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prisons in the United States of America house many of the world's most dangerous
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and notorious prisoners one of those is Edward Johnson he was brutally beaten beyond
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recognition the guy from pretty much the moment he entered the facility was a loose canon he seems to be a complete
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psychopath by the very definition of psycho Johnson is a cold calculating killer who
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brutally murdered a female friend she was in the bathtub and he had stabbed her to death
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he had no remorse whatsoever and he was just proud didn't care we were all sobbing
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and he just thought it was funny even securely locked behind bars Johnson's violence continued Mr Johnson is
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institutionalized just by the fact that he's been incarcerated essentially his
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whole adult life and he continued to reoffend the thing that makes maximum security prisons more dangerous is that
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the inmates they've already made it up their minds that they're going to Live
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and Die in prison Mr Johnson was in a fight with another inmate here at the prison and lost his eye Edward Johnson
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is a danger to all staff that are in his immediate area and and his offenders as
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well surrounded by dangerous prisoners it is often the prison guards who become targets he brutally killed a correction
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officer in Minnesota by bashing his head in with the hammer Edward I think he's the devil I
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[Music] do [Music] Minnesota Correctional Facility Stillwater the largest male prison in
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the state we're standing outside the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater it's a prison that was built
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in 1914 it houses about, 1600 inmates you could have guys in there that have life sentences for
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murder uh rape assault all kinds of theft crimes extortion any kind of felony you can think of in on the books
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has guys like that at the facility serial murderers are there when it does kick off they go all
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the way they they'll attempt to kill you so as you're walking down the hall in
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the middle of it you have prisoners on this side prisoners on this side you know three or four levels high it's a
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scary place to visit Edward Johnson is notorious within the prison as one of the most dangerous
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prisoners Edward Johnson is a very dangerous criminal who has a lengthy History of
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Violence he's very cunning and manipulative he has a lack of empathy a lack of remorse all of those personality
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traits points to a high level of psychopathy Behind Bars Johnson continued the violent behavior that put
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him there he was the kind of inmates that even other inmates stayed away from because of his
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behavior they referred to him as somewhat of a wacko and someone they had wanted nothing to do with because he was
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potential Dynamite ready to go off I would say Johnson is probably one of the most dangerous prisoners to exist
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in the United States absolutely Edward Johnson was born in Chicago in the 1970s into a middle class
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family he was the son of two cops Edward and Selena Johnson both worked for the Chicago Police
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Department Johnson and his younger sister had a difficult upbringing there was domestic violence
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between his parents who by all accounts were generally good members of society although his father struggled with
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alcohol abuse mother had tried from what I understand to leave his father many times and had not been successful in
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that Johnson's mother filed for divorce in June 1988 and kept custody of the
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children she was scared and knew that at some point he might kill her on the 13th of September
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1988 Johnson's father broke into the house and attacked his estranged wife the kids were home at the time and
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Edward heard a commotion went out and saw his father beating his mother the father then P tried to push
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him out of the room but then he could hear [Music] shots Mr Johnson actually witnessed it
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and he described his mother's head bouncing when she was shot multiple times after the shooting the father left
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the scene and the kids went to a neighbor's house to report the shooting they later found Edward Johnson
