‘Not guilty’ ruling in Lake Shore Drive murder, victim’s family just grateful for closure

It wasn’t the closure the family had hoped for, but it’s closure, nevertheless.

This week, two young men charged in the murder of Pamela Johnson — who was struck and killed by a truck after running onto Lake Shore Drive while fleeing an armed robbery on Memorial Day 2016 — were found not guilty.

It was a trial three years in the making, with Johnson’s mother and the 15-year-old son Johnson left behind anxiously awaiting justice.

Devonte M. Dodd, 23, and Semaj Waters, 21, had been charged with first-degree murder, attempted robbery and mob action — Waters accused of brandishing a gun, Dodd, of announcing the robbery as Johnson and her boyfriend strolled along the lake in the 600 block of North Lake Shore Drive.

Dodd and Waters had been held without bond at Cook County Jail since July 2016.

Their bench trial before Judge Joseph Claps began May 16, and on Wednesday, Claps acquitted both, saying prosecutors did not produce enough evidence to show they were guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

Asked about the case, the state’s attorney’s office in a statement said: “As in all cases, we prosecuted this case to the fullest extent, and we will continue to seek justice on behalf of all victims in Cook County.”

Johnson’s murder, which took place on the Gold Coast, made headlines.

Provided photo

Police said the couple was approached by seven or eight men on a beautiful evening turned nightmare. The group chased the scared young mother onto Lake Shore Drive, where she was fatally struck.

Her mother, Anganet Johnson, of South Chicago, now raising grandson Daveion “Malik,” sought to keep her daughter’s memory alive, as she went back and forth to court, seeing promised trial dates come and go.

The trial finally began five days after her daughter’s May 11 birthday. Families of Pamela Johnson and Dodd and Waters filled the courtroom during the trial, such that some dozen sheriff’s deputies were called to keep order the day of the ruling.

Johnson and her family were escorted out first with some family members sobbing.

Dodd and Waters’ relatives celebrated.

The Chicago Sun-Times caught up with Johnson at the one-year anniversary of her daughter’s death, when the grandmother had just lost her job after taking extended bereavement time for grief counseling for both herself and Malik, who was about to graduate eighth grade.

Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

The Sun-Times again caught up with her on the three-year anniversary, as the trial was set to begin. Malik is now entering his junior year of high school, with plans to study mechanical engineering in college. Anganet Johnson had braced herself.

Hearing the evidence as Assistant State’s Attorney Lisa Morrison made her case was difficult. Eugene Jackson, who’d been with Johnson that night, broke down on the stand and sobbed.

“Once the trial is over, I hope to close this chapter in my life,” Anganet Johnson had said during the trial. And she hasn’t wavered from that.

“I’m just so happy all of this is over with. I don’t have to go to court anymore. This has been a journey I don’t wish for anyone,” the grandmother said Friday.

“We were praying for a different outcome, but prepared for this one as well. I can now focus on my family. I know Pam’s at peace, looking down, saying, ‘It’s OK, Mom.’ It really didn’t matter whether they stayed in jail or got out. Nothing was going to bring Pam back.”

As it turns out, they didn’t leave jail. Waters — held on $500,000 bail — remained behind bars for an aggravated battery and use of a deadly weapon case tied to an incident in jail in December 2018. Dodd — held on no bond— meanwhile, awaits an extradition on a fugitive warrant from Indiana.

Cook County Department of Corrections