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Cassandra Williamson was a six-year-old girl who was abducted from a house in Valley Park, Missouri, on July 26, 2002. After she was reported missing, police and volunteers searched for her in nearby woods and later found her body in a pit less than a mile away from the house where she was staying.
Trigger Warning: This article contains details related to child abuse. Readers' discretion is advised.
Police arrested Johnny Johnson, who was reportedly last seen with Cassandra Williamson. Some residents in the area admitted to seeing Johnson carry the six-year-old girl in his arms. He later admitted to kidnapping the young girl with the intention of r*ping and killing her.
Johnson was convicted on all counts, including first-degree murder, and was sentenced to the death penalty in 2005.
Now, years later, Missouri's Supreme Court is to execute the suspect on August 1, 2023, over the six-year-old's death. The decision came after the state filed a motion in November 2022 to formally place Johnson's death sentence on the calendar after his numerous appeal attempts failed.
Johnson brutally killed Cassandra Williamson, leaving her with multiple skull fractures
On the morning of July 26, 2002, Johnson, then 24, woke up on the living room couch with Cassandra Williamson standing in the room watching television. Johnson then decided that "this was his best opportunity to have s*x with her," according to a 2006 ruling by former Justice William Ray Price Jr. in the case.
According to court records, authorities said that Johnson lured Cassandra Williamson out of the home and down the street, where he led her through an abandoned glass factory, tunnels, and a sunken pit. After Johnson tried to assault Cassandra Williamson, he tried to kill her with bricks and rocks that left her with multiple skull fractures.
Reportedly, Johnson decided to kill Cassandra Williamson after committing the abuse to avoid getting caught. As per reports, the six-year-old fought back, screaming, kicking, and pushing him, even leaving scratch marks across his chest. Johnson grabbed a brick and hit her in the head at least six times, causing bleeding and bruising, Law&Crime reported.
Detailing the incident, Justice Price said:
"She was not yet dead or knocked unconscious and started to run around the pit. Johnson hit her with the brick again, and she fell to her knees, trying to crawl away from him. He struck her with the brick again, eventually knocking her to the ground and fracturing the right side of her skull."
He added:
"Because she was still moving, Johnson then lifted a basketball-sized boulder and brought it down on the back left side of Casey's head and neck, causing multiple skull fractures. Casey inhaled and exhaled "really fast" and then stopped breathing."
At trial, then-Prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch told the jury that Johnson "bricked this little girl to death," according to the St. Louis Dispatch.
Meanwhile, Johnson's attorneys have reportedly argued that he suffered from schizophrenia and sought a sentence of life in prison. However, they were unable to convince the jurors to think otherwise.
So far, Missouri has executed two people in 2023: Amber McLaughlin, a convicted murderer and the first openly transgender person on death row, and Leonard Taylor, who stabbed his girlfriend and her three children to death in 2004.