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Senior dead in a motel room of suicide shot himself in the [Music] head 12-year-old Edward Johnson and his
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sister moved to Minneapolis Minnesota where they were raised by an ant so when it comes to Mr Johnson we really don't
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know what were the predisposing factors to help him become this Psychopathic violent criminal however the witnessing
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as a young child of his father murdering his mother that had to be extremely traumatic and it also painted a
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narrative in his head that these are how relationships with females are supposed
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to occur this was normal by the time Edward Johnson was 26 years old he had accumulated a couple of
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assault charges a drug possession conviction and had been in prison several times in 2002 while free he ran into his
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friend 22-year-old Brook Thompson my name is Lori Thompson and I'm the mother of Brook
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Thompson I was told by her friends that she met him through one of her past boyfriends who was related to him he was
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his cousin so she knew him as a friend while she was dating his cousin in July Brooke asked Edward to
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help her leave her boyfriend she was in an abusive relationship she needed to move out and
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that's when Edward said you can crash with me for a little while you know until you find another place of your own
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he said she could crash on his couch while she was looking for another apartment Brooke and her 5-year-old
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daughter temporarily moved into Johnson's apartment in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington Brooke wanted to
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become a pargal she had a great job working at a law firm in Downtown Minneapolis and she was going to school
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part-time two nights a week to be a pargal she was Raising her daughter Taylor and Taylor she was the light of
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her life unbeknownst to her mother Lori Johnson started getting obsessed with Brooke and acting possessive she had
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told her friends he's being kind of creepy and he's acting like my boyfriend
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and he's not my boyfriend and he wants to know where I am all the time Brooke
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became frightened as Johnson became more threatening there were signs that this something was wrong with this guy and
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that's right around the time she was getting ready to leave Johnson decided he wanted to take Brooke to Chicago with
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him but she refused he took the rejection badly and threatened to take her against her will it doesn't seem
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like there's anything he will not do to get his needs met nothing is a consequence for
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him on August 13th 2002 Brook planned her escape and asked her mother to look after her daughter for the night but
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first she wanted to pick up some belongings at Johnson's she said I need you to watch Taylor tonight for me that
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I have to work in the morning morning and I said absolutely I'd love to take her so we waited and waited and
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waited and she never showed up that night I was very worried but I thought well she must have slept in went to bed
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early I don't I didn't know the next morning when one of Brook's friends
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phoned Lori asking for Brooke they both realized something was wrong I called her work her
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office and they said she was not in and not called in and that's when Edward
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reached out to her to Brook's friend and said um Brooke had to leave and would
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like me to drop off Taylor with you so can you meet me Brook's friend agreed to meet Edward
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outside a grocery store Lori joined them but she also brought with her undercover
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police we were inside the grocery store watching for him and she saw him pull up
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so she walked out there just as friendly as she could be you know made Small Talk
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got Taylor out of the car and walked her into the grocery store the police immediately took Edward Johnson into
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custody and started an investigation the police transported us to the Plymouth Police Department and
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just brought us into a meeting room and asked us just to sit tight while they were still looking for Brooke so we
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waited there for several hours knowing nothing all we could think of was he must have beat her
