Leslie Brown, a 28-year-old African American woman, was found dead on January 11, 2010, in an abandoned building located at 119th Street and Wentworth Avenue on Chicago's Far South Side. She was discovered wearing only socks, and an autopsy confirmed that she had been strangled. Brown, who had a history of prostitution, was one of several women targeted in a series of violent crimes between 2008 and 2010.
The investigation led to the arrest of Michael Johnson, a 30-year-old man with a history of violent offenses. Despite having three fingers missing from his right hand, Johnson was identified as the perpetrator through DNA evidence collected from Brown's body. Prosecutors revealed that Johnson believed he had committed the 'perfect crime,' assuming that Brown's profession would prevent authorities from tracing the evidence back to him. However, the DNA evidence exclusively matched Johnson, leading to his conviction.
In September 2015, Johnson was sentenced to 100 years in prison for the murder and sexual assault of Leslie Brown. This sentence was in addition to a previous 90-year sentence he received in March 2014 for a separate case involving a woman who survived a brutal attack. In that incident, Johnson had met the victim at a gas station, and after she refused an additional sex act, he choked her until she lost consciousness, beat her, sexually assaulted her, and then threw her off a second-story balcony. He then dragged her naked body through a vacant lot and left her in an alleyway.
Johnson's crimes were part of a broader pattern of violence against women with histories of prostitution. All his known victims were found half-naked, and he was awaiting trials for the murders of three other women and the attempted murder of another. The convictions brought a measure of relief to the victims' families. Leslie Brown's stepfather, Ricardo Pittman, expressed a mix of joy and grief upon hearing the verdict, noting that Brown's mother, a longtime employee of the Chicago Police Department, was overwhelmed by the loss of her daughter.
