A 35-year-old Chattanooga man will serve seven years in prison for a 2023 shooting that killed a 59-year-old man.
Cordarus Jones, 35, was found guilty of reckless homicide by a jury last month for shooting Rickey Johnson on Peeples Street near downtown Chattanooga. The court dismissed two firearms and attempted murder charges as part of a deal between the defense and prosecutors that included a guilty plea in an unrelated case.
Jones was sentenced to four years without the opportunity for parole for the homicide and pleaded guilty to an evading arrest charge stemming from an unrelated high-speed chase in October 2020.
The court had previously dismissed an additional charge of murder conspiracy for insufficient evidence.
Hamilton County man gets seven years after partial conviction, plea
The jury did not reach a verdict for any of the charges brought against Jones’ co-defendant, D’asiah Johnson (no relation to the victim).
The resolution of the case was disappointing for Rickey Johnson’s son and widow, Cheryl Johnson, who said they were unaware of the agreement before Thursday’s hearing.
“We sat here in this courtroom for two years — two years — for one to go free and the other one to get seven years for taking somebody’s life,” the victim’s son, Emmanuel Johnson, said in court before addressing Jones directly. “You didn’t just take my dad’s life. I have eight kids. He has a wife, a sister, a brother. He’s got grandkids. And we sat in here for two years for no justice. Nothing.”
Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Amanda B. Dunn, who presided over the trial, responded to the statement, saying Rickey Johnson was “the most innocent of victims.”
“One of the hardest things about this case is that it makes no sense, right? Because your dad just happened to be sitting in the wrong place. That’s the reality,” Dunn said. “He was just sitting in the wrong place, and if he had just been positioned a little differently, he would be here today.”
(READ MORE: Two charged with murder in connection with deadly Chattanooga shooting)
In response to the Johnson family’s frustration, the assistant district attorney, Andrew Coyle, said the result was not what the District Attorney’s Office had hoped for.
“This case presented some difficult facts for the District Attorney’s Office and some complicated legal issues. I am proud of the assistant district attorneys that tried this case. And I believe that they presented the best case that they were able to, given the facts and the legal constraints that they were faced with,” Coyle said in a phone interview. “We wished for a different verdict, but we respect the verdict that the jury returned. And after that verdict was returned, the ability of the state was greatly impacted in terms of what sentence we could seek going forward. I believe that the ADAs that handled this case got the best disposition that they could have after the jury returned the verdict that they did.”
Sam Hudson, Jones’ attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.
Frances Hill, Jones’ mother, said she’s glad this is behind her.
“I pray that everybody can heal, and I pray for everybody involved in the situation,” Hill said after the proceedings.
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ALLEGED EVENTS
According to a court filing used to charge Jones and D’asiah Johnson, on Sunday, April 23, 2023, Jones and Johnson drove a red Jeep Cherokee to the 1200 block of Peeples Street in the M.L. King Boulevard area of Chattanooga.
Jones exited the vehicle and approached Rickey Johnson and Jeffrey Smith, according to prosecutors. D’asiah Johnson then drove to the corner of Peeples and 11th streets, where she got out of the car and removed the license plate, the document said.
The document said Jones then fired multiple shots before running to the intersection where the Jeep was parked and D’asiah Johnson picked him up, and they fled the scene.
Jones claimed in court that he did not intend to kill Rickey Johnson but that he was acting in self defense because he felt threatened by the victim.
The codefendants were both indicted by a grand jury in November 2023. Jones faced charges of conspiracy to commit first degree murder, first degree murder, first degree felony murder, attempted first degree murder and use of a firearm during a dangerous felony.
D’asiah Johnson’s trial, held earlier last month, resulted in a hung jury. Coyle said the district attorney had not decided whether to retry her. Johnson is scheduled to appear in court in February.
Contact Report for America corps member Jules Feeney at jfeeney@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.