Felon, Two Other Defendants Sentenced For Role In Shooting That Killed Dog

A botched robbery that led to the shooting death of a dog will send 23-year-old Montel Johnson to state prison for the next 20 to 40 years.

Johnson was convicted of various offenses earlier this month.

Defense attorney Paul Lang presented information at Monday’s sentencing about Johnson’s tumultuous upbringing and rocky home life going up.

“Mr. Johnson started out not just on the wrong foot, judge. He also started with little chance at all,” Lang told the court, according to the Doylestown Intelligencer.

Johnson’s brother, Marcel, 24, sits on death row for the 2013 Bristol Township murder of R’mani Rankins, 4, and life in prison for the killing of five-months pregnant Ebony Talley, 22.

Johnson, according to officials, shot Cash, a Cane Corso, during a botched April 2016 robbery at Robert Ferry’s residence along Goldengate Road in Bristol Township’s Levittown section before sunrise.

“These were serious crimes committed by a defendant with a serious criminal record. His choices earned him a serious sentence, and that’s exactly what he got,” Deputy District Attorney Christopher Rees told LevittownNow.com.

According to authorities, Ferry went outside and found Johnson and 20-year-old Brittany Dorio outside his home. Ferry’s motorcycle was missing and later found down his driveway. As Ferry edged back toward his house where his then-girlfriend and her daughter were sleeping, Cash rushed outside and toward Johnson, who pulled the trigger. Three bullets were fired by Johnson, one of which struck Cash.

Ferry has said that Cash died in his arms as Johnson, Dorio and Mathew Lily, 30, fled the scene.

“I tried to comfort [Cash] and said he was a good boy,” Ferry testified.

A massive manhunt for Johnson took place after Dorio and Lily were arrested. Johnson was later taken into custody at a Philadelphia Dunkin Donuts in June 2016.

During trial, Lang, made the case that Dorio and Lily blamed the robbery on the 23 year old as an “easy way out.”

Dorio, a mother, was sentenced earlier this month to 11 1/2 to 23 months in county prison and five years probation. She received credit for time served.

Lily received time served and up to 23 months in prison for his more limited role in the botched robbery.

Johnson, who was previously convicted of a robbery, will face another trial in July on a charge of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said the charge was broken off from the recently settled case so “the jury would not be prejudiced by hearing about Johnson’s criminal record.”