Teen who drove car involved in deadly shooting in York pleads guilty to third-degree murder
Christopher Johnson wanted to rent a car, but he was only 14.
So Johnson sought the help of a husband and wife who were addicted to drugs, prosecutors said. The couple later rented him the car — a black 2019 Ford Taurus SHO — at Budget Rentals in exchange for heroin. He then had the windows tinted.
On May 2, 2019, Johnson was driving the car when he stopped before 7 p.m. near the intersection of South Belvidere Avenue and West King Street in York. Two men who were armed with an AK-47 and a .40-caliber handgun, respectively, got out and unloaded into another vehicle, hitting the driver, Jose Rosado-Baez, and fatally wounding his passenger, Antonio Garcia, prosecutors said.
Garcia was found dead in a parking lot across from William Penn Senior High School. He was 27.
Johnson, now 17, of York, pleaded guilty on Friday to third-degree murder as an accomplice for a sentence of 11 to 22 years in prison.
“I would like to say how sorry I am to the Garcias for their loss,” Common Pleas Judge Amber Anstine Kraft said to loved ones, who watched the hearing on Zoom.
“I know there are no more words that would give them any comfort,” she added. “I wanted to express my sorrow in that respect.”
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Johnson answered the judge’s questions with, “Yes, your honor” and “No, your honor” and did not make a statement.
Outside the courtroom, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Lewis Reagan said the commonwealth extended the plea agreement based on the totality of the circumstances and the evidence that it had — and didn’t have — in the case.
Reagan said cellphone evidence placed Johnson in the area of the shooting. His DNA was also found on a water bottle inside the car.
York City police have not made any other arrests in the killing.
“We have theories on who the shooters are,” Reagan said, “but we don’t have any specific suspects."
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Heather Reiner, Johnson’s attorney, could not immediately be reached.
Johnson will receive credit for the 1,094 days that he’s spent awaiting trial in York County Prison.
Dylan Segelbaum is the courthouse reporter at the York Daily Record, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Contact him at dsegelbaum@ydr.com, by phone at 717-916-3981 or on Twitter @dylan_segelbaum.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Deadly shooting in York: Christopher Johnson pleads guilty to murder
