Louisiana Man Sentenced to 95 Years in Prison for Killing Pregnant Girlfriend and Her 2-Year-Old Son

On Tuesday, East Baton Rouge District Judge Louise Hines Myers handed down a 95-year prison sentence to Brynnen Murphy for the 2022 deaths of 24-year-old Kaylen Johnson, her 2-year-old son, Kaden Johnson and her unborn child.

Murphy was sentenced to 40 years each on two counts of manslaughter, and an additional 15 years for first-degree feticide, with the terms to be served consecutively.

The plea deal, accepted in April, spared Johnson’s grieving family from enduring a lengthy and emotionally devastating trial that would have involved graphic evidence, including autopsy photographs and forensic testimony.

Initially arrested in March 2022, Murphy was first charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The charges were later reduced to second-degree murder before he ultimately pleaded guilty to the lesser offenses of manslaughter and feticide as part of a negotiated agreement with prosecutors.

According to East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore, the plea arrangement ensured a lengthy and final sentence while shielding the family from the trauma of trial proceedings.

“There is no other sentence that would have been more appropriate,” Moore said. “He will be in prison for essentially the rest of his life. It was a guaranteed sentence that allowed the family to avoid the horror of revisiting how these deaths occurred.”

The horrific sequence of events began on March 5, 2022, when Johnson and her son were last seen alive. According to Murphy’s confession, he and Johnson had gotten into an argument after she picked him up in her car. When she pulled the vehicle over during the dispute, Murphy fatally shot her twice in the head. Her son, Kaden, was seated in the back of the car and witnessed the murder.

After shooting Johnson, Murphy left her body in a roadside drainage ditch and continued driving with the toddler still strapped into his car seat. He then drove to the Central Thruway, where he stopped on a 30-foot-high bridge. Despite the child being alive and audibly crying, Murphy threw Kaden off the bridge.

However, according to prosecutors, the toddler did not die from the fall. During Murphy’s plea hearing, Assistant District Attorney Jaclyn Christie Chapman revealed that an autopsy showed Kaden sustained no significant physical injuries from the fall. Instead, he died from starvation and prolonged exposure to the elements.

Authorities estimate that both Johnson and her son had been dead for nearly a week before they were discovered. The alarm was first raised by Johnson’s family, who had been unable to reach her for several days. Concern grew after her vehicle was found abandoned on a dead-end street with the license plates removed.

During the investigation, Murphy initially avoided contact with police and refused to provide information.

“He knew we were looking for him. He knew the mother and the child were missing, but he chose to disappear,” a Baton Rouge Police Department spokesperson said. “The family stayed on top of it. Had they not, he might still be out there.”

Murphy eventually turned himself in and confessed to the killings. His chilling admissions and the depravity of the acts have left Johnson’s family in deep anguish.

At the sentencing hearing, no victim impact statements were delivered. Johnson’s aunt, LaKeisha M. Johnson, later said that the family was still struggling to cope with the magnitude of the loss.

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“We’re not good at all,” she said. “I couldn’t care less about what happens to him. He didn’t care about what happened to them. If we wouldn’t have been on it like we were on it, that boy would still be free, running wild.”

Murphy’s sentence effectively guarantees that he will never be released from prison. Though he avoided a capital trial and life without parole by pleading guilty to lesser charges, the cumulative sentence of 95 years ensures a de facto life term.