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up they came in and got me and said we need to speak with you privately and took me
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into a separate room and told me they found her and I just said oh God is she okay
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what's wrong what happened and that's when they told me she's gone he killed her he ended up
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stabbing her multiple times every parents worst [Music] nightmare Edward Johnson had killed Brook Thompson
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in his apartment Taylor was in the next room watching TV she heard the whole thing
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she said he kept hitting mommy's head against the bathroom door and she kept
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screaming please stop please stop it was a horrible horrible death but what makes it even more tragic is
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Miss Brook's daughter Taylor who was five at the time was home and heard her
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mother screaming she was in the bathtub and he had stabbed her to [Music] death so they found
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her after being charged with the murder of Brooke Edward Johnson was imprisoned to await trial Edward Johnson was
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arrested in 2002 for the murder of his roommate he was housed in the hennipen county
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jail in Minneapolis when a person commits a crime out on the streets they get arrested they go to the police
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department to get processed and then they'll go to County Jail that's where
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they'll take away their belongings dress them out and inmate atire fingerprint
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them book them and they wait there until they get scheduled to go to prison while there he punched a deputy
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in the eye after he was told that he couldn't visit a certain part of the jail and I think it just sort of speaks
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to the violent violent behavior that Mr Johnson has on February 13th 2003 Edward Johnson
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appeared in court to face second degree murder charges Edward I I I think he's
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the devil I do through the whole murder trial in the courtroom he turned around and he was smiling and smirking and
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winking at us he had no remorse whatsoever and he was just proud didn't care we were all sobbing
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and he just thought it was funny that's a psychopath the only person that showed
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up to support him in court was his sister and she actually wasn't there to support him she was there to support us
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she came over and spoke with me and apologized on his behalf and hugged me and said just how terrible she felt that
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he had done that Edward Johnson was offered and accepted a plea bargain he was sentenced to 29 years for second
00:14:12
degree intentional homicide we were Furious we were not consulted about that I said he took a life he should be in
00:14:20
there for life I don't understand Edward Johnson was sent to Minnesota Correctional facility Still
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Water to serve his sentence still water is kind of the focal point of the Minnesota Department of Corrections
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that's been the historically been the most problematic in terms of the severity of incidents which occur it's
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an old prison it looks like a prison that you might see in the movies you would see the the
00:14:50
bars you walk through and you can see the prisoners at the bars and the clanging of the
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bars we're talking about dangerous environment where I mean you've got individuals who have perpetually
00:15:05
sometimes committed violent acts against their peers their neighbors their families correction staff police
00:15:12
officers this is where Edward Johnson was sent in 2003 after he was sentenced to 29 years in prison for the murder of
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Brook Thompson he was not a model prisoner he spent a lot of his time while he was here in the segregation
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unit over 17 100 days which is really quite a quite a high number for an inmate my name is Shane wary I'm a
00:15:35
correction Sergeant with the Minnesota Department of Corrections I've been in
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Corrections since 2005 the St water facility and its peak was housing a lot of offenders think up to the 1620
00:15:49
offenders you'll have guys that will be in there for 5 years and you'll have
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guys that will be in there for Life there is conflict between gangs you'll have skin heads for example you know
00:16:00
white gangs and then gangs of color black gangs Hispanic gangs that type of thing and inmates assaulting each other
00:16:06
are common Edward Johnson was no different while inside he continued his violent
00:16:15
behavior in 2004 he was involved in an incident at the prison where another inmate stabbed him in his right
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eye ironically and Edward Johnson tried to attack another offender with the shank uh that offender got a hold of
