In 2017, Johnson and a co-defendant were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and weapons offenses. An appellate court threw out the convictions last year, saying jury selections for their trial were not “race neutral” and that prosecutors appeared to prefer “significant number of conservative white males.”
Prosecutors said Friday that they may never know which of the four gunmen fired the shots, which they allege were ordered by gang leaders in retaliation for another shooting earlier that day that wounded a gang member.
“What we know, judge, is at the end of the night a little girl 14 years old lay in the street, and another 15-year-old was fighting for her life in the hospital,” said Jorge Morales, a senior assistant Passaic County prosecutor.