KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The mother of a young girl known for years as "Precious Doe" pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder in the death of her 3-year-old daughter.
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Michelle Johnson, 31, of Muskogee, Okla., also pleaded guilty to child endangerment, abandoning a corpse and tampering with evidence for not helping her 3-year-old daughter as she lay dying after allegedly being abused by the girl's stepfather.
As part of the plea agreement, Johnson will testify against her husband, Harrell Johnson, who is charged with first-degree murder, assistant prosecutor Tim Dollar said. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for Harrell Johnson.
In exchange for Michelle Johnson's plea, prosecutors will recommend she serve a total of 25 years, Dollar said.
Prosecutors said Johnson did not seek help for the girl, Erica Michelle Marie Green, who was dying after being kicked by her stepfather in a Kansas City home.
Johnson's trial had been scheduled to start Jan. 22.
Prosecutors allege Harrell Johnson, also of Muskogee, Okla., was high on drugs when he kicked Erica because she wouldn't go to bed. They allege he left her to die, then later decapitated her body.
Erica's body was discovered in a Kansas City park in 2001, and her head was found several days later. The child was dubbed "Precious Doe" and activists kept attention on her case until the Johnsons were arrested and she was identified in May 2005.
The Johnsons were arrested in Muskogee, Okla., after Kansas City police got a tip from a family member linking them to Erica's death.
Hundreds gathered for the child's first funeral in December 2001. But the body was exhumed in July 2003 so experts could make a lifelike bust of what the girl may have looked like. She was buried a second time in Kansas City.
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they should kick them both in the heads hard enough and then leave them for dead but just before they are about to die cut their freaking heads off ....people like this make me sick! I am so sick and tired of hearing about people killing their kids or someone else's kids...what the heck is wrong with people any more
The mother is just as guilty! I can't believe they offered her a plea deal! She should get life, at the very least, and sterilized! I hope Mr Johnson gets the death penalty!
how could a mother just stand by and watch her child die. I am a mother my self and I could never imagine just watching while one of my children was dieing and not doing anything.
25 years! Give me a break. She needs more. I think the court systems are too easy on mother's who abuse or enable abuse resulting in death of their child. They should be protecting them.
25 years is nothing for what she condoned. That poor baby was terrified, had just been taken from her home here (while her mother was in prison) and carted to KC with a couple of high losers. There is no justice for her on earth, unless Harrell gets the death penalty, and even that wont bring her back or replace what her family lost.
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Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.