“The case should never have been brought,” said defense lawyer Kenneth Padowitz, who represented Johnson.
A Broward judge dismissed a second-degree murder charge Thursday against an Orlando woman accused of shooting and killing her boyfriend in North Lauderdale in 2017.
Satoya Johnson, 36, was arrested in March 2018 and served a brief time in jail before being released on a $60,000 bond, but the prospect of a life sentence on a second-degree murder charge hung over her head the entire time.
Johnson was charged with killing Alton Montina, 30, on Oct. 28, 2017, in his apartment in North Lauderdale, but she claimed self-defense from the start. On Thursday, Broward Circuit Judge Barbara Duffy agreed.
Former TSA Agent Satoya Johnson with her Lawyers Josh Padowitz and Ken Padowitz
found Innocent of Second Degree Murder charges after seven years!
“I was so busy shaking and crying I didn’t hear her,” Johnson said Thursday after the electronic monitoring device she has worn for nearly seven years was taken off. “After my name had been smeared for seven years, after all the lies that were told, I can finally say my name is cleared.”
Johnson was tried in January, but the jury could not agree on a verdict. Five of the six jurors voted to convict. The last refused.
“I was one juror’s vote away from possible life in prison,” she said. “I feel like it was God’s angel that held out.”
According to testimony at a stand-your-ground hearing this week, Montina had beaten Johnson before. On the night he was killed, he accused her of being unfaithful and threw her against a wall. When she tried to leave, he forced her keys from her. She grabbed a gun in her bedroom and, as he was coming toward her, she fired, according to the testimony of the Broward Sheriff’s detective who investigated the case.
Duffy decided the self-defense claim could not be overcome by clear and convincing evidence.
“The case should never have been brought,” said defense lawyer Kenneth Padowitz, who represented Johnson.
Johnson said she planned to celebrate her freedom from court supervision by visiting family in Orlando, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia.
