Sheldon Johnson was in prison until last May. After getting out, he became well-known for turning his life around. He used to be a big part of a gang called the Bloods, got convicted of trying to kill someone, and spent 25 years in prison. He started working with troubled young people at the Queens Public Defenders’ office. He even went on a popular podcast hosted by Joe Rogan a month ago to talk about his time in prison and his new job.
However, this week, his success story took a bad turn. Sheldon Johnson, a 48-year-old criminal justice activist and an ex-con who lives in Harlem was accused of killing a person. The police charged him with murder, manslaughter, and having an illegal weapon. They say he killed Collin Small, who was 44 years old, inside Small’s apartment in the Bronx. It’s not clear how Johnson knew Small.
Johnson appeared on a popular podcast hosted by Joe Rogan a month before the incident happened. On the podcast, titled “Sentenced to 50 Years, Sheldon Johnson Decided to Turn His Life Around,” Johnson spoke about working with the Queens Defenders office as a youth counselor. He wanted to help kids stay away from gang life. Johnson mentioned that prison can either bring out the best or the worst in a person.
According to NBC, Johnson, a former high-ranking member of the Bloods gang, had been sentenced to 50 years for attempted murder. However, he served 25 years and was released last year. In the podcast, Johnson admitted to robbing someone at gunpoint and assaulting them to steal their jewelry. His lawyer, Josh Dubin, argued that Johnson was unfairly sentenced to two decades for a crime that caused the victims only “two stitches.”
New York Daily News reported that before Johnson got punished for stealing, they also spent more than nine months in trouble in 1997 for having stolen things. Johnson talked about his family’s history on a podcast. He said that he, his father, and his grandfather had been in jail before. His great-grandfather was even a slave.
His father, Sheldon Johnson Sr., who is 73 years old, was surprised when his son was accused of murder. He thought his son had changed for the better after getting his GED in jail. Sheldon Johnson Sr., who cannot hear, used sign language to express that his son had been doing well recently, working as a client advocate for Queens Defenders. When Sheldon Johnson was around 17 years old, he used to sell drugs on the streets of Harlem.
In 2008, Sheldon Johnson’s 14-year-old son, also named Sheldon Johnson, attacked a 24-year-old student named Mingui Yu near Broadway and W. 122nd St. The teenager hit her many times, and she ran into the traffic and got hit by a passing SUV, leading to her death. The young Sheldon Johnson was charged with manslaughter and spent 18 months in a juvenile detention boot camp.
Sheldon Johnson was seen exiting and entering his unit in multiple disguises, carrying large bags and a container moments before his arrest pic.twitter.com/zFYhjay1ko
— keep6ixsolid (@keep6ixsolid) March 8, 2024
This week, a person named Collin Small, who was 44 years old, was killed. Some sources suggest that Small and Johnson may have had problems when they were both in prison at Sing Sing in Westchester County. People living nearby told the police that they heard Small begging for his life just before two gunshots were heard in an apartment near Ogden Avenue and West 162nd Street, a little after 8 p.m. on Tuesday. The victim was pleading, saying things like, “Please don’t” and “I have a family!”
After the gunshots, neighbors called the police for a wellness check. They mentioned seeing someone they didn’t know going in and out of the apartment with cleaning supplies, according to the building superintendent Orlando Medina.
New York Times reports shortly after hearing gunshots, a neighbor saw a man with bags and cleaning supplies going in and out of an apartment, as per the police reports. The neighbor didn’t know the man and told Medina, about what she saw.
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Before calling the police, Medina decided to check the security camera footage. He saw a man changing clothes multiple times, wearing different outfits, and carrying various items. The man seemed to have a key, making Medina think he owned the place. Medina also observed the victim, Small, entering the apartment around 10 p.m., but he didn’t see him leave. Concerned, Medina called 911 for a wellness check, suspecting that something bad might have happened to the tenant.
The surveillance video footage showed Johnson wearing different disguises. He was seen entering and leaving the apartment multiple times after the murder.
In one part of the video, he was wearing a blond wig, a black baseball cap, and sunglasses. He also had on a black sweater, dark pants, and white sneakers. Later, he changed into a different outfit with a plaid hat, a white shirt, and a dark coat. He was dragging a blue bin, which matched the bin where body parts were found. Then, he switched his hat to a black cap but kept the same outfit. In another instance, he changed again, wearing all beige clothes and carrying two bags. He had on a big hoodie, sweatpants, and a large hat covering his face.
The suspect was also observed leaving the apartment in the victim’s blue Audi and later coming back in an Uber while wearing a blond wig, as reported by Medina.
When police arrived at the apartment on Summit Avenue, near the corner of West 162nd Street, they knocked on Small’s door, and Johnson opened it. “Police detectives later confirmed that the man captured on camera coming in and out of the apartment was Johnson,” the reports said. “They took Johnson into custody soon afterward.”
Once the police got permission to search the apartment. They found the body parts of the victim in different places—torso and feet in a bin, legs, arms, and head in the freezer. The victim, Small, had been shot in the head. About 17 hours later, Johnson was charged with murder.
Now social media users and fans of Joe Rogan are demanding to delete this episode. “A lot of red flags were going off in my head when I listened to that episode,” wrote one person on Reddit, where users were discussing the arrest. Johnson’s lawyer, Josh Dubin, called his client “a miracle,” adding that he was unfairly sentenced to two decades for a robbery that left his victims with only “two stitches, ” reported by The Sun.
Some people who listen to Rogan’s show said Johnson didn’t take his actions seriously. One listener commented, “Using a gun to hit someone during a robbery is very close to committing robbery and murder.” Another person said, “I didn’t like the guest on the show.”
After the arrest, many fans went to the YouTube episode to express their surprise. One viewer wrote, “A month later, he’s arrested for murder.” Someone else said, “Please remove this episode.” Dubin, who is a regular guest on the podcast, received negative comments from Reddit users who hoped he wouldn’t be on the show anymore. One person said, “I hope this means Josh Dubin won’t be on the podcast again.” Another commented, “I don’t find Josh Dubin’s episodes on criminal justice reform interesting. It’s not surprising that someone given a second chance would end up taking someone’s life.”
