A California man, Darryl Lamar Collins, will spend the rest of his life behind bars after murdering his girlfriend, just a year after being released from prison for two other murders.
Collins, 55, was sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murder of Fatima Johnson, a mother of six and grandmother of eight. Johnson, who worked at a nursing home, was found dead in her south Los Angeles home on July 2, 2021. She had been missing for a few days before her daughters discovered her body.
Details of the Murder
Johnson’s cause of death was determined to be asphyxia due to neck pressure and possible smothering. Her wrists and ankles were tightly bound with shoelaces and duct tape, and she had been gagged with underwear.
Duct tape was placed over her mouth and nose. Collins also stole her cellphone, jewelry, and Lexus, which he pawned and sold for drug money.
Collins’ Criminal History
This murder occurred nearly a year after Collins was released from prison in 2020, following a conviction for two other murders in the mid-1990s.
In 1995, Collins, then 24 years old, committed a carjacking and murdered Derrick Reese, a 28-year-old man, before shooting and killing Thomas Weiss, a 44-year-old cashier. Both murders were random acts of violence, and Collins knew neither victim.
He was sentenced to 50 years in prison for these killings. However, in 2017, California raised the youthful offender parole cutoff age from 23 to 25. Since Collins was 24 at the time of his crimes, he became eligible for parole after serving 25 years and was released in 2020.
Officials React to Early Release
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman expressed his frustration, saying, “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.”
Hochman pointed out that Collins should have never been released, stating, “Had the state legislature not changed the law in 2017, Collins would have been behind bars rather than on the street, able to take another innocent life.”
The Impact on the Victims’ Families
Hochman emphasized that the victims’ families have faced unimaginable loss, and while no sentence can undo the damage, the fact that Collins will never be free again provides some measure of peace.
