CINCINNATI — A grieving daughter is asking the Ohio Parole Board to keep her father behind bars more than 30 years after he was convicted of killing her mother.
Jennifer Johnson grew up in Price Hill in the 1980s. She was 5 years old when she learned her mother had been murdered.
"I remember growing up being jealous because I wanted my mom," she said. "I can't remember her voice. I can't picture her life."
Her father, Daniel Johnson, murdered 28-year-old Angela Johnson Florimonte the day after Christmas 1989.
The Hamilton County Prosecutor said after seven years of marriage and three children together, Daniel and Angela separated. They did not legally divorce, but signed a “separation agreement.”
Daniel then moved to Tennessee and married another woman in the fall of 1989. He didn't tell Angela, keeping it a secret from her and the children until she found out on Dec. 26.
According to prosecutors, he was supposed to pick Angela up after her shift at a hardware store in Delhi Township to take her to look at a new car. That never happened.
Instead, he took Angela to the cement company he worked at in Riverside. The two fought over his bigamy until he killed her. He then drove her body to the farm he lived at with his other wife in Vevay and buried it in a shallow grave.
It was the same spot where Jennifer and her two older siblings would play while they lived with their father in the month Angela was presumed missing.
"He's not sorry," Jennifer said. "It's not like he just shot her. He beat her and raped her dead body. That's not normal."
Daniel Johnson accepted a plea deal, avoiding the death penalty and instead receiving a sentence of life in prison. Life without parole was not an option at the time of his conviction. His sentence made him eligible for parole after 20 years.
Now, after more than three decades, he's being recommended for parole for a second time.
WCPO requested the Ohio Parole Board's decision sheet. It states the rationale for the board's recommendation as finding Daniel having served "a sufficient portion of his sentence, has completed programming to abate his risk to re-offend, and has a supportive release plan, thereby rendering him suitable for release onto parole supervision at this time."
Jennifer said she didn't find out about her father's parole recommendation until early April. She said she disagrees with the board's decision and never wants to see her father walk free.
"I just know if he gets out he'll do it again," Jennifer said. "If my mom can't walk free and I still can't walk free — like this is something I cannot get over. It has ran my life. But I have stopped it. I am going to be in control. I am going to show him I am taking my power back and I'm gonna fight."
The Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office is joining in Jennifer's fight to block her father's release. They've added his name to their online Parole Watch, a platform urging the public to oppose parole for violent offenders who committed crimes within the county.
"Through his plea deal, Johnson has already received the only reduction in sentence he should ever get. The Ohio Parole Board has made a preliminary decision to recommend Johnson be released. For the brutal murder of his estranged wife, Johnson deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. Please join the family and the Hamilton County Prosecutors Office in voicing opposition to his release," the prosecutor's office wrote.
Daniel Johnson's hearing isn't until the fall, but Jennifer said she and her family only have until May 15 to appeal the board's recommendation. That's why she made the emotional trip back to Cincinnati to share her plea.
She now lives in Tennessee, far away from the trauma her father inflicted then and could possibly inflict again if he's released, Jennifer said.
"I will never move back to Cincinnati because of him," she said. "I feel like I've lived in fear my whole life. He's threatened me, and I know (speaking to you) is going to make it worse, so I feel if he does get out he's going to come after me and I want to be there for my kids."
Jennifer spoke with WCPO at her mother's gravesite in St. John's Cemetery in Delhi Township. She was joined by two of the five uncles who raised her, as well as her daughters, her mother's niece, a distant cousin and her best friend.
The group decorated Angela's gravesite with flowers, balloons and a pinwheel. They also did a balloon release in her honor.
"This is my sanctuary. This is where I came growing up. This is what I knew as my mom," Jennifer said. "I don't remember her as a person. I remember coming here and sitting. That's not how it should have been."
You can write in to the Hamilton County Prosecutor's office to provide input on Johnson's parole recommendation. You can submit that online or in a written letter.
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