Kendrick Johnson /// Off The Record | Forensic Files

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right welcome back from the turkey
day break that's right here we are once again saving you all from having to listen to something
else speaking of a listening there's some weird noises surrounding the garage yeah even as good of garage detectives
as we are we cannot we cannot figure out what these noises are and we're at the scene of the crime and we have no clue
we apologize in advance if you can hear there is I do what know what one noise is it's either some kind of animal or
bird that I've not heard it like it doesn't sound like really anything that jumps mine other than some kind of small
furry animal or bird but it it seems like it's sitting in a tree just outside their garage and like every like 10
minutes it goes all all right so let's talk about the Kendrick Johnson case we covered
this case do do you don't remember what episode do we actually covered it uh March of this year and it was episodes
195 196 for those of you that like to go back and listen on the Stitcher app this
is known as The Case of the boy that was found in a wrestling mat right and a lot
of people argue is this even a crime um because the first autopsy that came out stated that he died from um positional
affixation mhm meaning because he was turned upside down basically their findings were that he had some shoes
Kendrick had some shoes for gym class and they fell to the bottom of the mat the mats were turned vertically y so
when he went in to get the shoes he fell into the mat and then because of the position he was in head first um all the
blood rushes to your head and then you die from uh fixation yeah so picture a couple things
about this case that jumped off the page right away when we first covered it was
one on the surface when you first hear about this case you're like a high school kid is found dead rolled up in a
mat in the gym hell no that's no accident some some [ __ ] killed this guy and put him in the gym mat right and
then you start to look into it and you're like wait a second the mats were vertical and there were multiple mats
and this was typically how they were stored there what no they weren't typically stored that way they're
actually stored the other way that's but for whatever reason they were stored vertically this time that's right the
the uh I forgot about that the whoever the custodian flipped them all up on their sides because of something that
was going on in the gym right and he he and a friend shared some shoes because you know like even when we were in high
school you get you get in trouble if you don't switch you know switch out your your outfit to a gym outfit it's the
only way to fail PE right is to not change your clothes yeah as long as you change your clothes and just kind of
stand there and look stupid you're fine they're going to pass you so if you have
to have a pair of shoes you know some I guess the school could say Hey you even got to switch your shoes I just wore
tennis shoes so usually I just wear whatever shoes I was wearing but Funk up the shoes that's right and uh him and a
friend shared a pair of shoes and I guess their typical MO is they were like hey dude you wear the shoes during your
your class and put them in this map for me you know kind of tuck them in there because the the lockers they only lock
from my understanding if you pay you had to like pay a fee right and who wants to
look you're making this require requirement of me who wants to pay for that on top of that so stuff the shoes
in the mat and then when it's my turn I'll grab them out of there we can share these
shoes and it kind of when you really dive into it it kind of looks like this is just a really really tragic accident
of this kid who went in to get his his personal belongings they may have slipped down further he slides down
further and then it's kind of like a boa constrictor effect with this mat on his
body right the more he moves the more it tightens and also it would just be not 100% soundproof but even if he was
saying hey somebody help me you probably wouldn't be able to hear him through the
thickness of the mat and he's upside down yeah you know so so the the portion that you're going to hope to get air
from and um word out screams out noise coming out is unfortunately the opposite side that he's facing and his body's
blocking all of that yeah but a couple weird things in this case one we have surveillance footage surveillance
footage the times are off so that leads to the conspiracy theorist to say hey these these time stamps are wrong um we
just knew but what once you do the investigation you realize that these time stamps were just wrong but if you
line them up on the wrong Parts you could see him walk down the hall you can see him walk into um the gym mhm so and
then the other Factor that's going to play in here is that Kendrick Johnson is a young black male and this is
um we're in Georgia this case took place in Georgia right but this is I think predominantly a white school so that is
going to play into the conspiracy theorist a little bit so yeah and that's that's
what's often most often brought up in the media regarding this case that it's uh it's it's some people that were up to
no good murdered this kid and they're covering it up and here's the thing when we dove into a captain I felt I felt
like okay if it were a murder there were two things going on here either there was some kind of personal conflict going
on that I don't think had anything to do with him being black it just he was not
getting along with somebody right and that could have resulted in the murder of this young man or we have a situation
where there's some kind of there's some kind of scenario that plays out resulting in his murder and then the
cover up happens one not just to cover up and keep these other these other kids out of trouble or out of prison but two
the cover up is it's going to be easier to cover it up because he's he's black and and you know the the system is
against him well yeah a couple things to counterbalance that so one we start with
our good buddy Reverend Al Sharpton he comes in and says hey look this is a this is a racial issue uh they're
