PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Lucas Fleming has no idea why his client did not have an ankle monitor installed on him after he left the Pinellas County Jail.
Eli Johnson is accused of making threats to harm a woman, shoot up the Eckerd College campus and then shoot himself.
St. Petersburg police arrested Johnson on Feb. 3 and charged him with “written or electronic threats to kill, do bodily injury or conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism.”
After his arrest, detectives learned he had made a down payment on a firearm at a local pawn shop, but hadn’t received it yet.
Police say Johnson ingested a number of pills prior to his arrest and he was taken to a hospital for treatment and then committed under the Baker Act. During that time, a judge ordered that the “defendant will be outfitted with a GPS monitor to be placed on defendant by the Pinellas County Sherriff’s Office prior to release from PCJ (Pinellas County Jail.)”
Fleming says that never happened.
“Well, the breakdown is not with my client by any means. It’s not his job to go out and do this,” said Fleming. “It’s really for the jail to have it on him when he left. We understand that did not happen.”
A representative with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office claims there were no mistakes made, but because Johnson moved from one medical treatment facility to another, deputies were never able to put a GPS monitor on him. She added, that in some medical facilities that treat for mental health issues, GPS monitors aren’t even allowed.
Late Monday afternoon, a judge suspended the GPS requirement. Stephen Thompson, public information officer for the 6th Judicial Circuit issued the following statement.
“At roughly 2 p.m. this afternoon, three representatives from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office visited Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Joseph Bulone in his chambers at the County Justice Center and asked that he rescind another judge’s order that Mr. Johnson wear an ankle monitor on the grounds that Mr. Johnson was out of the area and undergoing treatment,” said court spokesman Stephen Thompson in a statement. “It is unknown whether the sheriff’s representatives approached Judge Bulone because he is the criminal administrative judge at the justice center or because he is now the judge the case is assigned to. Judge Bulone did not rescind the requirement, but suspended it. Between Feb. 5, when Pinellas County Judge Kathleen Hessinger ordered the ankle monitor, and today, Mr. Johnson was supposed to be wearing one.”
An Eckerd College sophomore who chose not to be identified, says the case is quite concerning to her.
“I actually was in a school shooting a few years ago in my high school. I’ve always had the habit of not wanting to sit close to the door in a classroom,” said the student. “Especially if there is no way to track where he is. And if there’s nothing stopping him from taking a bus, taking an Uber, driving himself back up to campus. “
