Bronx headless torso leads to murder rap against ex-con-turned activist Sheldon Johnson Jr.
A high-profile ex-con-turned-anti-violence activist who recently guested on Joe Rogan’s hit podcast was charged with murder Thursday after he was caught with a headless armless torso in a Bronx apartment.~On Thursday Sheldon Johnson Jr., 48, was charged with murder, manslaughter, and weapon possession for allegedly killing 44-year-old Colin Small.
“I’m innocent!” Johnson Jr. yelled to reporters as he was led from the 44th Precinct stationhouse Thursday afternoon to appear in Bronx Criminal Court.
Following his release from prison last year, Johnson Jr. created his own advocacy group, Formerly Incarcerated Citizens Against Recidivism (FICAR), and his work with Queens Defenders put him in the orbit of local politicians, including Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who can be seen shaking hands with Johnson Jr. in a picture posted to the ex-con’s Facebook page.
Police took Sheldon Johnson Jr. in for questioning after officers responding to reports of gunfire at a Summit Ave. apartment building near W. 162nd St. found the suspect with Small’s mutilated corpse inside a sixth-floor unit around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.
Johnson Jr. was hired to work as a client advocate for Queens Defenders after spending 25 years in an upstate prison for a 1997 robbery he committed in his early 20s. He was released from prison in May, records show.
On a Feb. 1 episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” lawyer Josh Dubin called Johnson Jr. “a miracle” and told the show’s host the ex-con had been unfairly sentenced for a robbery that left his victim with only “two stitches.”
“[He] was basically told by an African-American judge that you don’t matter, you don’t count and I’m going to throw your life away,” said Dubin, who appeared on Rogan’s podcast as a guest alongside Johnson Jr.
Residents of the Summit Ave. apartment building heard two shots coming from a sixth-floor apartment around 1 a.m. Tuesday, followed by a man shouting, “Please don’t, I have a family,” and then another two shots, cops said.
Law enforcement wasn’t notified of the gunshots until the building’s super — who complained that a neighbor waited hours before informing him of the disturbance — called in a wellness check for Small around 11:30 a.m., police said.
Responding officers were directed to a sixth-floor apartment where they were met by Johnson Jr., according to law enforcement.
Inside they found the torso and one foot stuffed inside a blue bin.
Small’s decapitated head was found with a bullet wound alongside his severed arms, legs, and remaining foot inside a freezer in the Bronx apartment.
Johnson Jr. lives in NYCHA’s Kings Towers housing development in Harlem.
Upon reviewing the building’s security feed, the Bronx super recovered footage of a man who appears to be Johnson Jr. entering and exiting the building’s elevator carrying garbage bags and containers, including a blue bin. He is seen wearing various outfits, including a a blond woman’s wig with a down puffer, a newsboy cap and blazer, and a boonie hat and beige jacket.
Police believe surveillance footage shows suspect Sheldon Johnson Jr. in and out of the apartment in multiple outfits in the hours after the slaying before the torso was discovered inside.
Johnson’s family was the subject of an expansive 2016 Buzzfeed profile detailing a legacy of crime that began with Johnson Jr.’s father, Sheldon Johnson Sr., whose corrupt influence infected the lives of both his son and grandson.
Deaf and addicted to crack cocaine and heroin, Johnson Sr. was arrested for raping his 7-year-old daughter three times and forced his son to translate for him during drug deals, according to Buzzfeed.
He blamed himself for instilling the behavior in Johnson Jr. that left him facing a 50-year prison sentence.
“Generation to generation, it all stems from me,” Johnson Sr. told a Buzzfeed reporter through a sign language interpreter. “I feel disappointed. I regret a lot of the decisions I made in life. It enters my mind all the time. A big, huge amount of guilt. I ruined everything.”
Johnson Jr.’s son, also named Sheldon Johnson, made headlines in 2008 when he attacked a 24-year-old Columbia University graduate student, Mingui Yu, near the corner of Broadway and W. 122nd St. in Morningside Heights, punching his victim repeatedly in the face.
Yu stumbled into traffic in an attempt to flee his teenage attacker but was struck and killed by a passing SUV. The younger Johnson was charged with manslaughter for Yu’s death and would spend 18 months in a juvenile detention boot camp.
Columbia University grad student Minghui Yu was killed when he was chased into traffic after being assaulted on April 4, 2008.
Dubin heaped praise on Johnson. Jr. during their appearance on Rogan’s podcast, pointing to the ex-con’s educational accomplishments while in prison and his advocacy work post-release as examples of why judges should think twice before handing down harsh prison sentences.
“I was just blown away by the level of accomplishment and the mental wherewithal that he possessed to accomplish what he did while incarcerated,” said Dubin. “The path he’s taken in the eight months since he’s been out.. we talk about on these episodes how do you make change happen, he’s living it.”
“He’s someone who’s taken responsibility for what he did,” Dubin added, “and is a living example of what can happen if we think long and hard about if someone’s life is worth throwing away and putting behind bars.”
Johnson Jr. told Rogan how as a teenager he lied to officers about his age following a marijuana arrest to ensure he was sent to Riker’s Island. He started his career peddling narcotics as a lookout for a local dealer, which earned him $75 a day.
“I became this person I feel like I was never meant to be,” Johnson Jr. told the podcast host. “What I was exposed to made me into someone else.”
Johnson Jr. was selling drugs to street-level dealers on consignment when police raided his Harlem stash house in 1994 and he spent another two years on Riker’s Island, Johnson Jr. told Rogan and Buzzfeed.
It was shortly following his release that Johnson Jr. spotted a dealer who owed him $5,000 for cocaine, spurring the robbery that would net Johnson Jr. his half-century sentence.
“When I located this particular individual, he had his girlfriend with him and this guy owed me $5,000 for some drugs I had given him on consignment,” Johnson Jr. told Rogan. “As far as I was concerned, with his jewelry, we were even. So I robbed him.”
Following his release, Sheldon Johnson Jr. created his own advocacy group, Formerly Incarcerated Citizens Against Recidivism (FICAR), and his work with Queens Defenders put him in the orbit of local politicians, including Alvin Bragg, who can be seen shaking hands with Johnson Jr. in a picture on the ex-con’s Facebook profile.
While incarcerated, Johnson Jr. created programs promoting civic engagement amongst inmates and identifying dyslexia in prisoners, in addition to pursuing a bachelor’s degree and obtaining his certification as a paralegal, which he used to offer legal advice to fellow inmates, according to an online bio.
“I started working in the law library, and I discovered I had a knack for complicated things,” Johnson Jr. told Rogan. “I was actually helping guys get out of prison. It felt good.”
Dubin credited the state’s prison system with helping Johnson Jr. turn his life around but bashed the system for providing the ex-con with more opportunities as a prisoner than he received as a free teen.
“This insane inhumane sentence actually saved Sheldon, but why weren’t there those programs… in his community to save him as a kid?” Dubin said on Rogan’s podcast.
A Facebook page entitled Free Sheldon Johnson was created in June 2021 and features the ex-con’s prison writings, including memoirs in which he details his early life and recounts the pride he felt upon surviving his first trip to Rikers Island.
“Where I grew up Rikers was a ‘Rite of Passage,'” reads a May 2022 Facebook post. “When you survived a trip to Rikers with your swag in tact, clothes still on your back and sneakers on your feet, you were given a sense of respect — notoriety.
Johnson Jr.’s 50-year sentence for the 1997 robbery would have left him ineligible for parole until 2041, but “advocacy and support” resulted in his release with time served last May, the online bio said.