covering this up because he's a black student and we got to get to the bottom of this well then what else happens is
the NAACP comes in and says okay we're going to do the investigation as well they do a 2-year long investigation they
look at the autopsy of the first autop autopsy and then they look at the second autopsy now this all stems because the
position that he's found upside down once they do the autopsy there is so much um blood and
other fluids that flow to the brain and flow to um to the Head really right that
when they do the autopsy and they drain then the skin around the face becomes loose and this picture when viral
there's two pictures one where he just looks green and swollen and another picture where his skin looks loose
around the face and and the look sorry to cut you off but the the father took these
pictures well he didn't take the pictures they were taken during the autopsy but and they they got to him
somehow cuz the family sent out the pictures right isn't that how initially they became released yeah okay and and
and and look it's kind of like if it walks like a duck if it talks like a duck it's a
duck that's what I think he was grown off of I don't think this guy has this guy I think is known to have below
average intelligence and and what you see from not the swollen green face picture but the one with the loose skin
if you ask anybody what does that look like happened to Kendrick you'd go somebody beat this kid's face
unrecognized ible oh yeah that's what it looks like so but that's not what the autopsy of the first autopsy I think
proves and then for the second autopsy they had to assume the body and there was kind of some misconception when we
when we reported this originally when this originally happened um when the findings came back for the third autopsy
it was unclear to me depending on what press you're looking at it was very unclear if they actually assumed the
body for the third autopsy well well we never reported on the third the third autopsy well I
posted it on oh I'm social media so that's what I meant I all I could say is that there was a third autopsy done and
that that is online somewhere and if anybody's interested in the case hey go check that out we I try to do that from
time to time especially if there's new information in a case that we've covered so but at that time it was very unar
clear if they assumed the body or not it looks like they had they did assume the
body and it wasn't just a re review of the first and the second autopsy which I think that was June of was that June of
this year and now we're we're getting we're hearing the findings of of such test uh here in
November so basically what it seems like to me that we're we're learning is that now
there's thought or at least least caused to believe with the with the new um situation with the new autopsy
information that it was nonaccidental blunt force trauma to his right neck to the right side of his neck yeah it looks
like blunt force trauma right side of the neck a hammer of a soft tissue uh in the upper neck it looks like there's um
blunt force trauma to the right thorax MH this is where it gets you know tricky for me because to
say that the first autopsies were done and accurate and on top of that you have the IND NAACP coming in
and doing a two-year investigation which involved the first autopsy and the second autopsy and their findings for it
to be an accident this just seems a little strange to me um it's hard to know what to believe at this point
because I think a lot of people are going to look at this autopsy and go W there it is there's the conspiracy this
is a cover up but then that's like saying well but the but the so the other two autopsies were wrong and I have a I
have a problem with that because you're also exhuming the body for a second time and it's like what what was done to
the body the first two autopsies is that that that to me that would hinder hinder
your investigation or your third autopsy look the other thing here though too is to me this really this really messes
it up for me because it almost what I think of is I'm like really are any of these tests conclusive
then yeah are any of them correct because if if you you you take the test one time and the answer is a and then
you take the same test again the answer is B and then a third time the answer is
C it's it's can any of these be considered correct especially if I'm a juror well
and think about it this way members of the Johnson family protested the original autopsy findings believing he
was murdered yes they did that so we had a second autopsy which basically backed up the
first one for the most part were there a couple differences yes but for the most
part backed up the claims of the F first autopsy so now the Johnson's then are protesting the second autopsy and and
that's where like you said I mean I'm kind of with you where it's like I don't know I don't know if I'm supposed to
believe the first one the second one or the third one but two out of the three lead to accidental death by positional
affixation mhm the picture pictures that we have everyone except for after the autopsy with the loose
skin all those pictures to me go with the idea of positional affixation so other than the one where
they drain the fluids and the loose skin around his face to me that looks I mean
as if he was Beat to Death right well and here's the thing though too like what I was Finding with this
information coming out that hey now now the uh here's what was found in the third autopsy but accompanying that on
most of these sites and maybe this was released beforehand I don't know I've not seen it until looking for
information on this third autopsy but there was a an affidavit that was released to the public recently now
there are a lot of um a lot of portions of this this three or four page a David that has been redacted you know we got
somebody was kind enough to come in with a nice thick black Sharpie marker and scrape out some of the scratch over some
of the information there but this affidavit was filed with the state of Georgia this year earlier this year on
February it looks like February 9th of this year and it's it's basically somebody coming forward we don't know
