Board grants parole to man convicted in 1989 murder

The California Board of Parole granted Bradley Phillip Hardison parole after 30 years in state prison for the murder of Sonjii Yvette Johnson in Seaside in 1989.

The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office announced the decision in a press release last week, stating Hardison pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge to avoid the potential of the death penalty, launched unsuccessful appeals based on ineffective assistance of counsel at plea and wrongful denial of parole, and denied the murder at parole hearings until 2007. According to the DA’s Office, the California Board of Parole, represented by two parole commissioners, made the decision March 24.

Johnson was killed Aug. 6, 1989, when she was shot five to six times in the upper torso while seated in the driver’s seat of a car parked in the driveway of her parents’ home in Seaside. Her brother, Bobby Johnson Jr., was also in the car and was shot in the left hip, likely from a bullet that passed through his sister. The bullet lodged near his spine and was never removed.

According to the DA’s Office, Sonjii Yvette Johnson was a material witness in the double homicide of Victor Austin and Melvin Maxwell on July 16, 1989, in Seaside. She had provided detailed information to the authorities that may have implicated Hardison in those murders and narcotics violations. A search warrant based on the information provided by Sonjii Yvette Johnson was executed on Hardison’s apartment, leading to the discovery of firearms, narcotics, a large amount of cash and numerous indicia of drug trafficking. In a post-plea interview in 1990, Hardison admitted that he shot Johnson because he felt she had betrayed him.

Hardison found out Johnson was giving information to the police that incriminated him in other crimes and admitted that on the day of the murder, he and another person were out driving and looking for her. The DA’s Office said they followed her car several blocks until she pulled into the driveway of her residence. Hardison instructed the driver of the car to go to the park near Johnson’s house. Hardison then exited the vehicle and walked toward Johnson’s house. Johnson had just parked the car in her driveway when Hardison approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and fired a .357 caliber re

volver through the driver’s window. After he finished firing into the vehicle, he ran out into the street toward the park.

According to the Associated Press, Monterey County prosecutor Collier Vale, 39, died by suicide in 1990 after a mix-up that exposed Johnson to retaliation. Vale and a police officer had earlier mistakenly called a woman named Sonya Johnson, who spread the word that Sonjii Johnson must be helping the police.

Supervisor John Phillips, who was a superior court judge at the time, told the Associated Press in 1990 that Vale was affected deeply by having his name connected with the case.

I guess we didn’t know how strongly he was affected, he said.

Vale joined the county prosecutor’s office in 1979 and developed into one of the finest, most dedicated prosecutors any county could ever have, said Phillips, who in his former post as assistant district attorney hired Vale.

Johnson’s mother, Betty Johnson, pleaded with the Board of Parole not to release her daughter’s killer.

“She was my daughter,” Betty Johnson wrote in a submission to the board. “I could always depend on her because she would stick by her word. I always told my children, if something is not right, and you can make a difference by doing the right thing. Sonya believed in telling the truth because she was taught this as a child growing up. The last time I saw my daughter alive was early that morning. I still feel like something has been ripped out of me.”

The Board of Parole applied youthful offender factors in finding Hardison eligible for parole. Hardison, now 56, was 25 at the time of the murder, just under the cutoff of 26. While in prison, the board said Hardison attained an associate of arts degree in social sciences in 2015 and developed marketable skills in electrical, fiber optics and bookbinding. The board said he gained insight into his former character defects of anger and greed and Hardison accepted responsibility for the murder in 2007. His last violence in prison was in 1996 for mutual combat. His last rule violation was in 2013 for possession of contraband, a cellphone. A psychologist found Hardison presented a statistically low risk for violent recidivism in the community.

“The last time I saw my daughter alive was early that morning. I still feel like something has been ripped out of me.” — Betty Johnson