Soldier sentenced to 23 years for killing wife and staging disappearance
The court martial of Army Pfc. Dewayne Arthur Johnson, 29, concluded Thursday as a military judge sentenced him to 23 years in prison for killing his pregnant wife, 19-year-old Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson, and their unborn child on July 12.
The Army initially charged the soldier with murder, but despite a massive search effort and months of work by investigators, no body had been recovered. Over the course of the investigation, Mischa Johnson's family made public appeals asking for anyone with knowledge of where her remains may be to come forward so that they could give her a proper burial.
As part of a plea deal, Dewayne Johnson agreed to confess and reveal what he did with the body in return for reduced charges and sentencing. Under the plea, he was charged with the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter, obstruction of justice, and providing false official statements. Charges for possession, production and distribution of child pornography initially brought against him were also dismissed, per the terms of the agreement, in return for his cooperation.
In court Tuesday, he confessed to killing Mischa Johnson in their home at Schofield Barracks with a machete on July 12, cutting up her body with a chain saw and disposing of the remains in a dumpster on base that was bound for the trash incinerator in Kapolei before reporting her missing on Aug. 1. He also admitted to impersonating her with her phone to deceive her family and lying to investigators.
The plea granted the presiding judge, Col. Rebecca Farrell, discretion to sentence him to between 18 and 23 years.
During closing arguments on Wednesday Dewayne Johnson's attorneys asked her to show leniency, arguing that he had confessed, expressed remorse and was attending therapy sessions and Bible studies while in custody to better himself. Prosecutor Lt. Col. Nicholas Hurd asked for the maximum allowable sentence, telling the judge that after killing his wife 'he thought of himself and only himself.'
On Thursday morning, Farrell ultimately chose the maximum sentence allowed. She cited Dewayne Johnson's 'deliberate cruelty ' to the victims, a 'high degree of planning ' as he concealed his crimes and that the desecration and destruction of his wife's body deprived Mischa Johnson's family of the opportunity to ever give her a proper burial.
She also said that Mischa Johnson, a young pregnant Army spouse who was new to military life, had been 'particularly vulnerable.' Farrell noted that Mischa Johnson lived on the base without a car of her own, did not know other military families well and had little to no support system on the base outside of her husband.
In addition to the 23 years in prison, Farrell also ruled that Dewayne Johnson should be reduced in rank to private, forfeit his pay and that when his sentence eventually ends he will receive a dishonorable discharge. He will serve out the rest of his sentence at the United States Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
In a statement issued to media after the verdict, Hurd said 'while no amount of confinement will ever be able to truly ease the pain of the loss of Ms. Johnson and her unborn child for her family and friends, it is my hope that Pfc. Johnson's admissions of guilt and the information he provided as part of the plea agreement can provide some element of closure and finality for the family and all stakeholders.'
Mischa Johnson was born and raised on Oahu in Ewa Beach. Dewayne Johnson testified in court that immediately after he killed his wife with the machete—a hand-crafted blade from the Philippines that had belonged to her family as a treasured heirloom—he grabbed her phone and began texting her family to keep up appearances and impersonated her on social media, responding to messages from her friends.
At one point when Mischa Johnson's mother Frances Tapiz texted her, Dewayne Johnson texted back posing as her with an angry response that began with 'I'm still not over everything you put me through.' Tapiz testified on Wednesday that it broke her heart to believe her daughter was mad at her.
Meanwhile, even as he was still getting rid of evidence of his crimes, Dewayne Johnson was pursuing other women in the days and weeks after the killing. On Thursday, Army Criminal Investigation Division Agent Chelsea Banks testified that after he was arrested and his phone seized, investigators recovered messages and photos as well as 'several videos ' of Dewayne Johnson and one of the women 'performing sexual acts on each other ' in the bedroom where he killed his wife.
When he finally did report her missing, Dewayne Johnson told investigators that his wife had a history of cutting herself—which he later admitted in court was a lie—and suggested she may have killed herself. He doctored several videos of her to make it look like she was having a mental breakdown.
The Army launched a massive search to find her, with members of Dewayne Johnson's unit sweeping jungles and training areas around the base. Agents from the Army Criminal Investigation Division made it their top priority. The Army also posted a $10, 000 reward for information that could lead them to her. The FBI and Honolulu Police Department pitched in, as did local and military families mounting volunteer search parties across the island.
Dewayne Johnson participated in many of these searches, and according to witnesses often took a leading role and portrayed himself as a distraught husband.
Investigators eventually grew suspicious as elements of his story increasingly failed to add up and he became the prime suspect, and eventually detained him. When they searched his home they found blood, DNA and other forensic evidence that led to them charging him with murder. But the search for the body ran into constant dead ends until prosecutors obtained the plea and his confession.
'We extend our deepest sympathies to the family of Mischa Johnson, grieving the loss of Mischa and her unborn child, ' said Ruben Santiago, Special Agent in Charge of the Army CID Pacific Field Office, in a statement. 'Army CID remains committed to investigating on behalf of victims, and we hope this outcome provides a measure of closure to the Johnson family and the community.'
After the ruling, Mischa's mother and eldest sister Mariana Tapiz stood behind Mika Cabinte, a spokes person for the family, as she gave a statement to reporters. She said that the family is still processing everything that happened and wants privacy.
'They want to say a big mahalo to the CID agents, especially Ruben Santiago and his team, the task force, and Lt. Col. Hurd and his legal team for all that they've done trying this case, ' she said. 'And also to the community of Hawaii, they want to extend a big mahalo for all the love and support that you've given them through this whole time, especially with the anniversary date quickly approaching.'
Sarah Kral, a Navy spouse who lives in Mililani and became friends with Mischa Johnson's family while supporting search efforts, attended all three days of the court martial with them. She told the Hono lulu Star -Advertiser 'it's good that it's going to finally become a closure and healing process now for them, especially for (her mother ), she can finally get her healing and her closure, but nothing's ever going to be the same and the 23 years is not enough.'
She said that the situation is 'completely disgusting ' and that it's a shock to know a crime of such brutality could occur on the base with no one knowing for so long. Though she praised the work of investigators, Kral said it should spur the military to work harder to prevent anything like it from happening again and to know more about what's going on in the homes of service members and their families.
For months Kral and other military spouses joined with Mischa Johnson's family looking around the island and posting notices to help find her, and calling in any lead they thought they had found to CID. Kahl said that now 'answers came out, that's what the plea agreement was about. So now they have closure, but it still is going to hurt.'
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