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Edward Johnson's weapon and returned fire so to speak and end up stabbing him
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in the eye um which he ultimately lost his eye having lost an eye as the result of
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a fight with an inmate whether or not he was responsible for starting it was completely irrelevant this was going to
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fuel more anger in Mr Johnson Fuel more rage and justify to him that further acts of violence were necessary because
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this is all he knows and there was just this hatred by Edward Johnson he had just a great
00:17:10
disdain for you know the people that he deemed to be responsible for the loss of
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his [Music] eye I would say that the general consensus was and it wasn't just all
00:17:24
staff it was one particular staff who he felt was responsible cuz the gate was accidentally open when in turn he was
00:17:32
the one that gate opener closed took a weapon and went and assaulted another offender so I think it just goes to
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illustrate kind of his way of thinking which is absolutely irrational Edward Johnson had a lot of
00:17:47
anger against the prison and against correctional officers after that incident where he lost the vision in his
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eye very early on Johnson probably had this mixed idea about a Authority are they good are they bad are they supposed
00:18:01
to Serve and Protect his father who was a police officer murdered his mother an inmate might want to attack a guard for
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numerous reasons they can feel disrespected they can be angered they can be enraged having a psychotic
00:18:14
episode and just have total disregard for life and they don't really need a reason he had articulated that he was
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going to get revenge for the loss of his eye often having lost an eye within the
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first year of being incarcerated Johnson's record did not improve he was constantly in trouble
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when I look at his um discipline record Edward Johnson doesn't look like he was
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somebody that was trying to improve his life his criminal activities within the prison system which involves
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assaults threats weapons disobeying orders being in unauthorized area see possession of tobacco and uh alcohol
00:19:01
too so he was probably using substances throughout his incarceration as well adding more fuel to the
00:19:11
fire Edward Johnson had a growing desire for Revenge prison staff believed he was a
00:19:19
danger to everyone in Stillwater and should be transferred to a higher security facility some of the threats in prison
00:19:30
for correctional officers and for the inmates is threat of being violently attacked you can get stabbed you can get
00:19:36
slashed with a slashing weapon you can get what's called gas where they will
00:19:42
throw some type of substance on you whether it's urine feces blood and you know they attempt to get you in the face
00:19:50
or just jumped jumped by 100 or 200 individuals in a riot or staff assault when inmate was labeled a problem person
00:20:01
who really was a loose cannon a significant risk to other inmates or cosos they would be transferred to the
00:20:07
Oak Park Heights facility which is a facility to have closer scrutiny of inmates rather than being transferred
00:20:16
Johnson was put to work inside the prison with the hope of Rehabilitation the industry program at
00:20:23
the St waterer facility it's just like You' walk into an industrial complex and
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they they've got a wood shop they can make wood products to office furniture
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upholster if an inmate has a history of disciplinary issues especially threats exacted against uh prison Personnel they
00:20:40
should not be in Industry ever they had access to tools like hammers Sharp Tools the kind of tools
00:20:48
that you would expect like you know in a mechanic shop or in an Industry Facility
00:20:52
where they make products you're talking about potentially people with violent
00:20:57
histories that that are in possession and using like tools that can inflict great Bly harm or
00:21:05
death why is this guy out in an environment where he can have access to these weapons and the opportunity to use
00:21:14
them it makes no sense none at all Johnson had been looking for an opportunity for
00:21:22
revenge and he found one this inmate had been planning the attack in fact s letters to his family telling him much
00:21:31
the same that he was going to assault somebody he' be reading about it soon Johnson went in for the kill he
00:21:41
murdered him with a hammer he attacked him from the back and bludgeoned him to death Edward Johnson was at Minnesota
00:21:56
Correctional Facility Still Water Stillwater prison has got a Gothic kind of victorium look it's the image most
00:22:06
people have of a prison with the bars and open open cell blocks they're behind these metal bars
00:22:13
and you can often hear them yelling or cat calling as you're walking through or
00:22:17
banging on the on the metal bars there had been lots of assaults that have occurred over the years and vicious
00:22:24
assaults on staff I mean I'm talking people have been hospit hospitalized and
00:22:29
had to retire early or never came back to work multiple offenders fighting you know that kind of amplifies the
00:22:35
situation I talked with many different Union officials who represent the correctional officers in Minnesota one
