Life without the possibility of parole was the mandatory sentence for Calvin Johnson on Friday after he was found guilty last month of first-degree murder, but Denver District Judge Edward D. Bronfin, said the sentence was also “richly deserved.”
In addition to the life sentence for murder, Johnson was sentenced Friday morning to two eight-year sentences for . Bronfin said in his multiple contacts with Johnson, who has been representing himself, he has seen “not a glimmer” of understanding or of responsibility for his actions.
after prosecutors said he stabbed and killed Teodoro Leon III 30 times as a he slept on New Year’s Eve in an alley in downtown Denver. Johnson had been on parole at the time of the murder and prosecutors told the jury at trial that the killing was his way of .
“This was an innocent man who was homeless and sleeping when the defendant, apparently to the best that we can tell, targeted him to retaliate at parole for them not giving into his long litany of demands,” said Lindsay VanGilder, a deputy district attorney in Denver. “The conversation with Mr. Leon’s family was one of the tougher conversations I’ve had in my career as a DA.”
Leon’s daughter wrote a letter to the judge, but it was not read in court. VanGilder said it expressed only some of what Leon’s family was dealing with and the unanswered questions his death has created.
“She was very upfront with us that her relationship with her father was not great,” VanGilder said Friday. “It had recently started to become better, but I don’t think that changes anything. One of the most powerful things I remember her saying to us early on was ‘every time I close my eyes I just think about my dad getting attacked.’ ”
The judge also ordered Johnson to pay restitution of $5,556.55, for Leon’s funeral costs that the victim services fund helped cover.
Johnson did not object to the sentences but did tell the judge the restitution didn’t make sense.
“Well, I’m indigent so I only make like, what, 5 bucks a month in state pay in prison, so you know taking 20 percent of that will be minuscule for them. But at the same time would take the little bit I have to buy hygiene and stuff like that, so doesn’t really make sense to hit me for restitution,” Johnson said. “I’m not some guy with money who could actually pay it off.”
The judge said the fact that Johnson was indigent could not legally factor into a decision to impose restitution.
