Missouri sets execution date for drifter who assaulted, killed six-year-old girl

Johnny Johnson, a man who sexually assaulted and killed Cassandra 'Casey' Williamson, 6, in St. Louis in 2002, has been given an execution date of August 1

The Missouri Supreme Court has set an execution date for a man who sexually assaulted and killed a six-year-old St. Louis County girl in 2002.

Johnny Johnson is scheduled to be put to death August 1 at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri.

Johnson, 45, was staying with friends in Valley Park, Missouri, in July 2002 when Cassandra 'Casey' Williamson went missing.

Dozens of volunteers joined police in the search for the little girl who was a kindergartner at Valley Park Elementary School. She was said to be a young, happy girl with a bright smile, who loved riding her bicycle and singing.

The girl's body was found in a pit less than a mile from her home, buried beneath rocks and debris. Johnson confessed to the crimes.

Johnson, a drifter and ex-convict, was 24 when he killed Casey, who would now be 27 years old.

He had been invited to spend the night on the couch of a home on Benton Street in Valley Park, where Casey's father, Ernie, was staying.

Ernie woke at 7am to see his daughter standing in the living room with Johnson. But by the time he came back from the restroom, both Casey and Johnson were gone.

Johnson managed to lure Casey out of the home and down the street taking her into a labyrinth of tunnels, old ovens and underground rooms of an abandoned glass factory.

He killed her by pummeling here with bricks and rocks after she began screaming and kicking as she attempted to crawl away from Johnson when he tried to sexually assault her.

Ernie and Angie Williamson, Casey's parents, contacted police to report their daughter missing.

St. Louis County police, members of the FBI together with almost 100 volunteers spent the next several hours combing the nearby woods along the Meramec River in a desperate search for the youngster.

People who lived in the area reported seeing Johnson carrying the six-year-old in his arms, still wearing her nightgown.

Following the killing, he washed himself off in the Meramec River before returning to the house to pick up a pack of cigarettes. He was soaking wet and apprehended by the police.

Casey's body was found shortly afterwards when one of the volunteers who had been searching the site of the old St. Louis Plate Glass Company found her in a pit, less than a mile away from her home.

She had been buried beneath large rocks and debris.

Johnson also told police where her body was claiming she had died in an accident and that he buried her.

Investigators did not believe Johnson's story and determined Casey died as a result of blunt force trauma from being struck by rocks.

Police said he admitted to kidnapping Casey with the intention of raping and killing her.

In the weeks and days prior, Johnson had stopped taking medication for schizophrenia according testimony presented at the trial by his defense. Dr. John Rabun.

Johnson had suffered from mental illnesses from the time he was 13 and was suicidal.

Johnson was found guilty of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, kidnapping, and attempted forcible rape.

His initial diagnosis was depression but was later diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, similar to schizophrenia.

During the trial his defense attorney, Beverly Biemdiek, asked the jury to convict him of the lesser charge of second-degree murder, claiming the mental illness prevented Johnson from cool deliberation.

Then-prosecuting attorney, Robert P. McCulloch, told jurors: 'We are here for one reason and one reason only. We are here for what Johnny Johnson did. Don't let them guilt you into doing something. It was Johnny Johnson who bricked this little girl to death.'

On March 7, 2005, a judge sentenced Johnson to the death penalty for the murder conviction and consecutive life sentences for the other crimes.

Johnny Johnson has been on death row at Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, Missouri, ever since. In 2012 he made an attempt to overturn the sentence, but was denied.

Missouri has already executed two people in 2023 - Amber McLaughlin in January and Raheem Taylor in February.

Michael Andrew Tisius is scheduled for execution June 6 for fatally shooting Randolph County jailers Jason Acton and Leon Egley in 2000.

Source: dailymail.co.uk, James Gordon, April 24, 2023

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