Ex-con NYC murder suspect seen smiling with DA Bragg pleads not guilty, held without bail

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Sheldon Johnson, the ex-con who claimed to be a criminal justice reform activist and palled around with VIPs like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and podcaster Joe Rogan, pleaded not guilty to murder in a Bronx courtroom Tuesday before the judge ordered him held without bail.

The 48-year-old became an outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform after his parole last year and began working with the Queens Defenders, a criminal defense firm in Forest Hills.

Now, he’s accused of gunning down a 44-year-old rival named Collin Small in a Bronx apartment, then chopping up his remains and hiding them in multiple locations, including a storage bin and a freezer.

Responding officers at first found only Small’s headless torso. Then they discovered his disembodied feet beneath it in a plastic bin at the scene. In Johnson’s apartment in Harlem, police allegedly found Small’s head, legs and one arm stuffed into a freezer.

EX-CON NYC MURDER SUSPECT SMILES WITH DA BRAGG SHORTLY BEFORE SHOCKING ARREST

Sheldon Johnson appears in a courtroom at the Bronx Supreme Court in New York City on April 2, 2024. Johnson, a criminal justice reform advocate, is charged in the murder and dismemberment of Collin Small last month. (Kevin C. Downs for Fox News Digital)

Surveillance video from Small’s apartment building showed a man, alleged to be Johnson, coming and going multiple times after the slaying.

He changed his clothes and at one point allegedly wore a blonde wig as a disguise.

Johnson appeared in a New York courtroom Tuesday wearing a tan sweatsuit with the shirt inside-out and his hands cuffed behind his back. He spoke only to enter his plea of not guilty.

Sheldon Johnson, left, an ex-con who claimed to have turned his life around before New York City police arrested him on second-degree murder charges, poses for a photo with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. (Sheldon Johnson/Instagram)

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Neighbors overheard a man begging for mercy shortly before two gunshots rattled the apartment building, where Johnson was allegedly seen coming and going multiple times in different disguises after the murder, according to the New York Post.

Surveillance footage provided to Fox News shows Collin Small in the hallway of his apartment building in the Bronx on March 5, 2024. After Small’s dismembered remains were discovered, police arrested an ex-con named Sheldon Johnson. (Provided to Fox News)

“Please don’t,” a man said, according to the paper. “I have a family.”

This undated photograph shows Collin Small, who was shot and killed in an apartment in the Bronx on March 5, 2024. (Provided to Fox News)

Just weeks earlier, Johnson appeared on Rogan’s podcast.

The suspected killer got out of prison last year after supporters lobbied for his release.

Surveillance footage provided to Fox News allegedly shows Sheldon Johnson in a blonde wig leaving the elevator in an apartment building in the Bronx on March 5, 2024. Johnson is alleged to have shot and killed rival Collin Small in an apartment in the building. (Provided to Fox News)

On his Instagram, Johnson shared a photograph of himself smiling and shaking hands with Bragg.

Surveillance footage provided to Fox News appears to show Sheldon Johnson with a blue bin in the hallway of an apartment building in the Bronx on March 5, 2024. Johnson is alleged to have shot and killed rival Collin Small in an apartment in the building. (Provided to Fox News)

New York Department of Corrections records show Johnson and Small both served prison time, but it was not immediately clear how they knew each other.

In another photo, Johnson appears to pose alongside the CFO of the Brooklyn Nets NBA team, and in another, he gestures in front of a sign that reads, “Jail increases the risk of recidivism…at the expense of actual public health and safety.”

Sheldon Johnson appears in a courtroom at the Bronx Supreme Court in New York City on April 2, 2024. Johnson, a criminal justice reform advocate, is charged in the murder and dismemberment of Collin Small last month. (Kevin C. Downs for Fox News Digital)

Johnson said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” in February that he was released from prison in May 2023 after 25 years and five months behind bars for a string of armed robberies.

Although he claimed to have risen to the top of the inmate hierarchy, he said he reformed himself in prison. 

After his release, while flying on an airplane for the first time, he claimed to have had an epiphany.

“I had this analogy in my head when I was up in the clouds, and I’m looking down, and I said to myself, I said, ‘I just came from the bowels of hell, spending 25 years in prison, and now I’m in the sky above the clouds in heaven.'”

Sheldon Johnson posted this selfie from the Queens Defenders office to Facebook in December. (Sheldon Johnson/Facebook)

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Now, he is being held without bail in a New York City jail on a second-degree murder charge.

A spokesperson for the Queens Defenders told Fox News Digital the organization had no comment on Johnson’s arrest Friday.

Bragg’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Michael Ruiz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to michael.ruiz@fox.com and on Twitter: @mikerreports