The gang member alleged to have fired the head shot that killed a popular Grant Park bartender six years ago was due to be paroled Tuesday but a last-minute detainer will keep Johnquavious Hood in prison for the time being, a Department of Corrections official told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Hood, now 22, was never charged with John Henderson’s death because prosecutors say they lack the physical evidence. Yet he’s been in and out of prison in the years since the shooting at Standard Food and Spirits on Memorial Drive for a number of a crimes.
After serving 16 months at the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville for gang and burglary offenses unrelated to the Standard shooting, Hood was released in December 2012. But he was back in trouble within a month, according to Atlanta police, participating a smash-and-grab at a liqour store that ended with Hood getting shot in the side.
He also failed a drug test and attempted to steal his probation officer's cell phone, according to court documents.
Hood was sent back to prison in July 2013.
“My concern is that Hood remains unrehabilitated, and that he will return to his former friends, his former haunts, and his former criminal ways,” Don Henderson, father of the slain Standard bartender, wrote in a letter to Hood’s new parole officer. “Since I also believe that Hood is, in fact, one of the two felons who murdered my son … you can understand my fear that the citizens of Atlanta are now at risk as a result of Hood’s release.”
Hood told police in a videotaped interrogation that Jonathan Redding killed John Henderson, though he changed his story on the witness stand.
Redding, who was 17 at the time, was eventually charged under a law that allows a jury to convict a defendant for murder if he participated in an armed robbery that resulted in a death. He was convicted and sentenced to life plus 20 years in March 2011 for his role in the shooting.
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