Timothy Allen Johnson

Timothy Allen Johnson was 55 years old when he died on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, after being stabbed inside California State Prison, Los Angeles County, in Lancaster. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds sustained at 44750 60th Street West, the address of the prison. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau.

He was an inmate at the prison. According to a news release from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, "at approximately 9:45 a.m., staff near a Facility C housing unit saw inmate Timothy Johnson applying pressure to his neck, which was actively bleeding." Staff summoned an ambulance and gave him life-saving aid. He was taken to an outside hospital, where he was treated for a puncture wound to his neck, and he was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m. The Press-Enterprise reported that he died at Antelope Valley Hospital.

The department said Johnson had been received from San Bernardino County in September 2010 to serve a life sentence with the possibility of parole for first-degree burglary and other burglary counts. The Associated Press described him as serving a life term "for repeated burglaries."

Within days, prison investigators identified another inmate, a 44-year-old man serving a long sentence for an unrelated case, as a suspect in the killing. Prison officials said that man was moved to segregated housing "pending an investigation into his involvement in the incident." No later report of a criminal charge or court case could be found. Prison killings are often prosecuted slowly, or not at all, because the suspects are already serving long terms.

No obituary or memorial page for Timothy Johnson could be found, and the news reports said nothing about his family or his life before prison. Timothy Allen Johnson is a common name, and searches turn up many other men who share it, including a doctor and men arrested in other states, none of whom can be connected to this death.

California State Prison, Los Angeles County, is a state prison on the western edge of Lancaster, in the Antelope Valley, about 70 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. It opened in the early 1990s and, according to the Press-Enterprise, housed about 3,200 inmates at the time of his death. A killing inside a state prison is still a homicide under the law, and because the prison lies in Los Angeles County, the death is counted among the county's homicide cases.

Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.

No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Timothy Allen Johnson could be found in news archives or public records. More than six years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was housed in or worked near Facility C at the Lancaster prison in December 2019, or who knew Timothy Johnson inside or outside prison, may hold information that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.