York County man who killed wife, son then himself was out on bond for domestic violence
The man accused of killing his wife and son, then shooting himself Wednesday in a York County, South Carolina, double murder-suicide, violated court protection orders that banned him from contact with his wife while on bond, according to police and court records.
Paul Patrick Johnson Sr. shot his wife, Sharekia, 42, and the couple’s five-year-old son Wednesday at her home on Yorkdale Road south of Rock Hill, York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said. Johnson then shot himself and died at the hospital, Tolson said.
York County Coroner Sabrina Gast identified the three people involved Thursday.
Johnson, 41, defied court orders of protection from two judges that banned him from contact with his wife while free on bond, according to court documents and law enforcement officials.
Johnson was arrested Dec. 17, 2019 after his wife accused him of choking and beating her with a belt in an incident near Clover, according to an arrest warrant obtained by The Herald from the York County Clerk of Court office. Johnson told his wife he could end her life, the warrant stated.
Johnson was charged with domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature. The charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison for a conviction under South Carolina law.
Johnson had a bond hearing Dec. 18, 2019, and York County magistrate Chisa Putman released him on a $15,000 bail, court records show. Bond conditions included an order that Johnson have no contact with his wife.
Two hours after his release on Dec. 18, Johnson was seen on a doorbell video at his wife’s home, according to police and court records.
He was taken back in custody by deputies for an alleged violation of his bail and had another court hearing in front of York County magistrate Chisa Putman on Dec. 27, 2019, records show. Putman revoked Johnson’s bond.
In a court order, from Dec. 27, Putman wrote that Johnson had willfully violated conditions of his bond that included no contact with the victim in the domestic violence case.
“The defendant has demonstrated a complete lack of regard for the court’s order, as demonstrated by the conduct he was both orally and in writing prohibited from engaging in,” Putman wrote in the court order.
Johnson was kept in jail without bond from Dec. 27 until Jan. 8, records show.
Johnson then asked the court to reconsider his bond revocation, court documents show.
On Jan. 8, 2020, after a court hearing, York County Circuit Court Judge Dan Hall rescinded the bond revocation against Johnson, court records show. Hall issued a court order that stated Johnson be released on the same $15,000 bail conditions as the Dec. 18 bail, according to the court order.
Hall then ordered again that Johnson have no contact with his wife without the presence of law enforcement, the order states. Hall ordered that Johnson was to live and work in Mecklenburg County in North Carolina until the criminal case against Johnson was resolved, the order states.
Tolson confirmed that sheriff’s office records show an order of protection was issued against Paul Johnson, the suspect in Wednesday’s shootings, after Johnson’s release from jail.
“We at the sheriff’s office investigated and arrested Mr. Johnson in December,” Tolson said. “He then violated his bond within two hours, and we investigated again and arrested him again.”
Tolson said officials with his office advocated in court, along with prosecutors, that Johnson remain in jail during court hearings on Dec. 27 and Jan. 8 because he was a threat to the victim.
“And then on Wednesday, we believe Mr. Johnson shot his wife and son before shooting himself,” Tolson said.
Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett said his prosecutors argued at the Dec. 27 bond hearing, and again at the Jan. 8 bond hearing, that Johnson was a threat to his wife.
“I don’t know what else we could have done to keep this man in jail,” Brackett said. “We argued he should go back to jail after he willfully violated his bond the day of his initial release, and we were successful.”
Prosecutors again argued against Johnson’s release on Jan. 8, Brackett said.
Brackett said the domestic violence team at his office who had been working with Sharekia Johnson on the case for months is “shattered and heartbroken.”
Domestic violence is such a systemic problem in York County that Brackett put together a team of prosecutors who handle those cases.
“These people who prosecute these cases and work with victims put their hearts and souls into this,” Brackett said.
The January bond hearing in York County court was more than two months before court officials started emergency bond hearings for jail cases because of coronavirus concerns, Tolson and Brackett said. The bond hearings involving Paul Johnson had nothing to do with COVID-19, both Tolson and Brackett said.
The killing of a female domestic violence victim by a suspect who was free on bond or in violation of a court restraining order has happened before in York County.
In January, Rock Hill police charged Christopher Taylor with killing his estranged wife after she accused him of domestic violence in a divorce and custody case, records show. Two days before Julie Taylor was killed, Christopher Taylor signed a restraining order that banned him from contact with her.
In 2017, Jefferson Quinde-Quishpe was free on bond and skipped court after he was arrested twice for domestic violence against his girlfriend, Marandy Brandon. Quinde-Quishpe then went to Brandon’s home and stabbed her to death.
Quinde-Quisphe was sentenced to life in prison in December after he pleaded guilty but mentally ill to murder.
Brackett expressed concern that accused domestic violence offenders willfully violate restraining orders and bond conditions.
South Carolina ranks fifth worst in America for violence against women at the hands of men, according to 2019 statistics from the S.C. Attorney General’s Office and the Violence Policy Center.
“South Carolina has to take domestic violence more seriously,” Brackett said.
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 4:01 PM.
