Iberville Parish authorities are searching for a man convicted of manslaughter who was mistakenly released from prison last week due to a paper work, officials said Tuesday.
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He was released September 23 from the Dixon Correctional Institute.
It took officials until Monday, a full five days, to realize they had made a mistake.
Johnson should never have been released from Dixon because he still had a sentence to serve following a conviction in Iberville parish, said Pam Laborde, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Corrections. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the manslaughter charge and 5 years for the illegal possession of a firearm charge.
But earlier this month, Johnson was accidentally released.
Prison officials learned Johnson had gone free only after residents spotted him on Monday – almost a week after his release – and called the Iberville Parish Sheriff’s office to ask why he was no longer behind bars, Sheriff Brett Stassi told the newspaper.
Johnson was convicted for that crime in 2013 as well as possession of a firearm by a felon.
Clayton said it appeared the records of Johnson’s convictions had moved from the court to the corrections department as usual after Johnson’s guilty plea.
“We do apologize to the victim’s family”, she said. “If he was smart, which clearly he’s not, looking at the trouble he got himself into, he would turn himself in”.
“We’re thinking, this is a gift from god, that he get out early”, said Johnson’s mother, Francel, who helped bond him out of jail. “He’s going to be serving the time he’s supposed to when we get him back in custody”. Gales flew into Plaquemine from Chicago to visit his sick grandmother. He got into a fight around 3 a.m., police added.
Johnson and another man were both arrested in connection to the case.
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According to television station WAFB, authorities have contacted Johnson’s family in the hopes of locating him.
