A man who is 23 years old and lives in Louisiana is set to spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, who was shot and killed before he drove away with her kid, who was 2 years old, and then threw the toddler, who was still alive, off a bridge with the intention of killing him.
As of Wednesday, Brynnen Murphy entered a formal plea of guilty to two counts of manslaughter and one case of first-degree feticide, according to the announcement made by the authorities. In 2022, Murphy was initially taken into custody and charged with two charges of first-degree murder in connection with the cold-blooded killings of Kaylen Johnson, who was 24 years old, and her son, Kaden Johnson, who was just three years old. A grand jury later indicted him on charges of murder in the second degree, and his trial was slated to begin the following week. However, he negotiated a deal with the prosecutors in the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office, and the trial was postponed until the following week.
According to a report from the Baton Rouge CBS affiliate WAFB, Murphy’s plea agreement stipulates that he must serve 95 years in a state jail facility, which is equivalent to a de facto life sentence.
While Kaylen Johnson was carrying Murphy’s child at the time of her passing, Kaden was not Murphy’s biological son. However, she was pregnant with Murphy’s child.
According to reports, the prosecution stated that they were motivated to negotiate a deal with Murphy in order to spare the family of the victims extra grief during the trial, particularly considering the gruesome nature of the evidence.
In the aftermath of the plea hearing, District Attorney Hilla Moore reportedly made the following statement outside of the courtroom: “Obviously, autopsies were involved in this, and some of those photographs have to be shown, and then just the description by the pathologist of how the deaths occurred, and how the bodies were disposed of, it would be brutal for a family to go through this.” It is a guaranteed sentence, and he is almost certainly going to spend the rest of his life behind bars since there is no other sentencing save the one he committed to today.
In addition, she stated that her office is of the opinion that the sentence brings justice to the victims, as reported by The Advocate.
In addition to ensuring that the family was provided with justice, the primary objective was to save them from having to go through the process of going through a trial and testifying in court. In addition, we believe that this statement is certainly sufficient,” she stated.
Despite the fact that the mother and boy had been seen alive for the last time on March 5, 2022, family members began to fear the worst after they were unable to get in touch with Johnson for over a week. This information was previously revealed. It was then that the family reported both her and Kaden missing.
On the afternoon of March 11, 2022, at around 2:40 p.m., law enforcement officers conducted a wellness check at Johnson’s residence across Old Hammond Highway. According to reports, there were no indications of any kind of criminal activity inside the house; however, the police did notice that Johnson’s mobile had been deactivated.
Murphy, who was initially unhelpful, reportedly went to ground, and Johnson’s family began to dread the worst when her car was found abandoned on a dead-end street with the license plates removed. These events caused the family to begin to fear the worst.
We discovered her vehicle, but it did not have a license plate on it. And from that point on, it caused a raised eyebrow. According to a representative for the Baton Rouge Police Department, “one of the guys made contact with him, but he refused to give any information and then vanished.” “He was aware that we were continuously searching for him. He was aware that the mother and the child, who was two years old, had vanished. As a result, the family began to communicate with one another. He made the decision to turn himself in when he was out for the day on the streets.
Murphy allegedly confessed to both murders after he was caught, telling authorities that they had a disagreement on March 5, 2022, after Johnson picked him up. This information was reported by the Advocate. Immediately following Johnson’s decision to pull over the vehicle, Murphy fired two shots into her skull. During the shooting, the young child was located in the back of the vehicle and secured in a car seat. After then, Murphy is said to have disposed of Johnson’s body by placing it in a drainage ditch along the side of the road.
Murphy is said to have then driven to a thirty-foot elevated bridge on Central Thruway, where he threw the wailing toddler over the edge of the bridge. Kaden was still in the backseat at the time. However, the prosecution stated that the toddler did not sustain any major injuries as a result of the fall.
During the plea hearing, Assistant District Attorney Jaclyn Christie Chapman stated that it was established that Kaden did not receive any injuries as a result of being tossed over the bridge. However, they unfortunately passed away as a consequence of malnutrition and prolonged exposure to the elements over an extended period of time.
According to reports, the mother and boy looked to have been deceased for approximately one week at the time of their deaths.
Man killed girlfriend, threw her toddler from 30-foot bridge.
