According to police, a 3-year-old girl in North Dakota died at the hands of her foster parents after months of being thrashed, pulled about by her hair, and subjected to other “big punishments” for things like weeping and chewing her meal for too long.
Both Raymond Johnson, 62, and Jamie Johnson, 44, are charged with child abuse and murder in connection with the March death of the young girl.
The Johnsons’ probable cause affidavit, which Law&Crime acquired on Wednesday, claims that after the youngster was left in their care many months prior, the boy was given “owies” as punishment and had to sleep on a cot inside their Mountarail County home.
On March 19, Jamie Johnson called 911 to report that the accused victim was not responding, and police arrived at the Johnsons’ Stanley home.
According to authorities, the girl was carried to a hospital and declared dead. According to the affidavit, an autopsy determined that she died from blunt force injuries to the head.
Jamie Johnson allegedly attempted to assert that the toddler had sustained a brain injury after falling down the stairs a few days prior.
However, the evidence gathered by the Mountrail County Sheriff’s Office and Stanley Police Department, which included interviews with other children who lived in the Johnson home, Ring camera footage, and text messages, purportedly painted a very different picture.
One of the children told detectives with the North Dakota Bureau of Investigation, which took over and handled the case, “You need to be careful with my mom,” the affidavit states.
According to authorities, Jamie Johnson is accused of planning the alleged mistreatment, calling the daughter the “meanest one” of the two foster parents.
She is accused of sending text messages describing how she struggled to deal with behaviors that she and Raymond Johnson attributed to the girl’s autism.
Jamie Johnson reportedly texted a pal, saying, “It’s not easy, I get pretty crabby sometimes and then I feel like s— for it.” “To be honest, I might not have taken her if I had known how she was.”
Jamie Johnson allegedly told officers that the girl “would cause marks on [the girl’s] body by self-inflicting scratches and by hitting [the girl’s] head on walls” because she has autism. However, according to the complaint, ring camera footage demonstrates Jamie Johnson “striking and punching” the girl multiple times and engaging in other abusive behavior.
The affidavit claims that at one instance, “Jamie Johnson covered [the girl’s] mouth and was heard telling [the girl] to’shut up’ when [the girl] would cry.” Jamie Johnson repeatedly tugged at the girl’s hair. Additionally, Jamie Johnson grabbed the girl by the hair, causing her to bang her head on the floor, the table, the wall, and the ground.
According to the complaint, Jamie Johnson also allegedly hit the girl “with a spoon in the abdomen, chest, and on the face.” Police claim that the girl bit Jamie Johnson and occasionally tried to pull away from her, to which she reportedly retaliated with closed-fist punches and other assaults.
According to the other children who resided with them, Raymond Johnson was known to “kick” and abuse the girl, though not as severely as Jamie Johnson, according to the police. According to the complaint, the children informed investigators that Jamie Johnson would frequently put the victim up on a counter and begin striking her in the head when she did something the defendant didn’t like.
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According to the authorities, the girl once “passed out” after being severely battered by Jamie Johnson. The kids claim that Jamie Johnson forced the girl to “come back” by using an ice pack.
Jamie Johnson was reportedly frequently irritated by the daughter’s eating habits; one of the kids reportedly told police that the girl would get “in trouble” for leaving food in her mouth.
The children informed police that Raymond Johnson “knew mom was punching, hitting, kicking, and choking, and watched it happen,” despite the fact that he was characterized as the “nice one” of the two parents, according to the affidavit.
According to the complaint, Jamie Johnson allegedly texted pals, saying that even if the girl is “3 and special needs,” “it still doesn’t make it easier.” She allegedly texted, “The screaming and crying make me a nervous wreck.” She yells, falls to the ground, bangs her head on the floor or wall, tugs her hair, and pinches or scrapes herself. If we advise her to go sit down or say no to something. Hell breaks loose.
In his texts to Raymond Johnson, Jamie Johnson kept the tone lighter, responding to the female “passing out the other night because she held her breath” with phrases like “total brat move.”
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She held her breath earlier. Jamie Johnson allegedly told Raymond Johnson, “Until I shook her around.” “Then she started crying.”
The couple faces charges of felony murder during the commission of crimes involving a child victim and felony domestic violence resulting in significant physical injury to a victim under the age of twelve, in addition to murder and child abuse.
Both are scheduled to appear in court for their preliminary hearing on July 24.
