Teen pleads guilty to killing 16-year-old girl and her parents after they caught him in bed with her and is sentenced to 150 YEARS in prison
- Mauricio Johnson, 19, pleaded guilty in Humboldt County Superior Court Tuesday after making a deal with prosecutors in the three murders
- Johnson told the court he killed Nikki Metcalf and Margarett Moon after Metcalf found him in bed with underage daughter Shelly Autumn May Moon in February
- Metcalf struck the teen, who then shot and killed the 40-year-old in cold blood
- Johnson then killed Moon, who awoke from her sleep to the sound of gunfire
- The teen then shot the girl, ‘because he did not want to have any witnesses’
- The teen was was a ‘friend’ of the family and was a ‘guest in their house,’ Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said after the grisly killings
- Johnson admitted to the murders to get a chance at parole
A California teen killed his 16-year-old lover and her parents after he was caught by the pair in the underage girl’s bed, prosecutors said.
Mauricio Johnson pleaded guilty to the three murders in Humboldt County Superior Court Tuesday after making a deal with prosecutors, which saw the 19-year-old dealt a 150-year prison sentence.
Johnson told the court Tuesday that he killed Nikki Metcalf and Margarett Moon, both aged 40, after Metcalf found him in bed with their underage daughter, Shelly Autumn May Moon, in February.
The grisly triple murder took place at the couple’s home in Northern California, in the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria, a reservation situated in the small town of Loleta.
Mauricio Johnson pleaded guilty to the three murders in Humboldt County Superior Court Tuesday after making a deal with prosecutors, which saw the 19-year-old receive a 150-year prison sentence. The California teen killed the 16-year-old and her parents after he was caught by the pair in the underage girl’s bed, prosecutors said
The age of consent in California is 18 years old. The daughter was referred to as ‘Jane Doe’ in a statement from the Humboldt County District Attorney’s office Tuesday after the hearing’s conclusion.
During the Tuesday trial, prosecutors recounted how Johnson was invited into the family’s home the night of February 9, ‘with the permission of several minors’ who lived at the home.
Then, later that night, after most of the house had gone to bed, Metcalf, the girl’s stepfather, walked into her bedroom to check on the youth, and found Johnson in her bed getting ‘intimate’ with the girl, a search warrant affidavit issued by the Utah State Bureau of Investigations revealed.
Metcalf proceeded to attack teen, punching him once, according to a warrant who ran from the room with his pants down.
‘The male subject [Johnson] was on top of [Shelly]. Nikki Metcalf hit the male,’ the warrant reportedly states.
Sixteen-year-old Shelly Autumn May Moon was getting ‘intimate’ with Johnson in her bed when her stepfather walked into her bedroom and tried to kick the 19-year-old out of the house. Johnson proceeded to shoot the stepfather, as well as Shelly’s mother, before turning his gun on the high school student
Johnson then ‘exited the room,’ the warrant stated, and ‘walked into the living room pulling up his pants.’
Metcalf then followed the teen out into the house’s living area, where, according to prosecutors, Johnson brandished a handgun from his bag, and shot Metcalf at point-blank range in the head, killing him.
Johnson’s brother, Damon Johnson, a witness in the case, reportedly spoke to Johnson after the shooting, and told Humboldt County police that ‘when the girl’s stepdad walked in, the stepfather started “getting tough” with Mauricio,’ which spurred the teen to shoot him, the affidavit states.
The girl’s biological mother, Moon, was then woken by the sound of gunfire, and walked into the living room to investigate.
Couple Nikki Metcalf and Margarett Moon, both aged 40, were killed in cold blood by Johnson in February after allowing the teen into their house to socialize with their 16-year-old daughter
She was shot by Johnson as well, as taken to a local hospital and later pronounced braindead. She died soon after.
Johnson then shot the girl ‘because he did not want to have any witnesses,’ the warrant chillingly reveals.
After the murders, Johnson rushed home and fled the state, traveling with his mother, Melissa Sanchez Johnson, and her then boyfriend friend, Von Keener, in a white Toyota Highlander across state lines.
After arriving to the home the morning after the murders, Humboldt County police quickly recognized the gravity of the situation, and mobilized the major crimes task force and several senior detectives, who subsequently ‘swarmed to the scene,’ said Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal.
After arriving to the home the morning after the murders, Humboldt County police mobilized the major crimes task force and several senior detectives. Johnson fled the scene and was ferried across state lines by his mother and her boyfriend, but was apprehended by Utah Highway Patrolmen
Officers then began searching for Johnson, enlisting officers from California, Nevada and Utah to look for the suspect and the suspected vehicle.
Utah Highway Patrol troopers were notified of the ongoing effort to locate the Highlander the afternoon of February 11, nearly two days after the killings.
Approximately an hour and a 15 minutes later, troopers spotted the vehicle.
The troopers then enacted ‘put a plan in place to safely stop’ it and take its occupants into custody, once it became clear that the vehicle was not stopping, as it sped across a Utah highway.
Johnson was aided in his attempted escape by his mother’s then boyfriend Von Keener, who was cuffed on a separate, unrelated charge after police forcibly stopped a car that the three were travelling in
‘A traffic stop was initiated and the vehicle refused to stop,’ the press release states.
‘The vehicle’s tires were spiked shortly thereafter.’
When the vehicle was finally forced to a halt, Johnson and Keener were both cuffed and taken into police custody, Johnson for the murders and Keener on an unrelated warrant in Humboldt County.
The teen’s mother was detained for questioning, the release states.
According to investigators, the trio attested that they were heading to a friend or family member’s residence in Indiana.
It is still not clear if Autumn May Moon was the one to invite the teen into the house – but according to Honsal, the teen was was a ‘friend’ of the family and was a welcomed ‘guest.’
Honsal further stated that teen had been given permission to be inside the house by ‘at least one of the residents’ and specified that the teen had a relationship with Shelly, but said the context of their ‘exact relationship’ was not entirely known.
The teen, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to avoid life in prison without the chance of parole, is scheduled to receive sentencing on January 21.
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