Criminal justice reformer arrested after torso found in New York apartment
A criminal justice reform advocate who was released from prison last year and was recently a guest on a high-profile podcast has been arrested after police found a headless torso in a New York City apartment, according to authorities.
Sheldon Johnson, 48, faces a charge of second-degree murder following the discovery, local jail records showed.
Investigators identified the alleged victim in the case as 44-year-old Collin Small. They did not specify his relationship to Johnson, but the New York Post quoted police sources who said the pair may have fallen out while spending time together in the state prison colloquially known as Sing Sing.
Johnson, who spent more than two decades imprisoned in connection with a violent robbery, was released in May and pursued a career working as a counselor for at-risk youth through the Queens Defenders, which provides legal representation to people who are charged with crimes but are unable to afford attorneys. Across the US, formerly incarcerated people are often very effectively employed working in such roles.
Johnson also spoke publicly in favor of prioritizing rehabilitation for people accused of crimes rather than incarceration. In one notable appearance during his advocacy, Johnson went on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in
February to talk about how he went to prison and then had turned his life around.
Police said they found Small’s remains while checking on him at the request of his Bronx apartment building’s superintendent.
The superintendent had been told by residents that they had heard two gunshots coming from within Small’s sixth-floor apartment early Tuesday, as well as someone saying the words: “Please don’t – I have a family.”
Johnson was at the apartment in question when officers arrived to check on Small, and they detained him while they obtained a warrant to search the place. The officers found Small’s torso and one of his feet in a large bin.
Small’s other foot, and his arms, legs and head, were found inside the apartment’s freezer, the New York Daily
News reported, citing sources familiar with the case.
Police allege Johnson shot Small to death and dismembered his corpse. Johnson reportedly told journalists “I’m innocent” as he was led out of a police station in handcuffs. Investigators booked him into jail Thursday on charges of murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
Johnson’s arrest came after records showed he had been released from prison last year. He had been jailed in 1999 after being convicted of attempted murder and robbery.
In a 2021 lawsuit, Johnson alleged that the crime for which he was imprisoned happened after he was abused repeatedly at a group home to which he was sent when he was 11, the New York Daily News reported.
Johnson said on Rogan’s show that he also grew up in Harlem in the care of people who were deaf. He said he was a high-ranking member of the Bloods street gang when his imprisonment started but had cut ties from the group by about 2005.
“I really said, ‘I have to change my life,’” Johnson said on the episode, appearing alongside Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice director Josh Dubin. “I have to change my life. I just can’t do this.
“I had a wife, I had kids, I had family still – my son was growing up. He was hearing stories of my so-called notoriety. I just didn’t want to be that dad.”
Dubin called Johnson “a miracle” on the show. On the other hand, some listeners criticized the episode as overly downplaying Johnson’s history of violence, Mediaite reported.
A Queens Defenders spokesperson declined to comment on the arrest of Johnson, who was being held Friday without bail.
Under New York law, Johnson could receive another 25 years in prison if convicted of murder.