A homeless man once accused of killing a homeless woman is now a free man.
As part of a plea deal, Frederick Johnson submitted an Alford plea to aggravated assault and the murder charge against him was dropped.
An Alford plea is similar to a guilty plea, but the defendant does not admit to committing the crime.
Johnson was accused of killing 23-year-old Bethany Kelley in 2022.
But Johnson’s lawyers introduced evidence that Kelley had a potentially lethal level of drugs in her system at the time of her death.
Because of that, prosecutors couldn’t prove if she was murdered or died of an overdose.
Johnson was sentenced to two years of time he had already served in jail.