who it is because their name has been removed from this now public document that states that they met someone in
April of 2016 and on one occasion with that person at at somebody's apartment this individual told them that either
they killed or they witness the killing of Kendrick Johnson right and according to this person they're stating that um
Kendrick Johnson was in the gym at the high school uh and where an argument broke out between Kendrick Johnson and
this other person and the argument was about something I mean something obviously it was about something but it
list in this Aid affidavit what the argument was about but again that is removed from the document as well
according to this individual um they're stating that somebody was taking steroids at the time
not not Kendrick well we don't know that for certain because the names are removed but during the assuming it
wasn't him well and and because of a very good reason there are many times where Kendrick Johnson's name is listed
on this on this document and it's not removed right and so we don't see any other names appear so I have to guess
that if it was Kendrick they would have just left his name in there so I think we're I think it's okay to say well not
only okay but we're very confident to say that it wasn't Kendrick taking these steroids someone's taking steroids and
out of the old Roid Rage effects of the steroids and then this argument well now
this person decides to attack Kendrick and Strikes him in the neck with a 45b weight uh or dumbbell which is a little
weird well this person isn't claiming to be there they're getting told the story
so maybe they don't understand if it was a weight or a dumbbell so that's not weird right but this is an eyewitness
though no you know what I mean that's it's somebody at a party that's talking and and are you going to have that in
cases you're going to have that in cases anyways you're definitely going to have
that in cases where it's high school kids MH I don't even know what to to think of that well okay so I have a c I
have a couple thoughts on this and I think I think there's a lot of interesting possible information here
and one being that the only Revelation that comes out of this is is that it was it was this person claims to know or at
least heard secondhand what the object was that Kendrick was struck with right and and I would assume that's not a 40
lb uh 40 lb weight um like a plate weight right I I would assume that'd be more more likely a dumbbell well it' be
easier to hit somebody but even a 45lb dumbbell that's hard to strike somebody with that yeah well that's what all the
steroids were for well before you get into that let me get to to there was two brothers that were
investigated and this report is leaving out their names but this is this is um we mentioned their names on on our show
if you want to find that it's easy to find yeah more of an initial report but but I'm going to State this now so then
we can get back to it later one of the uh one of the brothers was a wrestler and um so what they needed an alibi do
we have an alibi for these individual ual there's two individuals that they thought were the only times that there
was a scuffle right there was a scuffle between these two brothers or at least one of the brothers and Kendrick Johnson
now this happened a couple years previous but they thought hey maybe they were still
feuding right so one of the kids was a wrestler he was going to be due in and and making
Georgia uh which is about 152 miles away at 4M for weigh-ins so the coach is stating that
um they would have departed from the school grounds no later than 12:30 and that would have been an hour before so
they would have met in the gym an hour before Johnson was even seen um last on the surveillance tapes so that's a
pretty solid Alibi that you're in the gym an hour before you're now on a bus going away and not only it that it's
from a coach it's from somebody that works for the school so we could assume that that's a pretty solid
Alibi right but the the person named here which we can't find their name in the affidavit I don't know why I can't
find these guys no no no no but the person named in the affidavit it's been removed before it was released to the
public that doesn't have to be one of those Brothers Well the reason why this might be removed though is because
Kendrick Johnson's um Family filed multiple lawsuits and on the last lawsuit that they filed not only did
they lose the trial but the judge awarded which normally doesn't happen not only are you trying to sue these
people for wrongful death but you're going to lose and we're going to make you pay their attorney fees and we're
going to make you pay for other things and it racked up a bill I'm I'm just going off the top of my head that was
like 300,000 400,000 I thought it was more than that but it was it was it was to the point where you go they're never
going to pay that back um and look are the people that they were suing entitled to that maybe they're entitled to fees
but this extra money that the judge threw in I don't know if they're entitled to that cuz look we got a
grieving family they don't want to believe the first autopsy they don't want to believe the first investigation
which rightfully so look parts of the investigation we know for a fact that they didn't follow protocol we know for
a fact that the coroners set out um in the parking lot of the high school for hours and we know that the sheriff said
that that's wrong first of all the odd the the whole crime scene is the head of the crime scene is the coroner so the
fact that the head of the crime scene was set out in the parking lot for hours before coming in that seems fishy so
there there is reason you know it's not like oh your kid accidentally died and these parents are morons or or anything
for not believing everything that people are telling them uh but I think a lot of
people like Reverend Sharpton I mean I just think he's an [ __ ] and I think he came into the situation he
stirred the pot they lost some lawsuits and then he walked away you haven't heard from him since you know uh and I
just think they're they're in a tough situation because they're hearing all these rumors
