LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- Twelve years after a Kentuckiana mother lost her only son to a drunk driving crash, her heartbreaking search for justice continues. Police admit a mistake could have been avoided, and this mother believes that mistake could have brought her closure.
Rebecca Johnson has been arrested a dozen times, convicted of killing two people while driving drunk, convicted of trafficking meth and has spent no time in prison.
An arrest for having a gun as a convicted felon might have changed that until the gun was sold at auction—adding to the pain of an already heartbroken mother.
"This day is so hard for me. Please bubba, give me strength to keep fighting,” Tammy Williams said.
Sitting at the cemetery, on the bench that bears her son's name, Williams released balloons to celebrate her son. It’s a birthday tradition no mothers ever ask for.
"It seems like just yesterday the chaplain was knocking on my door, handing me Justin's bloody necklace, from the car accident,” Williams said.
A car crash claimed the lives of Tammy's son, 21-year-old Justin Cantrell and his friend Ben McIntosh, in July of 2006. Rebecca Johnson was the drunk driver.
"It was very hard. I couldn't accept that, and it’s very hard for me today to even accept it,” Williams said.
Johnson was going 100 miles per hour and her blood alcohol content was three times over the legal limit, according to police.
Johnson was convicted of two counts of manslaughter the following year. The prosecutor recommended sentence of 20 years in prison, but the judge gave her five years on probation instead.
"It was just, it was awful. Awful,” Williams remembered.
Since then, Johnson has been in and out of Kentuckiana courtrooms.
In Oldham County, she's been arrested and booked into jail six times in the last three years. She has been arrested and booked into Metro Corrections three times since 2012.
Johnson has faced drug charges, weapon charges, and has a long list of probation violations. But has never spent a day in prison.
Williams said, "It’s not fair. It’s not fair to me. It’s not fair to my family. It’s not fair to our community. It’s not fair."
Tammy was defeated but still saw hope.
It came in the form of a trial in Jefferson County that was scheduled for mid-April of 2018. The prosecutor told WHAS11 they would be fighting for prison time.
For Tammy, this was going to be the case that brought long-awaited closure.
"It’s just critical that we get her off the street, she is going to kill someone else,” Williams said.
But the trial didn't happen. Instead, Johnson was offered a plea deal on amended charges. The penalty presented was less than half of the potential prison time that prosecutors originally sought.
It was devastating news for Tammy and she demanded answers from the prosecutor.
"He said the evidence was missing, the gun was missing,” Williams said.
The gun, which was key evidence in the case, had been wrongly labeled inside the LMPD property room and then sold at auction.
LMPD Major Andy McClinton said, "Another law enforcement agency came into our property room with this weapon and it was marked as safekeeping."
The gun has been mislabeled as "safekeeping" when it should have been "evidence.”
WHAS11 wanted to know if this had happened before. And if so, how often? We filed an open records request with the police department.
An LMPD spokesperson responded, "there is no database for evidence that may have been 'wrongly sold or misplaced'".
WHAS11 sat down with McClinton for clarification.
"So, there's no way to know exactly how many times evidence has been mismanaged at LMPD?” reporter Shay McAlister asked.
McClinton responded, "We can go back and give you a general number, but an exact, if you have a specific incident we can look that up.”
McClinton explained the process.
"We would have to go through every one of our records and there's way too much evidence property in that property room,” he said.
Meaning there is no way to know how many other cases did not make it to trial because of missing evidence.
"The breakdown? It has to be on the front end. If that property is labeled as evidence then this is all avoided,” McClinton said, “if it was marked as evidence in the beginning instead of safekeeping then, yes, it could have been avoided."
It could have been avoided, and Williams said should have been avoided.
When asked what will be done differently to avoid a similar situation in the future, McClinton mentioned more training.
But for Williams, it’s too little too late.
"That doesn't help. That doesn't help. Not at all,” Williams said.
The prosecutor's office said there's nothing more they can do. They offered a plea agreement, and Johnson took it.
Now, the case in the hands of the judge and Williams is left waiting for justice, again.
Rebecca Johnson will be in front of a judge for sentencing in June. The possibilities are up to three years in prison or five years on probation.