From The Daily Progress
By: BRYAN MCKENZIE
The mother of the man Antwan Lamar Jackson murdered in a drug-related midnight ambush sat in the witness stand and pronounced her forgiveness to the killer.
The federal government, however, was in no such mood.
Jackson, convicted in April of killing Johnell Greene, 25, received a life sentence plus 10 years from U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon on Monday. The sentences are to run consecutively, meaning Jackson would technically not be eligible for release from prison even after his lifetime.
"Mr. Jackson will not get out of prison," said U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy. "It's a harsh punishment, but it's a just punishment for a very serious crime."
Jackson's attorneys, who declined comment after Moon's sentencing, told the judge that their client had asked for an appeal.
Greene reportedly was slain in connection with a drug operation Jackson ran in the town of Orange, according to prosecutors and trial testimony.
The jury found Jackson, 29, guilty of nine charges including murder of a witness, possession of a firearm in the commission of a murder, possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime and two counts of persuading witnesses to provide a false alibi to law enforcement.
Jackson's sentence was announced after Greene's mother, Shirley Atkins, described the personal impact of her son's murder. She told Jackson face-to-face and in no uncertain terms that, although the crime was emotionally crushing, she forgave him for taking her son's life.
"The Lord has made me who I am and has given me the ability to forgive and I forgive you, Antwan Jackson," she said. "And I pray that you will someday ask God for His forgiveness."
Jackson did not respond, nor did he address the court when given the chance prior to sentencing.
After the court hearing, Atkins said forgiving the man who shot her son her son 10 times in the back, hips, thighs and legs did not come immediately or easy.
"For quite a while, I was angry, full of pain and full of hatred," she admitted. "I was even angry at God. God didn't do this, but He let it happen and I didn't even want to pray to God because I was so angry."
Atkins said that, while she didn't pray, friends continued to pray for her. Meanwhile, she and her family worked with prosecutors and police, providing support, encouragement and any information they could to find her son's killer. It took five years and a transfer to federal court, but it happened.
While the justice wheels creaked forward, Atkins said God helped her let go of her anger.
"One day God gave me a vision of my son in heaven and I knew that if I kept holding on to that anger and kept it in my heart, I was not only not going to get to heaven but that I wouldn't be able to go on with my life. I was not going to let Antwan Jackson have that control over my life," she said. "Then one day God just lifted all that anger and sent it away."
The conviction was the result of cooperation between the Town of Orange Police Department, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the U.S. Attorney's Office and Orange County Commonwealth's Attorney, officials said.
According to testimony at the trial, Jackson ran a drug operation on Lindsay Drive in Orange, selling mostly crack cocaine. Greene was a customer who lived in the area. In June 2006, Greene reportedly stole a drug package from one of Jackson's dealers and Jackson ordered the dealer to "handle" the situation.
The dealer shot at Greene, but missed, according to testimony. Greene later talked to police after being arrested on an unrelated charge and policed charged the dealer/shooter with attempted murder.
"When Antwan Jackson learned that his employee had been arrested, he knew that Johnell Greene had cooperated," Heaphy said after the sentencing. "He knew that Mr. Greene had become an even more serious threat to the lucrative drug business, because he was a 'snitch.' Antwan Jackson hated snitches, as they put his livelihood at risk. He decided that he couldn't take that risk, and he vowed to eliminate the risk posed by Johnell Greene."
Heaphy reiterated trial testimony that Jackson set up a false alibi after killing Greene by convincing his girlfriend and mother of his 1-month-old daughter to tell police that Jackson spent the evening with her and paid an associate to support the alibi. That made it difficult for investigators to break the case until federal prosecutors got involved and the associate and girlfriend changed their stories.
The story change was pointed out during the April trial by defense attorneys Charles Y. Sipe and J. Lloyd Snook III who questioned the reliability of those witnesses.
"The government had four-and-a-half years to get a lot of folks to change their stories," Snook said.
Snook notified the court on Monday that Jackson planned an appeal. Power outages across Charlottesville, the result of a Sunday evening storm, prevented the formal appeal motions from being completed before the sentencing hearing.