Brandon Johnson stares blankly during his sentencing hearing, March 9 at Arapahoe County Justice Center. Johnson pleaded guilty to killing his 6 year old son and raping his ex-girlfriend. Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel 
Attorney Joseph Archambault, addresses the court during the sentencing hearing of Brandon Johnson, March 9 at the Arapahoe County Justice Center. Johnson pleaded guilty to killing his 6 year old son and raping his ex-girlfriend. Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel 
Brandon Johnson addresses the court with a written apology for the February of 2016 killing of his 6 year old son and the rape of his ex-girlfriend, during his sentencing hearing March 9 at the Arapahoe County Justice Center. Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel 
Tears roll down Brandon Johnsons face as he is addressed by Judge Carlos Samour Jr. during the sentencing hearing for the February 2016 killing of his 6 year old son and rape of his ex-girlfriend, March 9 at Arapahoe County Justice Center. Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel 
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler gets choked up as he addresses the court during the sentencing hearing of Brandon Johnson, for the February 2016 killing of his 6 year old son and rape of his ex-girlfriend, March 9 at the Arapahoe County Justice Center. Johnson pleaded guilty to the charges and received a life sentence for his crimes. Photo Philip B. Poston/Sentinel
CENTENNIAL | An Arapahoe County man who killed his 6-year-old son and raped his ex-girlfriend in 2018 pleaded guilty to all charges during a hearing Friday morning.
Brandon Jamaal Johnson, 28, was then sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty against Johnson for killing his son, Riley, but in exchange for the guilty plea accepted a life sentence.
Johnson, who speaks through a device in his neck after trying to slice his own throat following his son’s slaying, told the judge he understood what he was pleading guilty to. He later apologized
When asked for his plea on the first count – first degree murder of a child – he said : “I plead guilty, sir.”
Later, as prosecutors detailed the lingering effects of the boy’s slaying on Riley’s mother and former kindergarten teacher, Johnson, his hands shackled at his waist, wiped tears from his eye.
He later apologized for the slaying.
“I would do anything I can to bring closure and make amends for the pain I’ve caused,” he said.
Johnson’s trial was scheduled for last fall but was was delayed amid questions about the his mental health.
District Attorney George Brauchler said he opted to no longer seek the death penalty because of questions about Johnson’s mental health — including a long history of depression and suicidal thoughts.
Arapahoe County sheriff’s office investigators testified previously that Johnson’s former girlfriend said she and Johnson had broken up a few weeks before the crime, but they still lived together while Johnson tried to figure out a place to live with Riley, his son from a previous relationship.
Johnson’s ex-girlfriend told investigators that, on the night of the crime, Johnson came home in the early morning hours from his job as a bouncer and woke her up.
Johnson, who was armed with a knife, ordered the woman to the couch and raped her at knife point, threatening to kill “everyone in the house” if she screamed.
The woman said, after Johnson raped her, he walked into the room he shared with Riley. She grabbed Johnson’s Hello Kitty cell phone and tried to call 911 but she didn’t know the passcode to unlock the phone.
The woman said she then went into her bedroom where her 2-year-old son was sleeping and she heard Riley scream loudly.
After killing the boy, Johnson then came into her room and told her, “All I wanted was a family,” before walking back into the room he shared with Riley.
The woman then fled to a neighbor’s apartment and called 911.
Investigators said Johnson then tried to kill himself by slashing his own neck but survived his injuries.
Lawyers for Johnson said in court last year they don’t dispute that he killed his son, but they say he acted impulsively and not with deliberation. They also said they offered to plead guilty to the charges and accept a sentence of life in prison without parole if prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table.
Prosecutors initially declined the offer.
Johnson’s case marked the first time Brauchler — who is running for the Republican nomination for state attorney general — sought capital punishment since seeking the death penalty for James Holmes, the man who killed 12 and wounded dozens more during a 2012 attack at an Aurora movie theater. In that case, a jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict on whether the gunman should be sentenced to death. He was sentenced instead to life without parole.
Just three people have been sentenced to death in recent years and all three were prosecuted in Arapahoe County. Robert Ray and Sir Mario Owens were sentenced to death for the 2005 Aurora slayings of a murder witness and his fiancee, among other crimes. Nathan Dunlap was sentenced to death for killing four in an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in 1993. Gov John Hickenlooper granted Dunlap an indefinite stay of execution in 2013 but the next governor could lift that and order prison officials to go forward with his execution.