LEA COUNTY, N.M. — Mary Johnson, 49, who murdered her son, 11-year old Bruce Johnson Jr., in the second degree has pleaded guilty to the offense that occurred on July 10, 2022.
Johnson will serve twenty years in the New Mexico Department of Corrections.
According to court documents, the defendant shall receive pre-sentence confinement credit, pay all mandatory fees and the fines shall be suspended. Johnson will also pay restitution for funeral expenses.
Second degree murder, a second degree felony resulting in the death of a human being, carries a term of 15 years imprisonment, a fine of $12,500 followed by two years of parole.
In July 2022, Lea County Deputy Pierpoint was contacted to go investigate an aggravated battery investigation. Upon arrival, he described Bruce Johnson Jr. and Mary Johnson as the ones that have been stabbed in a Hobbs, N.M. home.
According to the arrest report, Bruce Johnson Sr. gave a statement to Deputy Pierpoint about what happened that night. In his statement he said they all went to bed at 10:30 p.m.
Bruce Johnson Sr. then woke up to commotion in his son Bruce Johnson Jr's room. When Bruce Johnson Sr. walked into his son's room he saw him "lying on his bed, face-down with a knife in his back."
Bruce Johnson Sr. called 911 and tried to render aid to his son. The dispatcher he was talking to asked how Mary Johnson's condition was.
Bruce Johnson Sr. said he could see "stab wounds to her chest." He also said he believed Mary stabbed herself.
The 11-year old had three stab wounds to the chest around the area of his heart, one stab wound to the left arm and four stab wounds in the back where the knife was located and inserted.
Bruce Johnson Jr. was taken to Covenant Health Hospital where he told police his mother had stabbed him. He died a few hours later.