To Governor Jay Inslee,
I was recently informed that you signed off on a computation to release Jeremy Johnson early from his sentence of 30 years for his involvement in the August 20, 1995 shooting in Spokane, WA. He will be released in 2017 instead of 2025. To you that may not seem like a very long time but to me, it means everything.
I'm Sabrina Lewin, one of the victims of his crime. Let me tell you a little bit about my life and what his actions have caused. I was shot 3 times in this drive-by. My right knee, my left hip which stopped in my bladder, and my left shoulder where the bullet traveled up to my spine and stopped on a disc in my neck. It was with a 9mm with armor piercing bullets so they went through the car door like it was nothing. The pain was immeasurable, the recovery worse. I was in surgery for so long they had to leave the bullet in my neck and eventually removed it about 3 months later. When I had this surgery I was told I had a 50/50 chance of being paralyzed from the neck down. Luckily my surgeon was amazing and I am not paralyzed. I've had many surgeries and years of physical therapy. Literally every single step I take hurts. I can't walk up and down stairs like a normal person, you should try spending one day just walking up and down stairs only using your left leg then you'll understand how frustrating that really is. I have to force myself and consciously decide to use both legs and then the fear of falling is very real for me for when my knee randomly decided to give out. I do not have full use of my left arm from where the bullet sliced the nerve to the second largest muscle in my back on that side. From the bullet landing in my neck, I do not have full rotation and am constantly plagged with headaches. Being shot in my hip makes it ache, what's worse tho is that it stopped in my bladder and now have a scar on it which makes my have to go to the bathroom on a seconds notice. I have PTSD. PTSD is horrifying and makes me relive those moments when I last expect it.
Of course Jeremy Johnson was not the one who's bullets struck me as that was Jose Mendoza. The only reason I am here tho is because Jeremy Johnson's gun jammed after the first bullet. Had his gun not jammed the survival rate of this story would be entirely different. I'm hoping since you signed off on him being released early that you actually read the whole story of what happened. But if not let me recap for you. He threatened us, yelling, screaming and waving a gun around and then he left. He left. That should've been where it stopped but it isn't. He left and went and got his friends and guns and came back to hunt us down to murder us. He claimed he didn't know there were girls in the car. He and the driver of the case I was riding had disliked each other since kindergarten. This act was a long time coming on his part towards the driver of our car. He knew he hated him for years. He was out for vengeance against a childhood squabble. Jeremy Johnson is the reason I got shot. He is the one who drove around searching for us to kill us. He is the one who made this whole event happen. He was involved in gangs at that point. He was into hardcore drugs. And he is the one who wanted us dead for being in the car with the person he had a problem with.
I am the one who has suffered tremendous amounts of pain, fear, hurt, the destruction of my body. I lost so much that day and the judge who ruled the case understood what a cold, calculating individual he was. I'll never forget sitting in court and watching Jeremy Johnson smile about what he did to us. He smiled. Why is he getting out early? Why is part of my justice being taken away from me? He should've only been able to get 15% of his time off for good behavior. Not 8 years off. I don't get time off from my pain. I don't get time off from the PTSD. Every single moment of my life is affected because of what he did.
As we fast forward to things that have later been discovered to be repercussions of this event here is 4. I've had 4 miscarriages meaning I lost 4 children that I should've been able to watch grow up in this world but now will never know. In hip trauma there's a little thing called adhesions that start to form and eventually they wrapped themselves around my entire uterus causing me to lose every child I had hoped to have. Being a mother was taken from when I was too young to understand how much I really wanted my own family. I will never have my own children because of the actions of Jeremy Johnson.
I always have to be strong in front of my mom even when I don't want to be because a mother shouldn't suffer the way my mom has because of his actions. I can't imagine how hard this has been for my mom to watch her child lay close to death in a hospital bed bleeding everywhere. Her listening to me scream out in pain and the mere touch of a hand on the bed I lay in. The not knowing if the next surgery would be successful or not. Even now when my mother informed that the Victims of Violent Crimes contacted her to let us know about your decision to let him out early, even now I stay strong so she doesn't have to suffer more because of my being upset. But I am upset. I'm horrified. I'm terrified. I'm appalled and disgusted that you would release him early.
I had not even thought about how him being released in 10 years was going to affect me because it seemed so far off. This year is my 20 year survival date. This year has been really hard for me with the knowledge of it being this long and hope intense it still is constantly, every single day for me and now my security had been taken from me earlier than it should have been. I felt safe knowing he was locked up. I do not feel safe knowing he's getting out early. The judge was right in sentencing him the amount of time he did and you are wrong for letting him out early.
I am a victim of a violent crime. I deserve the justice that our court system deemed fair. You were not there, yet you release him early? How could you? Why would you treat the victims of a violent crime this way? Did you even take the time to find out about the victims and how your decision would impact us? My security, my safety have been cast aside in your carless signature on that document. He shouldn't get out early. My life is a daily struggle. It is hard enough as it is without Jeremy Johnson getting out early. Now my PTSD is on high alert. I've cried so much from horror of what you have made happen in his pending release.
Even with everything that has happened to me and the atrocities that occurred to me, I am still the type of person to love every minute of life no matter how difficult it is. I hope that there was some reason that you thought he was deserving of his freedom because at this moment, as his victim, I do not comprehend how you could have signed off on this. If there was ever a moment in your life where you felt a victim shouldn't be victimized more, then you need to do something to fix the wrong you have done. I don't deserve this. I deserve the justice the judge ordered. It's not right. It's not fair. I'm the victim of a violent crime and you cast me aside to let a felon out of prison early.
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