Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 26 Years to Life for Dismembering Ex-Girlfriend, Living With Her Body for a Month
- 26 years to life the prison sentence Justin Williams, 27, received for murdering and dismembering D'Asia Johnson, 22 — Brooklyn DA, Aug. 12, 2026
- 9 stab wounds Williams inflicted on Johnson — five to the front torso, four to the back, striking her heart and lung — Brooklyn DA
- 1 month how long Williams kept Johnson's dismembered remains in suitcases in her Brooklyn apartment while continuing to live there — Brooklyn DA / PIX11
- 6 criminal counts a jury convicted Williams on, including murder and concealment of a human corpse — Brooklyn DA, June 16, 2026
A Brooklyn jury convicted Justin Williams on all six counts against him in June 2026. On August 12, 2026, a Brooklyn Supreme Court justice sentenced him to 26 years to life in prison for murdering his ex-girlfriend, D’Asia Johnson, then dismembering her body and living alongside her remains in her own apartment for roughly a month.
Johnson, 22, worked at a Macy’s in Queens and had an active order of protection against Williams at the time he killed her. Williams, of Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood, was 24 years old when he was arrested; he is 27 now. What follows is the documented record — from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s own charging and sentencing releases, corroborated by contemporaneous local reporting — of how this case moved from a wellness check in a Cypress Hills apartment building to a 26-years-to-life sentence four years later.
Williams and Johnson had been in a relationship for several years. According to the Brooklyn DA’s office, Williams “repeatedly abused” Johnson over the course of it. By the summer of 2022, Johnson had obtained an order of protection requiring Williams to stay away from her Cypress Hills apartment. It didn’t hold: in March 2022, Williams was arrested for violating that order after showing up at her home anyway.
In the early morning hours of August 22, 2022, Williams stabbed Johnson nine times — five wounds to the front of her torso, four to her back — striking her heart and a lung. Investigators later recovered a bloody knife as evidence. In the days that followed, Williams used a meat cleaver to dismember her body, then kept living in the apartment as though nothing had happened.
The March 2022 arrest for violating Johnson’s protective order came five months before the killing. The order remained on file the whole time — it simply did not stop him from returning to her apartment the night he killed her.
For roughly a month, from August 22 to September 21, 2022, Williams stuffed Johnson’s remains into two suitcases kept in the bathroom and continued living in her apartment, using towels and cleaning products to mask the smell. He impersonated Johnson to call out sick from her job so her paychecks kept coming, and used her bank account and EBT card. Court documents cited by PIX11 state Williams spent some of that money on prostitutes while Johnson’s remains decomposed a room away.
Neighbors told reporters that Johnson’s mother had grown afraid for her daughter’s safety before the killing. A neighbor, Stephanie Harris, later recalled Johnson’s mother telling her: “I want to get her away from this building. She’s gonna end up dead.”
The concealment ended on September 21, 2022, when building security conducted a wellness check after residents hadn’t seen Johnson in weeks. Williams and another man initially refused them entry; guards detected a foul odor and called police, who found blood in the bathtub, a meat cleaver, and the two suitcases containing Johnson’s remains. Williams was gone by the time officers searched the apartment, and NYPD detectives opened a manhunt, seeking Williams along with several people identified as potential witnesses. “He has exclusive opportunity into that apartment,” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said at the time. “We never see her again.”
Williams was taken into custody in the weeks after the manhunt began. Detectives interviewed him in October 2022; he waived his right to remain silent and admitted to killing and dismembering Johnson. On November 7, 2022, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez (D) announced Williams’s indictment on second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse. “This defendant is accused of the horrific murder and dismemberment of his former girlfriend,” Gonzalez said at the time, adding that he hoped the prosecution would “bring a measure of solace to D’Asia’s family and friends.”
Prosecutors later added four counts tied to Williams’s use of Johnson’s identity and benefits after her death: fourth-degree grand larceny, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, second-degree criminal impersonation, and fifth-degree welfare fraud. On June 16, 2026 — nearly four years after the killing — a jury convicted Williams on all six counts following trial. The case was tried by Senior Assistant District Attorney Matthew Perry and Assistant District Attorney Ernest Chin, Deputy Bureau Chief, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Leila Rosini, Bureau Chief.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun sentenced Williams to 26 years to life in prison on August 12, 2026. Under that sentence, Williams will not be eligible for parole consideration until he has served at least 26 years.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez (D) — Kings County District Attorney since 2016. His office indicted Williams in 2022 and tried the case to conviction and sentencing.
Justice Danny Chun — Brooklyn Supreme Court judge who presided over the trial and imposed the 26-years-to-life sentence.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) — Mayor of New York City, sworn in January 1, 2026. As mayor, he oversees the NYPD, whose detectives investigated the case in 2022.
“D'Asia Johnson suffered horrific violence at the hands of this defendant, who then compounded that cruelty with conduct that showed a staggering disregard for her life.”
Eric Gonzalez, Brooklyn District Attorney, August 12, 2026
Williams did not just kill Johnson. He spent a month impersonating her to keep her paycheck flowing, drew down her benefits, and, according to court documents, spent some of that money on prostitutes — all while her body sat concealed in her apartment. The sentence closes a case that took nearly four years to move from a 2022 arrest to a 2026 verdict and sentencing.
Justin Williams stabbed D’Asia Johnson nine times in violation of an active order of protection, dismembered her body, and lived beside her remains in her own apartment for roughly a month while impersonating her to steal her wages and benefits. A jury convicted him on all six counts in June 2026, and a Brooklyn Supreme Court justice sentenced him to 26 years to life on August 12, 2026. The case is a reminder that a piece of paper — an order of protection, on file since before the March 2022 violation — did not stop a documented pattern of abuse from ending in a killing.