00:22:41
of the things that they stressed was there aren't enough correctional officers working staff at Staffing the
00:22:48
prison the ratio from offenders to guards is like unsafe across the agency I mean you might have four correction
00:22:57
staff and a of over 200 offenders now you do the math on that the odds are not stacked in your favor if they were to
00:23:05
choose to do things a certain way by 2018 Edward Johnson had spent almost 1,700 days in segregation but was
00:23:20
allowed to join the Industry Program to learn new skills with the record that Johnson had in prison the time he spent
00:23:29
in segregation which is the jail within the prison in other words he's not turning his life around he's not
00:23:36
changing his behavior he doesn't deserve to be out in Industry that industry
00:23:42
should be reserved for those inmates that are proving that they want to change their lifestyle change their
00:23:48
choices and become a productive citizen there really not a what I consider to be a solid vetting process
00:23:56
for determining who is the best candidates for these positions the prison officers working at
00:24:07
Stillwater were very aware of the potential problems in industry and the prison as a whole one correctional
00:24:15
officer Joseph gum ensured new recruits understood the situation I remember when
00:24:22
I first met Joe gam I was probably within the first few weeks of my career in Corrections back in 2005 and I was
00:24:29
you know just like any other rookie like scared like you hear all these stories stay away from this person this person's
00:24:35
Cool Joe was the kind of officer that would be respected by inmates staff and the public he did his job he did his job
00:24:45
appropriately and respectfully he was the kind of officer that if if there was something that the
00:24:53
inmate requested and he could do it and it was within the guidelines of the SOP would do it where others may not they
00:25:00
might say I don't have time to deal with you Joe would take care of that throughout his career he he bounced
00:25:07
around to different places throughout the facility working in like the education unit where the offenders go to
00:25:12
school and then um as well as out into the industry area too he was just always that guy that you could go to but he
00:25:19
also wasn't afraid to stand up for what was right he was very concerned about
00:25:23
himself and his fellow employees and he had actually said and I quote is it's
00:25:28
going to take one of us to die before there's any significant change since losing his eye Edward
00:25:35
Johnson had been searching for an opportunity to get revenge and he found one on July 18 2018 and I was working
00:25:45
that day I cover the Minnesota Correctional Facility correctional officer G was working there that day he was in the
00:25:53
industry building Edward Johnson was also in Industry that day still blaming the prison system and guards for the
00:26:01
events which left him blind in one eye he targeted officer gum and work Johnson he just carried himself in a different
00:26:09
way he was like quiet kind of almost like in a pink panther sneaky kind of way and it just always kind of gave me
00:26:17
goosebumps a little bit cuz he just the way he carried himself Mr Johnson came up behind him
00:26:26
and really unprovoked just started smashed him on the head with a hammer Joseph G he was alone there were
00:26:36
no other cos's there and uh Johnson got access to him and then proceeded to bludgeon him to death with a hammer and
00:26:44
he stabbed him to death with a tool that he had made in industry I knew something bad had happened but I
00:27:02
wasn't exactly sure what that was um within probably a half hour of that um some administrators started kind of
00:27:09
pouring into my office like they normally would on any other day cuz we just kind of talk and joke around but
00:27:15
there was just like a different look about them a lot of them were looking at the floor and I just I knew something
00:27:19
didn't feel right well one of them God bless his soul pulled me out of the room
00:27:24
and told me what had happened other anation did try to step in but by the time they they got in
00:27:31
there this was very quick you see he was killed quickly and then he fled and barricaded himself in a
00:27:40
room the officers that responded first they had to get through the barricade and one officer stated that he
00:27:49
didn't recognize Joel I think I found out that it was Johnson that murdered Joe it was like a
00:27:56
few hours after when everything started hitting the media know I'm knowing who
00:28:01
Johnson was my entire career up until that point so I definitely recognized that I knew I knew the name and
00:28:07
everything like that it was shocking this was national news this was the first time in the state of Minnesota
00:28:14
that a correctional officer had been killed by an inmate so it was just unheard of I mean it was just very
00:28:22
upsetting and uh very disturbing shortly after the attack Johnson was charged and later pleaded
00:28:29
guilty to the murder of Joseph gum I don't think I need to tell you that when Joe died he was all alone
00:28:38
something Menor stab knew and something the criminal uh who killed Joe knew also
00:28:45
according to the 2018 investigation file an inmate told investigators that gam should not have been left alone in the
00:28:54
prison's metal shop with dozens of prisoners officer gum had only a radio pepper spray and handcuffs when Johnson
00:29:03
attacked him he's a coward he attacks from behind he attacks the weaker and very difficult to talk
00:29:20
about I like many other people would like to go toe to- Toe with them that man put it that
00:29:31
way there should never be a staff that's by themselves in a shop with inmates
00:29:35
with potential weapons such just that to me is a [Music] no-brainer as far as Edward Johnson was
00:29:46
