ATLANTA — A five-time convicted felon who has never served a day in prison is now accused of murdering two women.
A Channel 2 investigation looked into allegations that judges are too lenient when sentencing convicted felons.
Law enforcement sources told Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Erica Byfield that Ardendric Johnson should not have been on the street on the day of the murders.
Police discovered the bodies of 33-year-old Heather Camp and 31-year-old Nicole Sartell on Dec. 19, 2014, in an abandoned northwest Atlanta home. Both women were bound, assaulted and strangled.
An unnamed Atlanta police officer wrote about Johnson and the accusations against him:
"We failed as a criminal justice entity in the past. Mr. Johnson felt invincible from the law; and rightfully so, even after five felony convictions, one of them for beating and imprisoning a women for several hours in his house; he never served a single day in prison. I would request the court take his criminal past into consideration along with his current monstrosities. It's imperative that he receive the maximum possible sentence for this aggravated and atrocious act. That will give some amount of closure to the victims' families and make up for our past mistakes; if Mr. Johnson was ... sent to prison on his violent case against women in 2009 or the two 2012 cases, this violent event would have never taken place and the victims would still be alive today."
When Byfield asked Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard about Johnson’s past, and the letter from law enforcement, he cited both as evidence of a bigger problem.
“The incarceration rate should reflect the seriousness of the crime,” Howard said. “That is not happening here in Fulton County.”
Howard said the frustration in the officer’s letter was not unique. He told Byfield that he often hears complaints from police that recidivists are not deterred by sentencing in Fulton County’s Superior Court.
“It is particularly frustrating for the police officers who risk their lives to apprehend these defendants, only to see them return back to the same communities over and over again,” Howard said.
He said the way in which Fulton County’s Superior Court handles cases is part of the problem. Sixteen Superior Court judges handle complex cases, like murder, rape and armed robbery.
But lower-level felonies are heard by three magistrate judges. Those lower-level cases make up nearly 70 percent of Fulton County’s felonies. The idea is to process “non-complex” cases in nine weeks, so they do not become lost among lengthy complex cases.
Howard said the non-complex division model is not deterring crime.
“These are people who are committing crimes over and over again,” Howard said.
In 2010, Howard, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Atlanta Police Chief George Turner wrote their own letter, demanding an end to the so-called non-complex system after the death of a Georgia state trooper.
Superior Court Chief Judge Gail Tusan said the system is not perfect, but it’s working.
“It is not as easy to predict what an individual is going to do in the future as we might think,” Tusan told Byfield.
Last year, the Superior Court tried something new: A few Superior Judges volunteered to hear lower-level cases that involved repeat offenders.
Tusan said the court was so happy with the results of the pilot that now defendants with three previous convictions have their cases heard by a Superior Court judge, regardless of the crime.
“We decided maybe we would recast part of what we're doing in the complex division, by focusing on those complex defendants,” Tusan said.
That pilot study found that the Superior Court judges, on average, sentenced defendants to 1 1/2 years in custody and 5 years on probation.
Howard’s office commissioned Georgia State’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies to analyze sentencing by magistrate judges in Fulton’s non-complex division.
They found that 78 percent of defendants who were convicted later re-offended, and 20 percent of those who re-offended escalated to higher-level crimes.
“How can the people who live in this community have confidence in the system?” Byfield asked Tusan.
“I think by continuing to have a dialogue, by coming to the table,” Tusan said. “Not pointing fingers but trying to come up with common, practical, funded solutions.”
Johnson is now in the Fulton County jail awaiting trial.