The father of a criminal justice activist who was charged with murder after a slew of body parts were found in a Bronx apartment says he thought his ex-con son was “reformed” after a decades-long prison stint.
Sheldon Johnson Jr., 48, was slapped with a murder charge on Thursday after cops discovered the dismembered remains of 44-year-old Collin Small stashed in a freezer and blue bin inside the victim’s sixth-floor apartment, police said.
“I’m surprised and shocked,” the alleged perp’s dad, Sheldon Johnson Sr., told the New York Daily News in the wake of his arrest.
“I thought he did well in prison. He studied. I was happy he got out of jail. I thought he was reformed.”
The accused killer was busted after he was allegedly caught on surveillance video coming in and out of the victim’s apartment on Summit Avenue, near West 162nd Street, in different outfits — including a blond wig — in the hours before cops made the grisly discovery.
Officers had encountered Johnson Jr. at the apartment when they were responding to a welfare check after neighbors reported hearing gunshots and spotted the alleged perp hauling a blue bin inside, cops said.
A subsequent search of the property uncovered the victim’s decapitated head — with a bullet hole in it — stashed inside a black garbage bag in the freezer along with a severed arm, legs and foot, police said.
The victim’s torso and other foot were found stuffed in the blue bin, cops added.
Police haven’t disclosed the relationship between Johnson Jr. and the victim, but sources told The Post they both previously served time at Sing Sing prison in Westchester County — and may have had beef there.
The accused killer and Smalls both also have lengthy rap sheets in New York and Pennsylvania, including multiple drugs busts, records obtained by The Post show.
Johnson Jr. was released from prison in 2019 after serving 20 years for a series of armed robberies in 1999.
In an interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Johnson — who claimed he was once a member of the Bloods gang — said he was arrested and sentenced to a maximum of 50 years for using a gun to rob several men who owed him money for drugs.
After spending some time in and out of solitary confinement, the felon said he decided to “turn his life around” and got his GED in prison.
Johnson Jr. started working as a staffer at the public law firm, Queens Defenders, at some point after he was freed and became a well-known victims’ advocate — rubbing shoulders with VIPs like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“He said he was going to his job,” the alleged killer’s father, who is deaf, told the News, adding he last spoke to his son about a month and a half ago.
“My son told me that he’s been working, that’s why I’m surprised this happened. I can’t see my son giving up this good job and doing something like this.”
Johnson Jr. has been charged with murder, manslaughter and weapon possession in Smalls’ slaying.
He was held without bail following his Bronx Criminal Court arraignment on Thursday night.