Oklahoma to execute man in May for 2007 killings of ex-girlfriend, infant

A confessed killer is set to be executed May 14 for murdering his former girlfriend and her infant daughter at their home in Tulsa in 2007 after a breakup.

Raymond Eugene Johnson, 51, has said in interviews from prison that he is remorseful.

"I try to wake up every day and better myself," he said in a 2023 interview posted online by Death Penalty Action, a not-for-profit organization that opposes executions.

"The thing that I committed ... was bad, and I don't want it to be in vain," he said. "I recognize it and I have to be better."

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued an order Wednesday, Feb. 25, setting the execution date. The lethal injection is to be carried out at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has scheduled his clemency hearing for April 8. Gov. Kevin Stitt could commute Johnson's death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole if the parole board recommends clemency.

Raymond Johnson's crime

Johnson killed Brooke Whitaker inside her house in the early morning hours of June 23, 2007. He had moved out days before and was already involved with another woman.

"You deserve to die. You deserve to die," he told her, according to his confession.

He also set the house on fire, killing Kya Whitaker. He told police he had gone to the house to pick up his stuff.

Brooke Whitaker was 24. Kya was 7 months old. Johnson at the time was 33.

A Tulsa County jury in 2009 found Johnson guilty of first-degree murder in both deaths and chose the death penalty as punishment.

The jury also found him guilty of 1st-degree arson.

Johnson confessed that he intentionally killed Brooke Whitaker, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals noted in its 2012 opinion upholding his conviction.

He told police he grabbed a hammer and hit her on the head during an argument, according to the opinion.

"Brooke fell to the floor and asked ... (Johnson) to call 911," according to the opinion. Instead he hit her about five more times.

"Brooke begged ... (him) to get help and told him that she wouldn't tell the police what had happened but he wouldn't do it because he didn't want to go to jail," according to the opinion. He then got a gasoline can from the shed and "doused Brooke and the house, including the room where the baby was, with gasoline."

"He set Brooke on fire and went out the back door," according to the opinion.

Brooke Whitaker was badly burned when firefighters found her in the house. She died at a hospital from the hammer blows and smoke inhalation.

Kya died at the house from the heat and flames of the fire, according to the medical examiner.

Firefighters found the baby's burned body on the living room floor behind the couch.

In a federal appeal, Johnson's attorneys said he had sex with Brooke Whitaker after she returned home from her job as a dancer at Escapades in Tulsa and let him in. They said he hit her after she grabbed a knife from the kitchen during the argument.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals said in its 2012 opinion that Johnson is Kya's father. His attorneys have said in legal pleadings that is incorrect. He told police he thought Kya was his daughter and he called Brooke Whitaker his "wife."

Johnson has denied that he intended to kill the baby. Prosecutors at trial presented evidence to the jury that they said proved he poured gasoline on the baby.

Johnson had killed before. He went to prison in 1996 for 1st-degree manslaughter. He was released in 2005.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter for fatally shooting Clarence Ray Oliver, 26, in far southeast Oklahoma City on Sept. 11, 1995.

If his execution goes forward, it will be the 2nd in Oklahoma in 2026. Admitted double murderer Kendrick Simpson was executed Feb. 12.

Source: oklahoman.com, Nolan Clay, February 27, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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