Repentant and eager to move on, Gilroy High School Senior
Marshad Johnson has largely taken the fall for his juvenile
football buddies.
Repentant and eager to move on, Gilroy High School Senior Marshad Johnson has largely taken the fall for his juvenile football buddies.
Thursday, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon accepted Johnson’s “no contest” plea for a burglary tool possession charge related to the GHS locker room thefts last year.
Ramon sentenced Johnson, 18, to spend five days in the Sheriff’s Work Program this summer, ordered him to pay $495 in fines and placed him on two years of court probation.
Johnson, who initially pleaded not guilty, did not appear in court Thursday because he had an English test, and he could not be reached for comment later in the day, but his public defender, Bernie Saucedo, pleaded on his behalf and read a rueful letter penned by the senior to the court. In it, Johnson apologized for his “bad choice,” for embarrassing his family and for giving his football team a bad name. “It’s been very emotional and challenging,” Saucedo read on Johnson’s behalf.
Saucedo also pointed out that Johnson received laudits for volunteering with the county’s Restorative Justice Program, and Ramon acknowledged Johnson’s contrition before handing down the sentence.
Johnson, 18, was the only adult among five football players cited in December by the Gilroy Police Department for planning and partaking in the Dec. 5 theft of about $1,700 worth of electronics, cash, shoes and clothes from the GHS soccer team’s locker room during school hours.
The collective act constituted grand theft, according to Johnson’s case file.
After hearing of Johnson’s sentence Thursday, Richard Masey, the former GHS coach who claimed to have caught Johnson with a lock-picking shiv, said it’s been nice knowing Johnson regardless.
“I think the justice system decides what’s appropriate,” Masey said. “All I can say is that Marshad has been a really good athlete and good student.”
Letters from school officials vouching for Johnson’s character, which he brought to court last month, corroborated Masey’s statement.
Either way, with graduation and college on the horizon, it’s time to move on, the Johnsons have said.
