Natchez man charged in Saturday murder in Catahoula Parish
Published 12:45 am Sunday, December 16, 2018
NATCHEZ — Adams County Sheriff’s deputies along with Concordia Parish deputies arrested a Natchez man Saturday afternoon and charged him in the shooting death of a Concordia Parish man who was killed earlier the same day.
Jordan Johnson, 22, of Natchez was being held Saturday in the Adams County Jail on a charge of second-degree murder, Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten said.
The shooting occurred approximately 1 a.m. Saturday at the Sugar Shack club in Jonesville in Catahoula Parish, officials said.
Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Office arrived on the scene to find the victim deceased from apparent gunshot wounds, said Catahoula Parish Sheriff Toney Edwards.
The name of the victim was being withheld Saturday at request of the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s office.
“Detectives from the Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Office processed the scene and began immediately talking to witnesses,” Edwards said. “After obtaining information from eyewitness accounts, an arrest warrant for Jordan Johnson was issued for second-degree murder.”
Edwards said the Catahoula Sheriff’s Office worked closely with the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office and with the help of Adams County Sheriff’s Office and Natchez Police Department were able to make a swift arrest of Johnson.
“Other arrests are likely in this case, and warrants are pending further investigation,” Edwards said.
Patten said the arrest was a combined effort.
“Our special response teams got together and coordinated a plan of action to affect an arrest,” Patten said. “Our SRT commander and the team were able to sit down with a team from Concordia Parish and other law enforcement from Louisiana to draft up a plan of action.”
Patten said recently installed Project NOLA surveillance cameras in the vicinity of Holiday Apartments helped identify the suspect in the case.
Johnson was arrested approximately 1 p.m. Saturday in front of the Holiday Apartments in Natchez and the arrest was captured on video.
Deputies said they found three-quarters of a pound of high-grade marijuana, scales, and $239 cash in a vehicle Johnson was in at the time of the arrest. Also in recovered from the vehicle were clothes deputies said Johnson was believed to have been wearing at the time of the murder.
Johnson and a passenger in the vehicle at the time of the arrest, Chryshean Malone, both face charges of possession of schedule 1 drugs (marijuana) with intent to deliver within 1,500 feet of a school zone and possession of drug paraphernalia, Patten said.
Johnson was on probation, Patten said, with the Mississippi Department of Corrections after a recent release from prison after he pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault in relation to his part in a 2014 incident.
In the 2014 incident, Johnson and three other teenagers were accused of shooting at three men who had driven through Maryland Heights apartment complex. One victim was struck in the arm by a bullet, another was grazed in the left side of the head and a third victim grazed in the leg.
Court records show Johnson was sentenced in March 2016 for his part in the incident to 10 years in prison with five years suspended and five years post-release supervision on count one; 10 years to run concurrent on count 2; and 10 years with five years formal reporting, meaning he had to report to a parole officer, on count three.
Johnson, Patten said, was recently released from MDOC on probation, but no release date was available. Patten said, however, he believes Johnson had been released within the past year.
MDOC has an early release program due to prison overcrowding that allows some inmates to be released after serving a percentage of their time, Patten said.