Investigation into mysterious death of Kendrick Johnson closed

(CNN) — A second local investigation into the 2013 death of Kendrick Johnson, the Georgia teenager who was found dead on a rolled-up gym mat, has been closed without charges being filed, according to a report released by Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk. .

Paulk called the teen’s death a “freak accident” and told CNN “there is nothing that justifies a homicide.”

“Nothing criminal happened,” he added.

The body of 17-year-old Johnson was found face down on a mat at Lowndes County High School in January 2013. Months after his death, Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office investigators ruled it was a accident and closed the case. Lowndes County is in southern Georgia, USA.

That initial investigation concluded that Johnson accidentally slid to the center of the mat while reaching for a shoe and got stuck. An autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined Johnson’s cause of death to be accidental positional asphyxiation.

Kendrick Johnson’s family had doubts about the death

The inconsistencies in the official reports on Kendrick’s body condition Y other discrepancies led the family and the community to question the official cause of his death. Johnson’s parents have said they believe his son was killed.

An autopsy by a pathologist who was hired by Johnson’s family determined the cause of death to be “unexplained, apparently non-accidental blunt force trauma” to the neck.

The next investigation was federal. The Department of Justice announced in October 2013 that it was opening an investigation into the case, and in 2016 he said he was closing the case, saying he had found “insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges.”

“After an extensive investigation into this tragic event, federal investigators determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone or any group of people willfully violated the civil rights of Kendrick Johnson or committed any other federally indictable offense,” it said in a statement.

Paulk, who was not with the sheriff’s office at the time of Johnson’s death, requested the evidence collected during the federal investigation in April 2019 as part of his reexamination of the case, but federal investigators initially denied his request.

Ultimately, after a November 2020 visit by the Johnson family with federal investigators, that request was granted and the Justice Department turned over its investigative material to the sheriff’s office.

That material included grand jury testimony, the results of an autopsy conducted by federal authorities, and additional digital evidence.

The sheriff said he spent 15 months reading “every page” of that file, but found they showed “no criminal action.”

The teen’s parents say they’re not convinced

“We have not had faith in Lowndes County. We knew what the outcome would be from the beginning,” Kendrick’s father, Kenneth Johnson, told CNN. “You can’t do an investigation with the same investigators who covered it up. They’re not going to find out something they covered up.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” he added.

“I’m pretty sure there will still be a contingent that believes foul play was involved,” the sheriff wrote in the report. “I encourage everyone to study ALL of the evidence in this file before forming an opinion.”

CNN has not independently inspected all of the evidence the sheriff reviewed.

In a statement to CNN, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia said: “The final conclusion in the investigation of Kendrick Johnson was reached and announced in 2016 by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio (USAO NDOH). ), which handled the matter.

“The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia was recused from the investigation many years ago.”

The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio declined to comment.

The Johnson family spoke Thursday outside the sheriff’s department and criticized the report released Wednesday. “Don’t believe anything this sheriff’s department tells you,” said Kenneth Johnson. “I will fight as long as it takes to find out what happened to Kendrick Johnson.”