and they saw these pictures and and they don't know what to believe and and I feel bad for them so I don't know if
they should have been awarded extra money to pay out to to these people they're suing uh that wasn't my understand I
didn't know that they received extra money that could be I could be wrong about that I thought it was just to
cover their I thought it was loyal plus something and and the the plus something
is what made the amount more ridiculous I'd have to look that up now now somebody out there's probably going
to want to throw a tomato at me for saying this I don't know because there's there's mixed reviews on Al Sharpton I
personally I like me some Al Sharpton I uh I I think he I think he gets involved
in too many things um so I he can be annoying to me in that way but I do there are lots of
times where I find like oh I I'm glad he got involved and here to me I really feel like in the beginning I kind of
felt like this is a pot that needed to be stirred a little bit now as information look I applaud him for doing
that but this is all done with money involved there's money changing hands I I would want to see where this money is
coming from what what do you mean money changing hands I don't think it's as simple as he's just coming to the rescue
to bring awareness to things I think there's other forces behind him that are paying him to do this paying his travel
pain for his time and his Services okay that's what I believe I mean I I but we don't know we have nothing to to back up
that thought what do you mean eh you you've seen something read something heard something yeah no I've heard I mean and
but that happens a lot I mean they they also will um will do things where uh a political person gets involved in a
situation and then they start doing fundraisers for whatever cause but that fundraiser is actually going to keep
that higher status person uh around no no I know but I'm I'm I'm asking specifically in this situation regarding
Al Sharpton well not in this situation but multiple situation with Sharpton where they'll have uh Community meetings
and they'll have um different churches in the area take collections of up to to pay uh Sharpton to stay there and and
keep spreading the word well according to the SAA David there was also a witness to this fight um so not just the
person that attacked Kendrick Johnson but a witness to the attack and I guess as stated in the affidavit this this
person okay somebody attacks Kendrick and then tells the witness hey you're going to help me hide his body you're
going to help me kind of cover this up and clean this up a little bit and if you don't you know now you're in trouble
so this is this is a threat laid out to the witness to help this individual I'm guessing Place Kendrick in the mat it
and it's just one individual that attacked Kendrick I can't say for certain because it's but I mean I mean
look look at this page right here right but what you're that's what I'm that's what I'm reading no but what but what we
can we assume it the way that this docu reads it sounds like it was one individual that's all witnessed it um
and and that was just me when I said look at this that was me everyone showing the captain page two of the
affidavit there's like there's pull down his pants and you never were so impressed in your life the um but this
document that I'm looking at it it's easily fair to say right captain that there's at least one or two black
lines yeah half the page in each each line of the page so you have to do a little uh inferring along the way but
the other thing though too is then it goes on to say that um the the video was the surveillance video was corrupted or
deleted some hour and 25 minutes was removed from the original recording according to this person and they again
they name who in some way facilitated the editing of the high school surveillance video yeah but that was
that's been speculated from the beginning that's why during their lawsuits people like vice principal and
principal and and people like that were named as well because I think they believe that they had something to do
with the editing of the tapes and then we have but but hold on but the paper that you're reading it doesn't prove it
it's just stating speculation no this is not proof of anything okay um but because look if there's proof that the
tapes were altered then to me there's proof that there's wrongdoing because why would you alter a tape if you didn't
have any wrongdoing well and then item number nine in the affidavit States again somebody's name that's been
removed also told me that after Kendrick Johnson's death that his organs were removed in newspaper placed in the
cavity so as to interfere with any effort to establish the correct time of death or to otherwise disclose any other
injuries blank also told me that the autopsies were falsely documented right here's the problem with this conspiracy
theory though is that there has to be at least five individuals involved if not more and the the argument for the
people that say it is a conspiracy these brothers or at least one of the brothers
that might be involved or maybe there's two of them involved we don't know that the argument is their father
is X FBI so is there some connections that he has possibly but does he have connections to be able to control a
police off or not police officer does he have the ability to control a principal or a vice principal
I I or the coroner I well I would I would say because the coroner is government that they have more likely to
uh to be able to control the the coroner's findings uh you know or if the FBI is in involved in this but again
there's plenty of people that have worked for the FBI that have had bad kids that have done bad things that are
probably in jail for murder probably in jail for uh selling drugs and probably a
bunch of violent crimes and the FBI didn't cover it up just because it was a son of a FBI agent well and we said I
think we said this when we covered Kendrick Johnson's case because we've come into this several times before and
after is it man if if somebody some yahoo at the FBI or some uh sheriff or police chief
