Horrific abuse marked last three years of Aja Johnson’s life

Records show the state Department of Human Services received seven reports of abuse and neglect in the two years leading up to Aja’s abduction, but the agency pushed for months to keep Aja and her stepsister in Hobbs’ home, according to a death review report issued by the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth.

Beth Scott, a DHS spokeswoman, said the state agency tries to assist parents in keeping families together when workers believe children can be kept safe, but determining whether children will be safe is often not an easy task.

The bodies of Hobbs, 47, and Aja, 7, were found near Norman on March 29, more than two months after both disappeared and Aja’s mother was found dead in Hobbs’ motor home in Geronimo. The state medical examiner ruled Hobbs committed suicide by consuming antifreeze after apparently killing his wife and stepdaughter.

A family friend was granted custody of Aja’s stepsister and filed guardianship papers in February.

Aja told authorities in November that when her biological father sent her clothes, Hobbs cut them up and made her carry the ripped clothes around.

Hobbs also would grab her by her hair and make her clean the floor with a toothbrush, she reported.

Aja’s stepsister said Hobbs also "whipped them with a paddle and rammed Aja’s head into a wall.”

Aja and her stepsister were placed in a foster home in July 2006, but DHS returned the girls to Hobbs’ home in May 2007 for a trial reunification, the report states.

Problems surfaced almost immediately.

In July 2007, a Comprehensive Home-Based Services (CHBS) worker documented that Aja’s mother reported Hobbs had been throwing lit firecrackers into the girls’ bedroom to wake them in the morning. The worker told Hobbs to stop doing that because it was a fire hazard.

The worker also reported Hobbs admitted spanking the children with a flexible ruler and quoted a defiant Hobbs as saying, "if DHS doesn’t like the way that he disciplines his children, they can take them back and raise the children themselves.”

A Lincoln County DHS worker told Hobbs the next day that "as a parent he had the right to spank Aja,” but if he started leaving bruises on the children "it would be a different situation.”

Aja and her stepsister were removed briefly from the home on July 20, 2007, because of a crisis in the home that required law enforcement intervention, but they were returned four days later. A week later, DHS recommended that the children continue living in the Hobbs home in DHS custody.

A Lincoln County judge approved continuation of the reunification plan.

In September 2007, Aja reported to a CHBS worker that Hobbs had used a knife to cut up all the new clothes her biological father had given her. The worker also documented that Hobbs had slashed Aja’s mattress and sheets with a knife because he was angry with her and had gotten into a fight with a neighbor and threatened to stab the person.

The worker quizzed Hobbs about bruises found on Aja in late June 2007, and quoted Hobbs as saying he had been angry with Aja and "probably hit her too hard.”