concerned he had taken out his revenge on the exact day that Joe was murdered was the 14-year anniversary of the date
00:29:55
that this man had been assaulted by another inmate and lost the vision in his right eye it wasn't just a
00:30:01
coincidence that the day that he killed Joe it seems clear that this man had a vendetta after a turbulent 16 years in
00:30:10
prison for the murder of Brook Thompson 42-year-old Edward Muhammad Johnson have
00:30:16
been planning to attack prison staff why was Joe the target when you know there's staff that
00:30:24
are not liked by inmates why not one of them well then you come to realize inmates
00:30:32
are opportunists they take an opportunity of the situation and Joe was in that situation he was in that uniform
00:30:41
that made him the target there was no evidence that Joe gam had any issues with Johnson nothing
00:30:49
nothing zero no evidence whatsoever when you think about Psychopaths and people who engage in
00:30:56
this high level violence they don't have long what we call consequential thinking they typically engage in what
00:31:06
serves them in the moment so if Johnson wanted to kill that officer if he was angry if this is the only way he knows
00:31:13
how to deal with emotions he was going to deal with those emotions by murdering the family and friends of
00:31:20
Officer gum we devastated anyone you've talked to about correctional officer G will tell you
00:31:28
knew what a kind soul he was and I'm not sure you would hear that about every
00:31:33
correctional officer but in certainly in this case it just makes it incredibly heartbreaking I was mad as well as
00:31:43
grieving I was really mad I still am still am mad should have never happened in 2018 immediately after
00:32:00
murdering prison officer Joe gum Edward Johnson was finally transferred to high security prison Oak
00:32:08
Park Heights so in the case of Edward Johnson utilizing a hammer to brutally murder a correction officer that's
00:32:16
fairly rare because inmates that have access to those type of Weaponry whether it's a
00:32:23
hammer behind the work change wall or knives inside of a culinary kitchen the inmates in there are usually
00:32:31
privileged privileged to be working in that area so they don't want to mess up
00:32:35
their opportunities when an inmate was labeled a problem person who really was a loose
00:32:41
cannon they would be transferred to the Oak Park heits facility o park heits facility which is
00:32:48
our supermax facility which when it was built was the mely supermax facility in Florence
00:32:55
Colorado the Oak Park Heights Prison would which is just about 5 miles from the Stillwater prison is a very
00:33:01
different experience if when you are there it's very quiet each inmate has their own cell and the cells are they're
00:33:10
big metal steel doors that slide and and slide into place uh so it's a very different experience as as from visiting
00:33:17
the Still Water prison Edward Johnson had committed the worst possible crime in prison murdering an officer now all
00:33:25
the officers feared for their lives we always knew that there was a possibility that any one of us could be
00:33:32
killed in the line of duty but it was never like a on the Forefront of our thinking I was in complete shock kind of
00:33:38
a little bit of denial at first until it started kind of hitting the waves uh on
00:33:42
the media and it was like you know a reality and yeah it was just it's still
00:33:47
hard to believe that it happened officer gum was the first correctional officer killed in the state
00:33:56
of Minnesota most of the staff that worked with him and most of the staff throughout the department were
00:34:04
infuriated because it could have been prevented the reports that officers had written for concerns of the safety in
00:34:16
that environment that Joe was killed in were not considered well uh the governor
00:34:22
was very responsive and it was obvious he felt terrible about what happened the commissioner for the doc was responsive
00:34:30
also their their own agency went after him really hard but the DLC fought that claiming an
00:34:38
essence of the inding Rocks after Joe gam was murdered the prison went into lockdown I believe it
00:34:46
was 3 weeks yeah that was definitely one of the most struggling times um when the
00:34:52
offender population was locked down and some of the things that we had to listen
00:34:55
to them saying and there were some offenders that were legitimately like upset about it too
00:35:04
which I at that point in time I found it pretty I guess I never looked at them as
00:35:09
having empathy but I I think I've seen some empathy after that even um from the
00:35:14
offender population there were other guys that would sit there and yell stuff at us from their cells we call them cell
00:35:21
Warriors they the guys that are way up on a tier off to the side and they're
00:35:24
yelling stuff at you and you know you guys should learn from your friend and the can happen again and things like
00:35:30
that that they would say so we were working on that on July 26th 2018 a funeral was held for Joe gum
00:35:42
thousands of correctional officers and dignitaries came in from all over uh the United States and Canada to be there
00:35:49
present it was in a moving moving ceremony Jo's funeral it was like nothing I had
00:36:05
ever seen it was full police honors so you know 21 gun salute there were agencies from around the country that
00:36:12
came it was a media spectacle there were helicopters flying over the cemetery there was just a lot going on
00:36:19
it was it was a lot to process our chaplain from the facility officiated uh his service
00:36:28
so there's just kind of a lot of kind of a lot of emotion with just seeing how
00:36:33
shattered everybody was and just the outpouring of support that the agency and the people in the agency and his
00:36:41
family and everybody received it was just completely overwhelming Joe was not married at the
00:36:50
