Circuit judge: ‘Giving you some hope’
Anne Arundel County judge reduces sentence of man convicted of murder
As Anne Arundel County Sheriff’s deputies handcuffed Anthony Nigel Jackson, the 32-year-old turned to his family members seated in the last row of the courtroom and mouthed “six months.”
His family, who sat quietly through a brief sentence-modification hearing last week, burst through the doors of Courtroom 3A and celebrated in the hallway, thankful that Circuit Judge William C. Mulford had slashed Jackson’s jail term by five years.
He’s likely to be released on house arrest in half a year, said William Davis, his public defender.
Beside prosecutor David Russell silently sat Tanya Cooper-Johnson. Jackson fatally shot her 19-year-old son Andre Johnson on Sept. 2, 2007. Now he is getting out early.
“I’m emotional and I’m heartbroken,” she said outside the courtroom. She was wearing a purple shirt with white block letters — “Weeping Mother’s The Andre E. Johnson Sr., Foundation,” it read. She started the organization to aid mothers whose children are murdered.
“The system is what it is and I don’t feel like he got enough time initially,” CooperJohnson added. “That’s the judicial system. My fear is of him offending again, or coming somewhere near my family.”
In Davis’ motion for sentence modification, the public defender explained Jackson was by most accounts a model prisoner.
He enrolled at the University of Baltimore’s Second Chance College Program and excelled. Many of his teachers wrote letters affirming that to the court.
“Anthony’s performance in my class was stellar but what makes him a truly special student to have in class is the positive energy that he brings,” wrote Dr. Marianna Carlucci of Loyola University of Maryland, who taught Jackson’s psychology class in prison.
“I have no doubt Anthony will reach his goals and be a productive member of his community.”
The accolades sought to show that Jackson had come a long way from the 20-year-old who got into a street fight with Johnson — a friend of his when they were young boys — in Annapolis Village. Jackson chased him to Bay Ridge Gardens later the same night only to restart the altercation and, with his eyes closed, pulled the trigger of his handgun five times, hitting Johnson with all five bullets.
Mulford said he considered it all, including testimony from Jackson’s and Johnson’s families at a previous hearing.
“I’m not a particularly compassionate man,” Mulford said. “I don’t generally show mercy.”
But he remembered when, at the last hearing, Cooper-Johnson hugged Jackson’s mother, Annette Queen Mason.
“Ma’am, I admire the mercy and grace you showed in my courtroom,” he told Cooper-Johnson.
And then the judge turned to Jackson. “[I’m] giving you some hope,” Mulford said. “If you take advantage of it both you and society will benefit from it; if you don’t, there will be no second chances.”
Upon release, Mulford ordered Jackson not to have contact with Johnson’s family, unless they initiate it.
Cooper-Johnson, who will soon complete her studies to become a chaplain, said that after a “really terrible, dark grieving period” she turned her life around and her family did the same. Her daughter, who witnessed the shooting, is slated to become a nurse. While one of her other sons is incarcerated, the other two started a heating and air-conditioning business.
Jackson was convicted in 2008 of second-degree murder and using a handgun in a crime of violence. He was sentenced to 25 years and has served almost 12 years in prison.
State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess, who handled the case more than a decade ago as a prosecutor in the office she now commands, said in a statement she disagreed with Mulford’s decision and that the original sentence was lenient enough.
If Jackson violates the terms of his release, he’ll face a lengthy jail sentence, Davis said. But he said he’s convinced his client will succeed. “He’s very sincere in his remorse. He’s very sorry this happened,” Davis said.