Facing a prison cell as her home for life, Chaneeta Bryant apologized to the survivors of the man she intentionally ran over and killed.
“I just want to say to the family that I’m very sorry. I never meant for none of this to happen,” she said during a sentencing hearing Friday in Marion County Circuit Court.
Judge Claiborne “Buddy” McDonald delivered the mandatory life sentence for first-degree murder in the death of James Edward Johnson, 63. Bryant, 28, dabbed tears from her eyes as she listened.
Johnson died from his injuries three days after the attack on June 10, 2016, in front of the Four-Way Grocery in Hurricane Creek. Prosecutors said Bryant ran him down after an argument over money, then stopped and got out to look at him before driving over him again and speeding off. The incident was caught on multiple surveillance cameras.
Bryant had pleaded guilty Sept. 29, but the judge held the hearing Friday to give families of the defendant and victim a chance to express themselves.
The victim’s daughter, Keturah Johnson of Sandy Hook, wrote a statement that was read aloud in court. In it she explained the “unbearable” pain she has felt from the loss of her father but also forgave Johnson.
She noted that most people would stop if they hit a dog, but Bryant didn’t do that for her father, instead driving off without even calling for help.
“To this lady who took my dad away, I would like to say the following to her: It is not in my hands to make the decision to which the judge will impose upon your life,” she wrote. “I do ask that God have mercy upon your soul and that you are filled with remorse for the actions in which you have made. I sincerely pray that God saves your soul. Repent and ask God’s forgiveness. I am at the level in my life where I have to forgive you so that I may live free within my heart and soul.”
Bryant’s grandmother also said she was “truly sorry” to the victim’s family.
“My granddaughter, what she did you can’t explain, but I love her just as much as the next family does theirs and I know everything is God’s will,” she said. “I know everything is in your hands, but, your honor, I’m like the family, we’re asking for forgiveness, too.”
Judge McDonald ordered Bryant to participate in the prison’s long-term drug and alcohol program and anger management or counseling as well as to obtain a GED and pay $10,855 in fines and restitution. Prosecutors dropped two other charges, one for leaving the scene of an accident after running over Johnson and another charge from Lamar County, in exchange for the guilty plea.
McDonald said Bryant’s “wrong decision has resulted in the victim in this case being confined to the grave. His children and his grandchildren, his friends, other family members, they won’t get to visit him, ever. You will have an opportunity to visit with your family if you’re in the penitentiary at least on visiting days. You will be able to know as they grow and get older.”
Yet the judge also encouraged Bryant to make something of her life behind bars at this “turning point.”
“You can try to be someone who counsels with other people that are in the penitentiary in an effort to try, for the ones that are going to be released later, to keep them from making the same mistake you made or the same mistakes you made.
“You can, as was suggested, follow up on and become stronger in your faith. There are many things you can do of a positive nature even though you are confined in the penitentiary. Even Paul was confined in jail. He did good works in jail, and you can do that, too,” he said.
The judge then concluded, “We all have to bear punishment for things that we have done.”
Bryant was turned over to the sheriff pending the Mississippi Department of Corrections taking her to prison.
