Kendrick Johnson was discovered useless inside a fitness center mat January 2013. (CNN)
A second native investigation into the 2013 demise of Kendrick Johnson, the Georgia teenager who was discovered useless in a rolled-up fitness center mat, has been closed with no fees filed, in response to a report launched by Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk.
Paulk referred to as the teenager's demise a "bizarre accident," telling CNN, "there may be nothing to substantiate a murder."
"Nothing prison occurred," he added.
The physique of 17-year-old Johnson was discovered the wrong way up in a mat in Lowndes County Excessive College in January 2013. Months after his demise, Lowndes County Sheriff's Workplace investigators dominated it was an accident and closed the case. Lowndes County is in southern Georgia.
That preliminary investigation concluded that Johnson by chance slipped into the middle of the mat whereas reaching for a shoe and bought caught. An post-mortem performed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation decided the reason for Johnson's demise was unintentional positional asphyxia.
However inconsistencies in official studies on the situation of Kendrick's physique and different discrepancies led the household and neighborhood to query the official reason for his demise. Johnson's mother and father have mentioned they suppose their son was killed.
An post-mortem performed by a pathologist who was employed by Johnson's household decided that the reason for demise was "unexplained, obvious non-accidental, blunt-force trauma" to the neck.
The subsequent investigation was a federal one. The Justice Division introduced in October 2013 it was opening an investigation into the case -- and in 2016 mentioned it was closing the case, saying it had discovered "inadequate proof to help federal prison fees."
"After in depth investigation into this tragic occasion, federal investigators decided that there's inadequate proof to show past an affordable doubt that somebody or some group of individuals willfully violated Kendrick Johnson's civil rights or dedicated some other prosecutable federal crime," it mentioned in a press release.
Paulk, who was not a part of the sheriff's workplace on the time of Johnson's demise, requested the proof gathered in the course of the federal probe in April 2019 as a part of his re-examination of the case, however federal investigators initially declined his request.
Finally, after a November 2020 go to by the Johnson household with federal investigators, that request was granted and the Justice Division turned over its investigative materials to the sheriff's workplace.
That materials included grand jury testimony, outcomes from an post-mortem performed by federal authorities and extra digital proof.
The sheriff mentioned he spent 15 months studying "each web page" in that file, however discovered that they didn't present "any prison motion by any means."
The teenager's mother and father say they don't seem to be satisfied.
"Now we have not had religion in Lowndes County. We knew what the result can be from the very starting," Kendrick's father, Kenneth Johnson, instructed CNN. "You possibly can't do an investigation with the identical investigators who coated it up. They are not going to uncover one thing that they coated up."
"That does not make sense," he added.
"I'm fairly certain that there'll nonetheless be a contingent that can consider there was foul play," the sheriff wrote within the report. "I encourage everybody to review ALL the proof on this file earlier than forming an opinion."
CNN has not independently inspected all of the proof that the sheriff reviewed.
In a press release to CNN, the US Lawyer's Workplace for the Center District of Georgia mentioned, "the ultimate conclusion within the Kendrick Johnson investigation was reached and introduced in 2016 by the U.S. Lawyer's Workplace for the Northern District of Ohio (USAO NDOH), which dealt with the matter.
"The U.S. Lawyer's Workplace for the Center District of Georgia was recused from the investigation a few years in the past."
The Johnson household plans to carry an occasion to answer the report exterior the sheriff's workplace on Thursday, the household instructed CNN.
Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson stand subsequent to a banner on their SUV exhibiting their late son, Kendrick Johnson, on Dec. 13, 2013, in Valdosta, Ga. (AP / Russ Bynum)
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