The Missouri Supreme Court has set an August execution date for Johnny A. Johnson, who kidnapped and beat to death a 6-year-old girl in Valley Park in 2002.
Johnson, 45, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Aug. 1 at the Bonne Terre prison. The death warrant is good for a 24-hour period, starting at 6 p.m. that day.
Missouri plans to execute Michael Andrew Tisius in June for killing two jailers in Randolph County, Missouri, in 2000. If that execution goes off as planned, Johnson would be the fourth inmate executed in Missouri this year — the most in a single year in Missouri since 2015, when six men were executed.
Johnson was convicted in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County of bludgeoning to death 6-year-old Cassandra “Casey†Williamson on July 26, 2002.
Johnson, a drifter and ex-convict, was 24 when he killed Casey. Johnson had been invited to spend the night on the couch of a home on Benton Street in Valley Park, where Casey’s father was staying.
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Johnson lured Casey from the house, down the street, and into a labyrinth of tunnels, old ovens and underground rooms of an abandoned glass factory.
Johnson killed Casey with bricks and a heavy rock after she started screaming and kicking and crawling away from Johnson when he tried to sexually assault her, he later told police in a series of confessions. He washed himself off in the Meramec River and returned to the house on Benton to retrieve a pack of cigarettes.
Johnson had stopped taking medication for schizophrenia and was acting strangely in the weeks and days before he killed Casey, according to trial testimony presented by his defense. Dr. John Rabun said Johnson suffered from mental illnesses from the time he was 13 and suicidal. The initial diagnosis was depression. Later, he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a disease similar to schizophrenia.
During the trial his defense attorney, Beverly Biemdiek, asked the jury to convict him of the lesser charge of second-degree murder, claiming the mental illness prevented Johnson from cool deliberation.
The then-prosecuting attorney, Robert P. McCulloch, told jurors: “We are here for one reason and one reason only. We are here for what Johnny Johnson did. Don’t let them guilt you into doing something. It was Johnny Johnson who bricked this little girl to death.â€
The Missouri Supreme Court issued the execution warrant Wednesday. two other inmates this year: Amber McLaughlin on Jan. 3, and Leonard Taylor on Feb. 7. Tisius’ execution is scheduled for June 6.