Citing “troubling” victim-impact statements, a Solano County Superior Court judge on Wednesday sentenced a 27-year-old Vacaville man to nine years in state prison for shooting and wounding his stepfather in 2017.
But during a morning proceeding in Department 25, Judge Janice M. Williams noted Odis William Johnson IV was credited with more than 3,000 days in Solano County Jail custody and released him with credit for time served.
However, just before Johnson left the courtroom, the judge denied probation and placed him on parole for two years.
Johnson was charged on Aug. 24, 2017, with shooting Tramale Hughes, and on March 11 this year pleaded no contest to assault with a semi-automatic firearm, with the special allegation of inflicting great bodily injury. As part of the plea deal, with Johnson not admitting guilt but offering no defense, Williams dismissed an attempted murder charge but immediately found him guilty of the assault charge.
Odis W. Johnson IV of Vacaville was 19, as seen in this 2017 file photo, when he turned himself in to Pittsburg Police in connection with the shooting of his stepfather. (Vacaville PD photo)
During the sentencing hearing, Deputy Public Defender Sormeh Yasaie, appearing for Matthew Adler, represented Johnson. Deputy District Attorney Edward W. Lester represented the DA’s Office.
Before Williams pronounced the sentence, she prefaced her decision with references to victim-impact statements, specifically to Hughes’ current status, saying he had “lost his home,” health and employment.
“He’s struggling,” the judge said of Hughes, adding that the crime “haunts him to this day” and “There’s no easy fix” for what happened.
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Looking directly at Johnson, the judge noted “how one decision can affect so many lives. I hope you learned something.”
During a hearing some two months ago, Deputy District Attorney Douglas A. Pharr read a statement from Gwendolyn Hill, Hughes’ mother, who said her son could no longer hold a job “because of his mental state.”
“He’s everything to me and his children,” according to the wording in her statement. She added that her son will live with the shooting’s trauma for the rest of his life as a consequence of Johnson’s action.
In a brief interview outside the courtroom, Hill said her son was homeless and lived from time to time in any one of several Solano County cities, among them Vacaville, Fairfield and Benicia.
Court records indicate that a judge previously ordered a doctor’s report for Johnson, who was declared incompetent to aid in his own defense. Criminal proceedings were suspended in early 2019. Johnson was later committed to MHM Services Inc., a provider of health services to state and local government agencies, then to the Department of State Hospitals for a maximum term of three years. However, criminal proceedings against him were reinstated on July 17, 2019, then suspended again on Jan. 17, 2020, followed by two more doctor’s reports.
Under state law, a defendant in a criminal case cannot be punished or tried if they are determined to be incompetent. Once competency is restored, a judge can reinstate criminal proceedings.
Eventually, Johnson regained competency and he faced a succession of court dates.
Court records show that Johnson initially was charged with the Aug. 24 attempted murder of Hughes, then 41, who, in the hours after the shooting, had lost a substantial amount of blood and required surgery at Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center.
Around 9:45 a.m., Vacaville police were dispatched to a residence in the 600 block of Fox Pointe Road on a report of a shooting.
Upon arrival at the home, officers found Hughes sitting in a Chevy Avalanche. Johnson had already fled the scene. Hughes, shot several times, left the residence following the shooting, walked into the street and got into the driver’s seat of his truck, according to police.
Multiple shots were fired inside the house, police said. No one else was home at the time of the shooting.
Police said they had previously responded to the home for calls about domestic disputes.
Johnson, a 2015 Vanden High School graduate, turned himself in to Pittsburg police around 2:30 p.m. on the same day of the shooting. He was later booked into Solano County Jail in Fairfield, with bail set at $1.5 million.
