By Tim Hrenchir
Topeka Capital-Journal
TOPEKA, Kan. — At age 91, convicted murderer Joseph Johnson has been granted parole.
Jan Lunsford, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Corrections, said Thursday that the Kansas Prisoner Review Board recently decided to grant parole to Johnson effective on or after Jan. 1, provided he goes “to a structured living environment that can address his medical needs.”
Lunsford said he couldn’t discuss Johnson’s future in detail because of privacy concerns.
State records show Johnson entered the prison system in January 1994 and is an inmate at El Dorado Correctional Facility. He was considered for parole and denied in 2009.
Johnson was one of three people convicted in the August 1992 shooting death in central Topeka of Chang Nam Kim, 48. Authorities said Kim was shot in the head at close range when he opened the door of his apartment.
The apartment’s previous occupant, Betty Parrett, was the estranged wife of Topekan Robert S. Walton.
Prosecutors said Walton hired Johnson, then 71, to hire 16-year-old Dominic Love to kill Parrett, but she moved out and Kim moved in before Love went to the home and shot Kim. Court records said Love went inside the home searching for Parrett after killing Kim.
According to testimony, Love was paid $300 to carry out the attack.
Walton, Johnson and Love all went to prison. Walton died in state custody at age 63 in September 2007. Love, now 36, is an inmate at Norton Correctional Facility.
Johnson was convicted of seven crimes, including first-degree murder. Shawnee County District Judge Matthew Dowd in October 1993 rejected an attempt by prosecutors to pursue a minimum sentence of 40 years, saying Johnson would spend the rest of his life in prison anyway.
Dowd made that decision after hearing a psychologist testify Johnson had an IQ bordering on mental retardation, a serious mental disorder and a personality disorder. Court testimony also indicated Johnson carried eight shotgun pellets in one shoulder and had suffered 37 stab wounds.
Johnson is the second-oldest inmate in the Kansas prison system, behind 93-year-old Francis Patrick Doyle.
Doyle is at Lansing Correctional Facility on 1999 Johnson County convictions for first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and aggravated burglary.
Prosecutors said Doyle was 79 in February 1999 when he flew into a jealousy-inspired rage and used a baseball bat to attack and injure a 77-year-old female friend and kill her new, 77-year-old husband.
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