time he had a girl from in Chicago but the state really had some really nice ceremony for his death I remember being
00:37:00
at one where they handed his mother a a flag which is really poignant the family took it really hard
00:37:08
especially when they found out the circumstances and learned about the history of this guy and that his death
00:37:13
easily could have been [Music] prevented in 2018 before Johnson went to trial for the murder of Officer gum a
00:37:27
hearing was held I covered Johnson's first appearance in court at the Washington County District Courthouse in
00:37:34
Stillwater it was a few weeks after the murder occurred he appeared behind bulletproof glass he was flanked on both
00:37:41
sides by uh deputies from the Washington County Sheriff's Office he normally wears an eye patch to
00:37:48
cover his eye because he's missing an eye but he did not wear his eye patch that day and just stared directly into
00:37:55
the public Gallery area basically throughout the entire proceedings um and it was just it just was
00:38:08
unsettling this guy's a major league criminal he's a psychopath he's probably
00:38:13
a misogynist a narcissist you know I mean this guy this guy has the whole gamut I would say that Edward Johnson
00:38:24
had a look about him I'm something that I remember even before I was brand knew
00:38:27
and I think part of it was the fact that he didn't have an eye one of his eye was
00:38:31
were missing so he was always kind of distinguishable in that respect but he just had a certain pose about him in the
00:38:38
way that he carried himself he he just had this look to him like I I've never
00:38:43
seen with anybody else before dozens of friends of GS um and crial officers attended all of the Court
00:38:57
hearings um through the through the months after and they all wore matching t-shirts that said you know Joseph gum
00:39:08
7818 End of Watch blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God
00:39:17
it was just incredibly moving after Joe gam was murdered I designed a t-shirt design
00:39:24
which is state of Minnesota with silver Li through it and then uh some scripture on the back
00:39:29
of it and um I kind of collaborated with a local t-shirt design company in the Twin Cities and they agreed to give
00:39:39
percentage of the proceeds raised to his family and I think we raised $35,000 Johnson was charged with
00:39:48
first-degree murder of a correctional officer and first-degree premeditated murder he was indicted by grand jury in
00:39:55
August of 2018 [Music] while he awaited trial Johnson continued to be held in Oak Park
00:40:08
Heights the murder happened in 2018 but the case actually wasn't slated to go to
00:40:14
trial until 2020 and in fact toward the end of 2020 uh there was a lot of legal wrangling on on both sides it sometimes
00:40:22
just does take that long to go to trial in in Minnesota um but in this case right before he was to go to trial Mr
00:40:32
Johnson decided to plead guilty when Johnson killed officer gum he was just four years short of being released on
00:40:40
parole but now he would remain securely Behind Bars we are so incredibly sad for that
00:40:48
family my heart breaks for them too they went through it we went through he was not a changed man for the
00:40:56
better that's for sure I am absolutely relieved he'll never be out world's a safer place with him
00:41:03
behind bars it's for sure he would be a really bad threat to society if he ended up back there's no
00:41:10
question in my mind he would reoffend and kill somebody sure no question especially a
00:41:16
woman I will never ever ever forgive him I will never forgive Edward she was a vibrant beautiful wonderful person
00:41:26
with a kind heart and he took her away from us and he took her away from her [Music]
00:41:41
daughter in October 2020 Johnson was given a sentence of life in prison without parole and was transferred to a
00:41:48
supermax federal prison in Colorado known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies Jose sisters attended every
00:41:58
hearing they never missed a one they had to take time off work and make arrangements but they would never ever
00:42:04
miss one of the the court hearings they were they were right there and every hearing was emotional
00:42:12
you know to bring it all up again and then to still it took a long time before there was finally Justice served so it
00:42:19
was a very very difficult period for the for the family I feel like Joe's been
00:42:24
pushed under the rug everybody's sorry for what happened nobody wants to take
00:42:30
responsibility and for us we're still fighting for justice for Joe he was brutally beaten beyond
00:42:37
recognition and for somebody to finally admit that somebody didn't do their job
00:42:45
and it cost Joe to lose his life after Mr Johnson was convicted of murdering this innocent correction
00:42:57
officer he ended up being transferred to a supermax prison the reason that's
00:43:03
interesting is because supermax prisons really house the absolutely most dangerous inmates in the country and so
00:43:12
it just points to how Mr Johnson was not somebody who was just going to engage in
00:43:16
crimes in the community he displayed that he was not only going to engaged in crimes in prison but odds are that even
00:43:24
after he was convicted of murdering the ction officer he was going to continue to engage in crimes which required him
00:43:32
to be housed in a supermax prison there was no other option I heard he was at Florence and
00:43:37
that's it I don't that kind of turned the page on that whole thing once he was
00:43:42
sentenced and he was out of here what I've read and seen over the years forence is kind of about the kind of the
00:43:48
epitome of supermax prisons um within the United States he'll be in prison the rest of
00:43:55
his life and he'll always be a threat wherever he's at Whoever has interaction with him
00:44:04
whether it be the nurse the minister the staff visitors he'll always be a [Music]
00:44:26
threat [Music]