19 and facing life in prison, Gaston teen makes court appearance
Almost six months to the day after getting out of prison, 19-year-old Darrick Lamar Johnson was back again before a Gaston County judge, this time shackled at the waist and facing two counts of first-degree murder.
A conviction on either charge would carry a life sentence without parole for Johnson, who finished a one-year stint in prison on Sept. 6, 2020, for larceny and gun convictions when he was just 17.
Johnson spent two minutes Tuesday before District Court Judge Michael Lands.
Police accuse Johnson, along with two other men, of the Feb. 22 shooting deaths of two Gaston County men, 50-year-old Christopher Brooks and 54-year-old Matthew Allison, in which drugs were apparently involved.