AURORA, Colo. — An Arapahoe County father convicted of killing his 6-year-son by slitting the boy's throat was sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Brandon Jamaal Johnson, 28, was sentenced Friday to life without parole plus 54 years after he pleaded guilty to all charges against him.
In exchange for his guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
On Feb. 10, 2016, Arapahoe County Sheriff’s deputies responded to an apartment on East Harvard Avenue after a woman called to say her ex-boyfriend had sexually assaulted her at knifepoint and was threatening to kill his two young sons.
Officers got the woman’s permission to enter her apartment. Inside, they found 6-year-old Riley Johnson dead. His throat had been slit.
A 2-year-old boy in the apartment was unharmed.
Officers found the suspect, Brandon Johnson, on the floor near Riley. He had self-inflicted knife wounds – he had cut his own throat – but was taken to the hospital and survived.
Riley was Johnson’s son from a previous relationship. He and the woman he assaulted were parents of the 2-year-old. Johnson was still living in the woman’s apartment even though they had broken up. The two slept in separate bedrooms while he was looking for a different place to live.
