Less than four months after his murder conviction was overturned on appeal, Theodore Johnson’s bail hearing was continued until later this week following his recent release from prison on mandatory supervision.
An attorney standing in for the lead prosecutor told Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin H. Schreiber II that defense attorney Matthew Connell made his appearance in the case on Oct. 14 and that she attempted to contact Connell before the proceeding but was unsuccessful. The stand-in prosecutor also noted that Johnson was currently being held at Western Correctional Institution (WCI) in Cumberland.
Moments later, a pre-trial supervision agent informed the court that the 44-year-old defendant was released on mandatory supervision on Oct. 30.
“Well, he may have had a happy Halloween,” Judge Schreiber replied.
Johnson’s case was rescheduled for Friday’s bail hearing.
In March 2023, a jury convicted Johnson of second-degree murder and three firearms charges for fatally shooting 49-year-old William Christian less than a year before. The defendant was also found not guilty of first-degree murder.
All charges stemmed from an argument over a child’s dirty diaper that ended when Johnson shot the father of his sister’s children in the chest on June 16, 2022 on the 3500 block of W. Caton Avenue. Christian was pronounced dead approximately 37 minutes after Baltimore Police arrived at the scene.
At trial, the prosector told jurors that the defendant intervened in the argument and followed the victim with a gun for 10 seconds before firing.
During Johnson’s first trial, defense attorney Chris Purpura pushed for the jury to convict Johnson of voluntary manslaughter as opposed to murder, which was behind the defendant’s successful appeal in July 2025.
According to a reported opinion from the Appellate Court of Maryland, Christian’s eldest daughter and her newborn lived with the Johnsons. On the day of the incident, the older daughter left her newborn’s dirty diaper on the family’s front porch where the victim, the defendant and the defendant’s fiancée were having drinks. Christian called his daughter a “dirty b*tch” for leaving the diaper, which led to the Johnsons intervening.
As Christian and Johnson’s fiancée argued, he then punched her in the face and threatened to shoot up the family’s home. Johnson later removed his handgun from his pocket to scare Christian away but fired after the victim punched the defendant’s fiancée a second time.
Johnson requested the court modify the jury instruction on voluntary manslaughter to include battery on a defendant’s relative as a situation or circumstance that would cause a reasonable person to lose self-control “in the heat of passion,” as put by Purpura during Johnson’s closing arguments.
Trial Judge Jeannie J. Hong denied the modification prior to jury instructions.
