Parolee was touted as a model
Prison officials cited man’s turnaround just days before his arrest in murder.
A parolee recently charged in the death of another homeless man was touted by a state parole administrator as a model of success in a meeting with legislators just 16 days before the fatal stabbing.
Calvin Johnson, 44, who allegedly called himself “Calvin/Elijah the prophet/crazy killer” in a text after the slaying, faces one count of first-degree murder in the New Year’s Day death of Teodoro Leon III.
The treatment of mentally ill prisoners and parolees has been a focus of Colorado Department of Corrections Executive Director Rick Raemisch.
Alison Morgan, deputy director of parole, discussed Johnson’s success overcoming troubles linked to mental illness at a Dec. 16 session of the Joint Judiciary Committee, according to a recording.
“He has coped through his time in prison and on parole by threatening and being aggressive. And his thought was to do this again to hopefully be revoked because he didn’t want to be accountable and he didn’t want to be on parole.
“And our community-based organizations came together and the parole officer came together — the mental health specialist — and we all sat down. And we came up with a plan to, to really challenge this
parolee to try. And we each pooled a little bit of money and commitment to work with this parolee to launch him to be successful. ...
“But it was a tremendous collaboration between parole, mental health and the community-based organizations. And, and that’s how all of this is working, really very successfully,” Morgan said.
Morgan could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
The story about prison officials’ praise for Johnson was first reported by online news source The Complete Colorado.
Adrienne Jacobson, spokeswoman for the CDOC, declined to answer questions about Morgan’s comments other than to confirm that Johnson was the subject of Morgan’s speech.
“Yes, at the time of that testimony, he was progressing with his parole officer and other community partners,” Jacobson said.
Morgan told legislators that Johnson had bought himself a tent and was living in the tent in an alley behind the Denver parole office, at 940 Broadway.
Just two weeks after Morgan’s comments, Johnson allegedly stabbed Leon more than 10 times in the head, face, torso and back just 1½ blocks from the parole office. The body of the 50-year-old victim was found at 9:15 a.m. Jan. 1.
Denver police detectives received an e-mail Jan. 2 from a state corrections department employee about the series of text messages between Johnson and an employee at Second Chance Center of Colorado, which works with parolees.
In the series of texts from New Year’s Day, Johnson hinted that he had assaulted and possibly killed a person the previous night, according to a probable cause statement. Police also found a large survival knife in Johnson’s camp.
Johnson is being held at the Downtown Detention Center without bail. His next court appearance has not been set.