Lowndes County sheriff’s deputies have released a report confirming the alibi of the older of two brothers still being investigated by federal prosecutors in the death of a Valdosta teen found dead in a gym mat.
The brothers, whose names are being withheld because they were juveniles at the time, received letters earlier this year from the U.S. Attorney’s Office informing them they were “target(s) of the grand jury’s investigation” into the death of Kendrick Johnson, whose body was found on Jan. 11, 2013, inside a rolled-up gym mat. State and local law enforcement had concluded the 17-year-old’s death was accidental, ruling out any involvement by the two brothers, whose names had surfaced due to a 2011 scuffle between Johnson and the youngest sibling.
A federal probe of the investigation into Johnson's death was subsequently launched.
Last month, one of the lawyers representing Johnson's parents produced a copy of a bus reservation that listed a 4 p.m. departure time for a wrestling tournament in which the older brother was competing — roughly three hours after Johnson was last seen alive. A spokesman for attorney Chevene King did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We were told they were not on campus when our child disappeared,” Chevene King, reading a statement from Johnson’s parents, said at a press conference last month. King urged parents of wrestling team members to ask their children “the questions police did not.”
The sheriff’s report includes interviews with the Lowndes High wrestling coach, the bus driver and several teammates who insist they left Valdosta around lunchtime.
Wrestling coach Spencer Graybeal told Lowndes Sheriff’s Lt. Stryde Jones the form was submitted with an estimated departure time three months before the tournament. The request was later amended, Graybeal said, when he learned the wrestlers were due in Macon — 152 miles away — at 4 p.m. for weigh-ins. The coach told Jones the team departed school grounds no later than 12:30 p.m. — a little less than an hour before Johnson was last seen on school surveillance tapes.
The wrestler under investigation was on the bus, said Graybeal, who provided Jones with a copy of the Jan. 10, 2013 weigh-in report that included the name of the student in question.
Bus driver William White corroborated Graybeal’s statement to police and said he recalls the suspected wrestler being on the bus because, “[he] was one of the better wrestlers on the team.” Ten teammates also confirmed his presence on the bus to Lowndes deputies.
The wrestler’s younger brother was in class and accounted for when Johnson was seen entering the gym where his body would later be discovered.
Johnson's parents have from the beginning insisted that their son was murdered. The case continues to attract national attention, and underlying themes of race and class — the alleged suspects are white and affluent; Johnson was African-American and working-class — have only fueled suspicions of a cover-up.
Meanwhile, the federal investigation remains active. In response to a open records request, the Lowndes sheriff’s office has confirmed that Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah L. Sines recently retrieved the mat where Johnson’s body was found.
The state medical examiner ruled Johnson's death an accident caused by positional asphyxia, supporting local law enforcement's theory that the teen got trapped in the upright mat, measuring 6 feet high and 3 feet across, likely while reaching for a pair of sneakers.
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