Bragg Arrested For Murder After Severed Head Found In Freezer
Submitted by blueapples on X
Following his release after spending 20 years in prison, Sheldon Johnson pledged to turn his life around and become a beacon of hope for other ex-convicts. By becoming an advocate of criminal justice reform, Johnson was well on his way to fulfilling that mission. His work saw him bump elbows with the likes of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Gragg and even garnered him an appearance on the world's most-watched podcast; The Joe Rogan Experience. Yet in one fell swoop, Johnson shattered his promise to be an example that ex-convicts can turn their lives around when he was arrested for murder after police discovered the decapitated head of one of his victim's in the freeze of his Fifth Avenue apartment.
New York City Police discovered the Dahmeresque crime scene after they were called to 979 Summit Avenue in the Highbridge neighborhood of the Bronx. Officers were responding to a wellness check on the tenant in Apartment 6G of the building after building superintendent Orlando Medina called 911. Medina told NYPD that he received a distressing call from another tenant around 1 in the morning. "Someone was pleading for their life. She said she heard two gunshots, someone said 'please don't kill me I got family,' something like that and two more gunshots pretty quickly," Medina said.
Despite receiving the call in the early hours of March 5th, Medina hadn't called the NYPD until 8:25 pm that evening. Police subsequently identified Johnson after reviewing surveillance footage from the building. Footage showed Johnson in the building on separate occasions on the morning of the murder. He was seen entering the building wearing a yellow hoodie, sunglasses, and grown coat while carrying a mop and bag of cleaning supplies. Johnson was also carrying a large blue plastic bin that was brought into the apartment which he never brought out. Building superintendent Medina stated he saw the suspect leave driving the victim's stolen Audi before returning in an Uber later that evening.
Subsequent surveillance footage saw Johnson return to the scene of the crime but this time he was wearing a blonde wig as a disguise. Witnesses corroborated the surveillance footage, adding they saw the suspect coming and going into the apartment with cleaning supplies before police had responded to the call for a wellness check.
Sheldon Johnson, a black man who turned his life around, is arrested for murder even though a blonde woman was videotaped leaving the crime scene. Systemic racism is too much. pic.twitter.com/I1a56INYFu
— Shade Slimy (@5slimy) March 8, 2024
The victim, identified as 44 year-old Colin Small, had previously served time in Sing Sing prison concurrent to Johnson's own prison sentence. While NYPD made no remarks about any motive behind the murder, speculation surrounding the gruesome case is that the two had become enemies during their time together in prison at Sing Sing. After identifying Johnson as the suspect, police obtained a search warrant for his Harlem apartment on Fifth Avenue. There, NYPD found the remaining body part's missing from the scene of the crime in Johnson's freezer; namely Small's severed legs and decapitated head. Following his arrest Johnson was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
Despite the ghastly crime Johnson was caught committed red handed, his supporters flocked to court to attend his arraignment. Among his supporters was Lori Zeno, the executive director of his employer the Queens Defenders. One supporter in attendance was adorned in a jacket that read "specializing in wrongful conviction arrests", alluding to the work Johnson did as a victim's rights advocate which saw him rub elbows with some of the most high profile members of NYC's criminal justice system, like DA Alvin Bragg. That notoriety even led to Johnson appearing on the Joe Rogan Experience just one month before his arrest to talk about how he turned his life around.
Though Johnson was held without bail, the fact that people so fervently came to his side following his arrest shows the disingenuousness of their claims that they are advocates for victim's rights given that their callous disregard of the life of Johnson's victim. Instead, Johnson's self-proclaimed mission is very much analogous to the platform of his associate Alvin Bragg. Each exploited the moral imperative of the cause they supposedly fought for in order to achieve political gain instead of effectuating real change. If Johnson's example proves anything, it's that the likes of him calling for criminal justice reform only seek to reshape the system so that it is works for their benefit.