Judge rebukes corrections officials over handling of prison bus strangling

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - A Harford County judge chastised the state prison system Monday over its handling of a convicted murderer who had not been medicated for severe mental illness or properly restrained when he killed a fellow inmate on a prison bus.

Judge Emery Plitt found Kevin Johns, 25, not criminally responsible for strangling fellow inmate Phillip Parker Jr. to death aboard a Baltimore-bound prison bus in February 2005.

Taking aim at prison system employees, Plitt said, “If the employees involved had done their jobs properly, Mr. Parker might be alive today.”

Plitt pointed to Johns’ 16-year history of mental illness and the fact that he was taken off  anti-psychotic medications before the killing as evidence that Johns could not conform his behavior to the law at the time.

Johns was not given proper treatment or security as he was taken from a Hagerstown courtroom to the Supermax prison in Baltimore, he said.

“There were clearly clouds gathering in what would become what [defense attorney Harry] Trainor called ‘the perfect storm’ of mistakes,” Plitt said.

Plitt, a former counsel for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, chided the Department of Corrections officers who overlooked the fact that Johns’ chains were loose or that he changed seats to sit next to Parker, and who overheard but did not act on Johns’ promise that he would kill again if not treated.

The rulings sent Parker’s family and friends on an emotional roller coaster — tears of joy at hearing the guilty verdict, then anger when Johns was found not criminally responsible. Parker’s mother, Melissa Rodriguez, stormed out of the courtroom and shouted her frustrations from the courthouse steps after the verdict.

“It’s done, it’s over with, and he’ll never have justice. The state of Maryland should be ashamed it would take justice away from my son,” she said.

Because he was found not criminally responsible, Johns would have to be handed over to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for treatment, Plitt said. But Baltimore County prosecutor S. Ann Brobst argued that he was too dangerous for the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center.

 “By the judge’s order, he deserves to be treated … but I can’t imagine a more dangerous person in the state. This is an individual you can’t hand a pencil,” Brobst said.

Plitt gave attorneys until June 23 to work out a compromise, which Brobst said could include keeping him within prisons and bringing doctors in for treatment.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com

Advertisement