WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD, Hawaii (AP) — A Hawaii-based U.S. Army soldier was sentenced Thursday to 23 years in prison for killing his wife and unborn child last summer and attempting to cover up the crime by dismembering and disposing of her body in the trash.
Pfc. Dewayne Johnson II pleaded guilty earlier in the week to voluntary manslaughter, obstruction of justice and providing false official statements, the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel said in a statement.
His wife, Mischa Johnson, was 19 years old and six months pregnant at the time of her death July 12, 2024. Her body has not been found.
Johnson, of the 25th Infantry Division, told the judge during testimony in a military courtroom that he hit his wife with a machete in their home at the Schofield Barracks military base on Oahu after an argument, KITV reported.
He said he snapped after his wife yelled that his child won’t know that he existed. He hit her on the head, and she stopped breathing and didn’t have a pulse. He said he didn’t intend to kill her.
“I couldn’t picture my life without my child,” he said. “I regret, I shouldn’t have done it.”
He used a chain saw to cut up his wife’s body to hide the killing and placed her body parts in garbage bags that he put in a dumpster in his unit. He said had heard the garbage was taken from there straight to an incinerator.
Johnson reported his wife missing July 31, more than two weeks after her death. He joined search parties looking for her around Oahu. He was charged with her murder Aug. 27 after Army investigators found blood, DNA and other evidence in his home.
Prosecutors said Johnson, from Frederick, Maryland, received the maximum sentence allowed under law. They dropped child sexual abuse image charges under the terms of his plea agreement.
Johnson’s rank will be reduced to private and he will forfeit pay and allowances and be dishonorably discharged. He will serve his sentence in a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Marianna Tapiz told KITV it was shocking and painful to hear what happened to her sister.
“As a family together, we’re just trying not to focus on the horrific details of her last moment with him,” Tapiz said. “And instead, right now, we’re trying to just remember the happy memories that we have and remember her in that life.”
Army prosecutor Lt. Col. Nicholas Hurd, said he hoped the justice proceedings will help the family heal.
“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,” Hurd said in a statement.