Sister of slain 12-year-old pleas guilty to involuntary manslaughter
By KCTV Staff
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LEAVENWORTH, Kansas (KCTV) — The 21-year-old sister of a 12-year-old who was killed in a shooting that occurred April 14, 2021, was convicted Wednesday of one count of involuntary manslaughter.
Brooke Johnson, 21, of Kansas City, Missouri, was convicted of the severity level 5 felony for her connection to a shooting that happened in the parking lot of KARE Pharmacy at 2500 S. 4th St in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Johnson used social media to arrange the sale of a gun to three residents in Leavenworth County. She intended to sell the three people a BB gun that resembled a real gun with the intention of driving off with their money before they realized it was not a real gun. Johnson recruited two juveniles — one of them her 12-year-old brother — to assist with the scheme.
After parking across from each other in the pharmacy parking lot, a teenage male walked from the purchasers’ car and received the fake gun in exchange for $400 cash. As the male started to walk back to the car, he realized the gun was not real and shouted to Darvon Thomas and Jaylen Johnson — the two other purchasers who remained in the car — that they had been ripped off.
According to court documents, Thomas told Jaylen Johnson to shoot them, and Jaylen Johnson exited the car and began firing a real gun at Brooke Johnson’s car, hitting it multiple times as it left the parking lot. One stray bullet struck the car of a woman driving past the pharmacy with her 6-month-old baby inside.
After leaving the scene, Brooke realized her brother had been shot and took him to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was pronounced dead.
Jaylen Johnson was convicted by a jury on May 9, 2022, of first-degree murder, two counts of criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied vehicle and one count of criminal possession of a firearm by a felon. On June 17, he was sentenced to life in prison in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections, with a chance to apply for parole after 25 years.
Thomas was convicted of second-degree murder on Feb. 8, 2022, and was sentenced on March 9 to 200 months — or nearly 17 years — in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections.
The 17-year-old who drove Brooke Johnson and the 12-year-old to the transaction spot was charged as a juvenile and adjudicated on Nov. 16, 2021, of one count of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced Jan. 1, 2022, to 15 months in the custody of the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Facility.
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