The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld Denver Johnson’s conviction Friday for killing his best friend Jason M. Paholik Jr. with a shotgun near a backyard campfire.
Johnson, now 19, of Cedar Lake, got 20 years in December 2023 in a plea deal for Paholik’s May 28, 2023, shooting death. He faced up to 21 years.
The sentence was split – five years for reckless homicide and 15 years for a firearms enhancement. Johnson said the shooting was an accident, or meant as part of a “prank” after a night where a group of teens drank and smoked marijuana.
In a 21-page decision, Appeals Judge Elizabeth Tavitas wrote on June 28 that Johnson was correct that a couple of “contested” aggravators should not have been used by Judge Samuel Cappas as a factor in his sentencing.
She wrote that one part of the detective’s testimony used in the sentencing — that Johnson shot an animal as a kid with an airsoft gun per reports in a police database — was not backed up by actual evidence.
She also rejected that Johnson had shot Paholik on a “dare,” which wasn’t apparent in the video. After it happened, Tavitas wrote Johnson did call 911 and took “responsibility for the shooting several times.”
Tavitas wrote the court had the discretion to mostly disregard a mitigator — the fact he signed a plea — which is usually used in someone’s favor at sentencing.
In the end, she believed none of this actually affected Johnson’s prison time, which was “appropriate.”
“(W)hether or not Johnson believed the gun was loaded, he pointed the gun at his friend and pulled the trigger,” she wrote in a 3-0 decision. “The act was reckless.”
Johnson was originally charged with reckless homicide. That case was upgraded to murder about a week later after prosecutors got a full version of the grainy black-and-white backyard video from the service company, she wrote.
The plea deal returned the charge to reckless homicide but added the gun enhancement, essentially adding several more years on the back end to Johnson’s prison time.
Police responded at 11:42 p.m. on May 28, 2023, to the 12000 block of Burr Street in unincorporated Crown Point for a reported shooting.
“He’s in the back! I shot him!” Johnson told officers.
Paholik was transported to a hospital but had likely already died, according to court documents. Johnson said he didn’t think the gun was loaded when he pointed it “point blank” at Paholik’s chest and pulled the trigger.
The video showed four people, including Johnson and Paholik, were around a fire pit when Johnson appeared to cock the gun. He points it at Paholik. Paholik walks out of camera view and then back toward him.
“Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop,” someone there says.
Johnson lowered the gun for a moment before raising it again and firing. Paholik appears to fall to the ground.
“Jason! Jason!” a boy says.
“Denver, Denver, Denver, what did I just (expletive) tell you,” someone yells.
mcolias@post-trib.com
