For the first time in nearly 30 years, Johnny Johnson knows true freedom thanks to the prosecutor who convicted him.
LAKELAND For the first time in nearly 30 years, Johnny Johnson knows true freedom.
Five years after taking the rare step of releasing the convicted murderer from prison after serving only his mandatory 25-year sentence, the states parole commissioners now have voted unanimously to end the Lakeland mans parole, as well.
Laura Tully, director of field services for the Florida Commission on Offender Review, said she can recall only a few times in her 17 years with the commission that a parolee was released after just a few years on supervision.
Its a rarity, especially for a capital felony, she said.
While elated, Johnson, 46, said the moment was bittersweet. Hed expected to share it with the lawyer whod been instrumental in his release the same lawyer, the late John Aguero,whod convinced a jury to convict him in 1988.
Johnson was 16 when he stood before that jury and later as he was sentenced to life imprisonment. A year earlier, hed run away from home and soon befriended 32-year-old Charles Carter, who had long hair and reminded him of his father.
A couple of weeks later, as they sat on Millie Wordens couch hatching a plan to rob the frail grandmother, Johnson felt trapped, he would later say.
He and Carter had been hitchhiking on Sept. 22, 1987, when she picked them up and took them to her home in Winter Havens Jan Phyl Village.
Four days after that, a passerby would find Worden's bound and gagged body at an abandoned house in Alturas.
Maybe I could have done something if I wasnt scared, Johnson said later, but I was scared, and I didnt think I could overpower him.
So he did what he was told, he said.
Even so, Johnson threw up in Wordens bedroom while Carter strangled her with a cord from her television. Her daughters said they found his vomit the next day while checking on their mother.
Former Assistant State AttorneyAguero argued the case in the trial in which Johnson was convicted.
Then the prosecutor turned to Johnson for help.
The very next day after he was convicted, I went to the jail and talked to him about testifying against Carter, and he did it, Aguero said in 2012. Thats the only time Ive ever talked to a defendant I have convicted.
That testimony helped to convict Carter, whos serving life imprisonment.
In his career spanning three decades, Aguero won convictions in 60 of the 64 first-degree murder cases he prosecuted, said former State Attorney Jerry Hill.
Yet he never forgot Johnson or the power Carter held over him.
This case stayed with him, former State Attorney Jerry Hill said Wednesday. I think John Aguero, somewhere, had a concern about putting this kid in prison for life.
"He talked about testifying for him at a parole hearing long before (Johnsons) 25 years was up," he said. "He had kept up with him in prison, and he truly thought this kid was going to make it.
"Once again, John Aguero was spot on, Hill said.
When Aguero testified for Johnson at the 2012 hearing that led to his release from prison, it was a first for the veteran prosecutor, who more often stood before the commission challenging a potential parole.
After Johnsons release, Aguero advised him on steps he should take to modify or end his parole, and he planned to attend Johnsons July 26 parole hearing in Tallahassee.
But earlier that month, Aguero was taken ill while visiting his daughter in Morocco. He died July 7.
Hill said he wasnt going to let Johnsons case fall through the cracks, even though he thought the chances were slim that the commission would release him from parole so soon.
I didnt think we stood the chance of a snowball in the Promised Land, he said. As a general rule, its a nibble process with parole. They may give you a little break and theyll bring you back a couple years later and give you a little more.
"They never release somebody after just four years. It just doesnt happen, he said.
But Hill told the commission hes convinced Johnson will make it.
This is a guy that Id take to the house with me, Hill said Wednesday. Id have him for my neighbor.
He said Johnson was paralyzed at the prospect of unknowingly violating his parole.
It was like he was in another kind of prison, he said. This guy was afraid to go out the door for fear hed stub his toe and get violated, and hed never had a problem while he was in prison.
"I told the commission, I will guarantee that if this monkey gets off his back, hes going to improve, Hill said.
Tully said no one opposed Johnsons release from parole. Wordens two daughters had challenged his release from prison, but not this. Neither of them could be reached for comment Wednesday.
Johnson said his nerves consumed him as the commissioners considered his future.
I was on edge, wanting to make sure they knew the situation, Johnson said this week. When they voted to approve it, so many things went running through my head we can go anywhere we want. Im not restricted by the county line.
"Even now, I know Im free, but it hasnt really set in yet, he said.
Johnson said he still has a hard time talking about the 26 years he spent behind bars, including the year awaiting trial.
Depression haunted him, but he found positive moments that gave him hope. He met his future wife through his mother in 1993 and married her in a prison ceremony four years later.
He received his high school equivalency diploma, and picked up courses in plumbing and electrical wiring.
Eventually, he said, he might pursue work in one of those fields. But for now, he spends his time caring for his wife, who battles health issues, at the rural home theyve made in the Kathleen area.
She took care of me for all those years, he said, now its my time to take care of her.
Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. Follow her on Twitter @southpolkscene.
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Lakeland man convicted in murder as teen gets taste of real freedom decades later - The Ledger
