Shraman Mitra
In October 2013, Kinya Keller was brutally beaten and strangled in her home at Lamarque Street, Louisiana. The gruesome nature of the crime left the local community petrified as law enforcement officers tried their best to hunt for the killer. A&E’s ‘The First 48: Shattered Glass’ paints a vivid picture of the horrifying crime and charts how the ensuing investigation managed to catch up to the perpetrator. Let’s take a dive into this case and figure out where the murderer is at present, shall we?
How Did Kinya Keller Die?
At the time of her slaying, Kinya Keller was 30 years of age. She was a mother of a 12-year-old son and two small daughters who meant the world to her. Described as someone who loved making others smile, Keller was quite valued in the community. She was dating Daryll Johnson and was even moving out from the home on the 900 block of Lamarque Street.
The time of her murder remains unclear, with authorities believing that the mother of three lost her life sometime between October 2-3, 2013. When the police found her, the crime scene was a mess with blood everywhere. The walls and countertops were smeared with blood, and there were splatters on the carpeted floor. They found the victim lying in a pool of blood beside a shattered glass fish tank.
Kinya Keller was brutally beaten, and her battered body was hardly recognizable. An autopsy also revealed that the mother of three was strangled along with being subjected to horrible physical torture. Additionally, the police even recovered a baseball bat stained with blood from the crime scene. Moreover, there were signs of a break-in, and a front window was punched through.
Who Killed Kinya Keller?
When police arrived at the crime scene, they found a man behaving unusually outside Kinya Keller’s house. The individual, Daryll Johnson, was screaming and even tried to push his way through the police barricades, which forced the police to put him in handcuffs. Later, the police found out that Daryll was Keller’s boyfriend and the last person to see her alive. When the police questioned him, they found out that Keller was planning to shift houses and was accompanied by Daryll in the process.
The couple had dropped off the three children at the house Keller would move into before returning to her old home. Still, Daryll denied being involved in the homicide. He insisted on his innocence, and the police did not have enough evidence to charge him with the crime at that moment. However, through their investigation, the police learned that Daryll was prone to sudden bouts of violence.
Daryll’s mother, Juanita Ogden, approached authorities and told them that she had been the victim of one of her son’s attacks just months before Keller’s murder. She alleged that during an altercation, he had pushed her back onto a couch and even tried to choke her. Although she escaped unharmed, authorities noticed that asphyxiation was also the reason behind Keller’s death. The authorities gathered further evidence against Daryll in the form of witness statements.
Keller’s family members told the police that although neither Keller nor Daryll had jobs, the latter had loaned some money to Keller to buy her children uniforms. However, when Keller could not pay the money back, her family members alleged that Daryll threatened her by saying things like, “Oh, it’s blood now!” and even sent threatening text messages to her phone. By now, the police were pretty sure of Daryll being the perpetrator. With enough evidence to warrant a conviction, Daryll Johnson was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
Where is Daryll Johnson Now?
Even after being arrested and accused of beating, strangling, and slicing Kinya Keller, Daryll Johnson stuck to his claim of innocence. He insisted he had nothing to do with the murder of his girlfriend and prepared himself for a trial. During his trial in 2017, Daryll initially pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. However, he changed his mind on the second day and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Daryll Johnson’s lawyer maintained that he was innocent but decided to take the plea since the then-24-year-old would have received a stricter sentence if convicted of second-degree murder. Ultimately, based on his plea deal, Daryll was sentenced to 15 years in prison in May 2017. At present, Daryll Johnson is serving time at the Caldwell Correctional Center in Clarks, Louisiana.
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