Chester Lee Johnson Jr., a celebrated former high school track star and beloved father, was a man whose life was remembered for his athletic achievements and his kind heart. The 32-year-old Black man was a resident of Fort Worth, Texas, where he had made a name for himself as a sprinter at O.D. Wyatt High School. In 2000, he was part of the school's state champion 4x100-meter relay team, a group of talented young men who brought pride to their community. Tragically, another member of that same relay team, Darrent Williams, who went on to play for the Denver Broncos, was also killed in a shooting years earlier. Chester was remembered by his former coach, Lee Williams, as a devastating loss. His family, including his parents, Chester Lee and Cynthia Johnson, his siblings, and his daughter, Za'Rhiya, were left with precious memories of a man they loved dearly.
In the early morning hours of November 10, 2015, Chester Johnson’s life was cut short by an act of violence. At approximately 2:20 a.m., Fort Worth police officers responded to a call in the 3700 block of Village Creek Road in east Fort Worth. There, they discovered Johnson critically injured inside his car, a 1999 four-door Acura. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and abdomen. MedStar paramedics rushed him to John Peter Smith Hospital, but his injuries proved fatal, and he was pronounced dead. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office officially ruled his death a homicide, launching an intensive investigation by the Fort Worth Police Department.
The investigation into the robbery and fatal shooting of Chester Johnson soon focused on three individuals. In January 2016, Fort Worth police announced the arrests of 22-year-old William James Harris, 17-year-old Anthony Marshal, and 21-year-old Candra Sanders. All three were taken into custody on capital murder warrants, each held on a $250,000 bond. The arrests brought a sense of progress to a case that had shaken the community, but the legal process would unfold over the next few years, revealing different paths for each of the accused.
The case against Candra Sanders took a significant turn in June 2017. After she had spent 18 months in the Tarrant County Jail, prosecutors dismissed the capital murder charge against her due to insufficient evidence. Her attorney maintained that she had simply given the two male suspects a ride and had no knowledge of their intent to commit a crime. However, a Fort Worth detective stated that an uncooperative witness had weakened the case against Sanders, who they believed had known Johnson and helped coordinate the robbery. Following her release, the focus of the prosecution remained on Harris and Marshal.
The case was officially solved with the convictions of the remaining two defendants. In 2018, both William James Harris and Anthony Marshal took plea deals, avoiding a capital murder trial. Anthony Marshal, who was a teenager at the time of the crime, accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder. A few months later, in June 2018, William James Harris also pleaded guilty to murder. He received a sentence of 35 years in prison for his role in the death of Chester Johnson.
Following his death, Chester Johnson's family and friends gathered to celebrate his life and mourn their loss. A funeral service was held at Morning Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and he was laid to rest at Cedar Hill Memorial Park. His obituary remembered him as a man who left behind a host of relatives and many friends. The tragic and premature end to his life served as a painful reminder of the promise lost, both on the track and in the lives of those who knew and loved him. The legal resolution brought a measure of closure, ensuring that the men responsible for his death were held accountable, but it could not fill the void left by his absence.
