Three decades after a hallway shooting stunned Tavares Middle School and reshaped local school safety, the teenager at the center of it all has quietly walked out of prison.
Keith Johnson, convicted of killing 13-year-old student Joey Summerall in 1995, was released this spring after a judge threw out his life sentence and made him eligible for parole. Johnson, now 45, is living in a Gainesville halfway house and enrolled in a reentry program, a shift that has reopened long-buried wounds in the tight-knit Lake County community.
Circuit Judge Lawrence Semento vacated Johnson’s life term in April, finding that Johnson’s age at the time of the crime, his unstable family background, and his limited capacity for decision-making weighed in favor of resentencing and parole, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The outlet reports that state officials released Johnson on parole and placed him in the Gainesville facility as part of a structured transition program…