if somebody like that is doing some wrongdoing and you work for a different agency you work you know at a different
level elsewhere right and you're able to 100% make a case against that individual
man you can make a career for yourself so it's almost like why wouldn't I why wouldn't I expose this why wouldn't I
bring this to light but the the thing that I said what I was getting to earlier was that really this affidavit
one like the captain so very clearly and rightfully so pointed out this is one individual stating I heard this from
soand so and this person told me this at their apartment or somebody's apartment
right now we don't know what was going on at the time but it is 100 100% hearsay until any of this is proven um
until you pull the other individual in and say hey did you say this to so and so and if you did recount the story for
us what do you know about the death of Kendrick Johnson the other thing too is again the only this this affidavit is
not like it's not blowing my skirt up because there's no the only Revelation here is the possible weapon that was
used if in fact somebody did strike Kendrick Johnson with something to the neck if somebody in fact attacked this
young man then we now have an idea or at least a story from a story of what that
likely weapon was the as you pointed out captain and you're exactly right everything else was stuff that was in
the news that you could just attach somebody's name to it it's like Mad Libs right you just go right all right oh oh
that they think that the surveillance footage was was messed with well guess what uh chubba wubba Hub did that and I
heard that from so and so and then oh they the organs were removed and stuffed with with newspaper th none of that is
new stuff none of that is new information and we don't know obviously to be 100 perfect 100% perfectly
clear even though this affidavit comes out we don't know if any of this is legit stuff well no and Kendrick
Johnson's uh Father Kenneth Johnson when he was speaking to one reporter they said uh yeah we decided to go through
the process not once but three times but how many times are you going to have to
go through this now I did see something and I can't find it anywhere um and so this could just be
complete hearsay but we have this Alibi that was like what I was reading before that was
years ago this Alibi yeah this solid airtight Alibi and what I have um what I've been hearing is that this
airtight Alibi that everybody speaks of is it might not be as airtight as um it once was so U but
look if you can prove that and that's going to be very hard to prove you have Deputy deputies and in the in the early
investigation and even in the later part of the investigation they're going over
this over and over and over and eventually once you go I have this teacher telling me that this is where
the student would be he would be on a bus he would be this many miles away this kid can't have anything to do
with this mhm and that's what all the reports say that's what the investigation says that's what the
deputies say right the people that are in charge of this case that's what they say whatever you find whatever your
little Smoking Gun is it can't be some hearsay that somebody heard at a party you're going to have to be able to prove
that right and I would I would argue you'd have to either get a confession from this suspect or you're
going to have to get some video evidence that proves that he was not on that bus
and some people go well they had a weigh in well look what I do know is I had several wrestling meets where you had to
weigh in at the school that you're wrestling at M but your parents were allowed to take you there so was this a
scenario where he wasn't on the bus that day he had his parents take him right so
but I think you're going to but even if that happened and your parents don't remember you're never going back on your
story I have an airtight Alibi well and we got we do have to I I want to point out here that you keep
referencing these brothers and we don't know that that's what this affidavit is talking who this affidavit is talking
about um so and you're you're exactly right this is not evidence uh this person coming forward is not evidence
now it could lead to evidence it could lead to talking to the right person eventually that maybe saw something
witnessed something was a part of something who knows right but my point being it let's say this kid is involved
right and he did strike him with some kind of weight right and this hearsay is about this
wrestler and he's guilty let's just say hypothetically what I'm saying is he already has on record a airtight Alibi
so as long as he just sticks with that story it's going to be damn hard to prove that alibi to be wrong right right
right there's no case there's no case against him unless you can disprove this Alibi uh but you know I do want to point
out again though this affidavit was filed this year February 9th 2018 right Kendrick Johnson sadly was
either attacked and killed or died tragically in an accident January of 2013 so there's been a lot of time that
has passed since these two incidents [Music] [Applause]

Kendrick Johnson /// Off The Record OTR: 31 Recorded: 11-26-2018 Nic and the Captain talk about the 3rd Autopsy in the Kendrick Johnson case.

Brief Summary

The episode examines the Kendrick Johnson case, focusing on autopsy findings and racial implications surrounding his death.

Key points

The Mysterious Death of Kendrick Johnson. Kendrick Johnson was found dead in a gym mat, raising questions about the circumstances.
Conflicting Autopsy Results. Multiple autopsies yield different conclusions about Kendrick's death, stirring controversy.
Al Sharpton's Involvement. Discussion on Al Sharpton's role and the money involved raises questions about his motives.
Witness Threats. A witness in Kendrick Johnson's case was threatened to help cover up the attack.
Skepticism About Evidence. Skepticism arises regarding the validity of the affidavit and its claims.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Hell no, that's no accident!

Reacting to the discovery of Kendrick Johnson's body in a gym mat.

2:35WatchApr 30, 2024

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.