Ashley Marie Johnson: Teen's ex-boyfriend pleaded guilty but mentally ill to killing her with a sword two years ago at his home. SPECIAL

Focus on killer's mental illness enrages father

AIKEN - For Morgan Johnson, there's no such thing as closure.

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Every day, in ways big and small, he says he's reminded of his daughter's slaying and the passages of life he'll never share with her. He's reminded of a life suddenly ended with the slash of a sword that cut the carotid artery of 17-year-old Ashley Marie Johnson two years ago.

"For me, it will never end," said Mr. Johnson, 43, a retired Navy petty officer first class who works as a radiological operator at Savannah River Site. "Every time I go somewhere, I'm reminded of where Ashley would have been in life and what she won't have. Ashley won't have a wedding. Ashley won't bring me a grandchild. These are milestones in life I'm not going to experience with her and I'm not going to let that go."

On May 23, Jason Charles Sheahan, 21, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to killing Ashley, his ex-girlfriend, at his Dougherty Road home and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Mr. Sheahan also pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct in the first degree and was given a 30-year concurrent sentence for having sex with her after she fell to the floor dead near the doorway of his home.

That's not good enough for Mr. Johnson.

"I hope sitting in jail reminds him all the time of what he did," he said. "There's probably not a day goes by that he doesn't see what he did."

He might be right.

At the sentencing hearing before Circuit Judge James C. Williams, Mr. Sheahan's mother, who declined to give her name, said her son had visions of Ashley visiting his jail cell and thinks he can communicate telepathically with his "soulmate."

Morgan Johnson, father of Ashley Marie Johnson, and his wife Marilyn Johnson, Ashley's step-mother, feel the sentencing of his daughter's murderer, ex-boyfriend Jason Charles Sheahan, was to light. RON COCKERILLE/STAFF

What angers Mr. Johnson most is the focus on Mr. Sheahan's mental illness, a factor Judge Williams said he took into consideration when deciding to give the killer less than a life sentence. At one point, Judge Williams noted the "savagery" of the crime, but also said "society" might share some of the blame for Ashley's homicide because Mr. Sheahan's mental illness wasn't recognized and treated.

"I never believed in the concept of society being to blame," Mr. Johnson said.

Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1394 or jim.nesbitt@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Tuesday, June 3, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle