Sheldon Johnson said he was a ‘product of systemic racism’ and campaigned against America’s ‘biased criminal justice system’ (Picture: Richard Harbus for DailyMail.com)
CAP: Sheldon Johnson said he was a ‘product of systemic racism’ and campaigned against America’s ‘biased criminal justice system’
An ex-convict has been charged with murder a month after appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast to talk about how he’d turned his life around.
Sheldon Johnson, 48, was released from prison last year after serving 25 years for two violent armed robberies in New York.
Claiming to have ‘self-rehabilitated’ in jail, he became a counselor for at-risk youth and a well-known advocate for reforming the justice system.
But he’s now accused of killing Colin Small, a 44-year-old man who was found chopped into pieces in an apartment in the Bronx district on Tuesday.
Johnson was led out of a police station in New York on Thursday (Picture: Richard Harbus for DailyMail.com)
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The victim’s torso was stuffed in a bin and his head was stashed in a freezer at the property, which Johnson was seen leaving while wearing a blonde wig on CCTV, police say.
Images appear to show Johnson transporting a large blue container and at least four large bags to and from the apartment, wearing various other outfits.
The building’s superintendent reportedly saw Johnson in surveillance footage carrying the bin into the apartment around 2am, shortly after shots were heard.
Johnson appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast last month to champion justice reform
He told the show he was once a gangster but went on a ‘journey’ in prison
He told The New York Post: ‘We tried to see if he took out the bin. He never took out the bin. I told them, “Look for a bin.” And sure enough, it was there.’
Johnson was seen in white overalls being led out of an NYPD building by detectives on Thursday, yelling ‘I’m innocent’ to reporters as he was taken away.
Appearing last month on popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, Johnson claimed he used to be a member of the notorious Bloods gang and had been robbing men who owed him money for drugs.
He said he used his gang status to become ‘top of the food chain’ in prison – but had a change of heart after stints in solitary confinement.
Police say these CCTV images show Johnson entering the flat with a large blue bin in which the victim’s torso was found (Picture: Richard Harbus for DailyMail.com)
The building’s superintendent says the man’s behaviour and outfits raised suspicion (Picture: Richard Harbus for DailyMail.com)
‘I was really looking at myself and reevaluating and thinking, “what the f*** are you doing”,’ Johnson explained.
‘I remember thinking, “what are you going to do? Can you live out the next 48 years like this?” I said I couldn’t do it.’
‘When I got out [of solitary] I made a decision that I was going to walk away and I didn’t care about the consequences.’
He claimed the gang allowed him to step away, after which he began a ‘journey’ of rehabilitation including getting his high school qualifications.
Johnson was also allegedly seen in a bizarre disguise which inlcuded a blonde wig (Picture: Richard Harbus for DailyMail.com)
He became a client advocate at public law firm Queens Defenders while championing justice reform – a role which saw him rub shoulders with high-profile figures including Manhattan’s District Attorney, Alvin Bragg.
While still in prison, Johnson penned a letter to Mr Bragg asking him to support his fight against a ‘biased criminal justice system’.
He wrote: ‘I am a product of systemic racism; intergenerational incarceration. A product of trauma, the school-to-prison pipeline and Crack-era Reaganomics.
‘I do not pretend to be a victim, but a survivor of unprecedented adversity.
Johnson met with powerful attorneys and counselled youths at risk of going to prison
‘I am an ex-gang member who not only understands the ramifications of my actions but the ripple effect of the ideas and culture of violence that I perpetuated and infused, into the younger men & women, I recruited as gang members.’
‘Please help me make a change in the ways that people like myself for generations have been entrapped and rotting like strange fruit on the judicial branches of a biased criminal justice system.’
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