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Nearly a year after the murder of a D.C. school principal from Silver Spring, a D.C. man was sentenced to 18 months in jail in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Thursday after admitting his involvement in the crime last fall.

Joel Danay Johnson, 19, of the 4300 block of 3rd Street in the District, pleaded guilty Nov. 30 as an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder in the April 14 shooting of Brian K. Betts, former principal of Shaw at Garnet-Patterson Middle School. Johnson was originally charged with two armed robbery charges, a handgun offense and two additional charges related to the theft and illegal use of Betts' credit cards, all in addition to the accessory to murder charge he pleaded to.

Neither Johnson's defense attorney, Philip H. Armstrong, nor Assistant State's Attorneys Mary C. Herdman and Sherri D. Koch, who prosecuted the case, were available for comment as of Friday afternoon.

Johnson was the last of four men to be arrested and charged in the case after he called one of his co-defendants who was being held in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility last May, according to prosecutors.

Alante Saunders, Sharif T. Lancaster and Deontra Q. Gray, all 19, were arrested May 1 after police recovered Betts' 2007 Nissan Xterra, which was stolen from his home the night of the murder, and used a GPS device in the vehicle to track the men to Gray's home in the 1300 block of Southview Drive in Oxon Hill, according to court testimony and documents. Johnson was arrested May 18.

Saunders and Lancaster were also linked to the crime by fingerprints found in Betts' home, on the 9300 block of Columbia Blvd., and later in the Xterra, which was recovered by police April 17, according to court documents. In addition to this, all four men were seen using Betts' stolen credit cards on video surveillance footage from several stores in the days following the murder, according to court documents.

The credits cards also were recovered at Gray's residence May 1, police said.

Saunders, identified as the ringleader of the crime, contacted Betts through a telephone sex chat line where the two agreed to meet at Betts' house April 14, the court documents stated.

Not knowing Saunders intended to rob him, Betts agreed to leave his front door unlocked, allowing Saunders to enter the house where the shooting occurred, the documents stated. Lancaster entered the house shortly after, followed by Johnson. Johnson who had no idea what had happened inside the house, Armstrong told Craven during previous testimony.

"His purpose of getting together with them was not to commit a robbery but to get a ride to a girl's house," Armstrong said during Johnson's plea hearing Nov. 30. "He went in to look for [Saunders and Lancaster] to find out what the holdup was, [and] he was witness to a pretty horrific crime."

As the organizer of the robbery, Saunders was sentenced to 40 years in jail Nov. 23 after pleading guilty to first-degree felony murder, according to court records. Lancaster and Gray both pleaded guilty to robbery and the use of a handgun in a violent crime, according to court records and attorneys.

Gray is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday. Lancaster's sentencing date has been postponed for the time being due to scheduling conflicts, Herdman said before Johnson's sentencing Thursday.

jarias@gazette.net