Inset: Fatima Johnson. Background: Cops in California investigate after Johnson was found dead (KTTV).
A man from California faces life imprisonment for the murder of his girlfriend, just a year after being freed from jail for previously taking two lives.
Darryl Lamar Collins, aged 55, received a life sentence for the murder of Fatima Johnson, a mother of six and grandmother to eight, who was employed at a nursing home, as reported by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Earlier in February, he was found guilty of first-degree murder.
Johnson’s daughters discovered her lifeless body in her South Los Angeles residence on July 2, 2021, after she had been unaccounted for several days.
“The cause of death was determined as asphyxia resulting from neck compression and potential smothering,” prosecutors detailed. “Her wrists and ankles were bound tightly with shoelaces and duct tape, a gag was fashioned from underwear, and duct tape covered her mouth and nose.”
Collins proceeded to steal her cellphone, jewelry, and Lexus, which he later pawned and sold to obtain drug money.
This tragic event occurred almost exactly one year after Collins had been released from serving time for the murders of two individuals, crimes he committed within a two-week span during the mid-1990s.
On Sept. 17, 1995, the then-24-year-old Collins carjacked a 28-year-old man named Derrick Reese who was using a pay phone. After stealing the car, Collins backed up and shot Reese dead. Eleven days later, Collins entered a diner in Englewood and murdered Thomas Weiss, a 44-year-old cashier. Collins knew neither man and both murders were random acts of violence.
A judge sentenced Collins to 50 years behind bars. But in 2017 the California legislature raised the cutoff for youthful offender parole from 23 to 25. Since he was 24 at the time of the slayings, he was paroled in 2020 after serving 25 years of his sentence.
“Darryl Collins took three innocent lives. Today’s sentence isn’t just about punishment, it’s also about protection from this sociopath to ensure he will never walk free again,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement. “This case shows exactly what can happen when someone with a history of extreme violence is released from prison early. We can only hope that three families who have experienced unimaginable loss find some measure of peace knowing he will never again be back in our communities.”
Hochman said Collins should have never been released.
“Had the state legislature not changed the law in 2017, almost 20 years after Collins’ sentencing, raising the age cutoff from 23 to 25 for youthful offender parole, Collins would have been behind bars rather than on the street and able to senselessly and brutally take another innocent life,” he said.
