Brooke Lauren Whitaker was a 24-year-old mother of four who was described by her family as enjoying life and loving her family. Born on April 13, 1983, she was building a life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her children. Her youngest was her 7-month-old daughter, Kya Jade Whitaker, born on November 21, 2006. Brooke's life and that of her infant child were brutally cut short on June 23, 2007, by her abusive ex-boyfriend, Raymond Eugene Johnson.
The relationship between Brooke and Johnson had
been fraught with violence. Johnson had a significant criminal history, including a 1995 manslaughter conviction for which he served only a fraction of his sentence. After his release, he began a relationship with Brooke, which soon turned abusive. Fearing for her life after he threatened to kill her, Brooke had taken her children and moved in with her mother for a time and had even secured a protective order against him in April 2007.
In the early morning hours of June 23, 2007, Johnson went to Brooke's home. An argument escalated into horrific violence when Johnson attacked Brooke, repeatedly striking her in the head with a claw hammer. Prosecutors stated she suffered more than 20 lacerations to her face and scalp, and her skull was fractured, exposing her brain. For hours, Brooke remained conscious, begging Johnson to call for help for her and her children. She pleaded with him to let her mother come and get baby Kya, who was asleep in another room.
Instead of seeking aid, Johnson retrieved a gasoline can from a shed. He doused Brooke and the house, including the bedroom where Kya slept, with gasoline. He then lit a dish towel on fire, threw it at Brooke, and fled the scene. Firefighters who responded to the blaze found a horrific scene. They initially mistook Kya's severely burned body for a charred doll. Brooke was found alive but unconscious under a bunk bed; she had suffered extensive burns and severe head trauma. She was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. The cause of death was determined to be a combination of blunt force trauma to the head and smoke inhalation. Little Kya died from her severe burns. Brooke's three other children were with their fathers at the time of the attack.
The investigation quickly led to Raymond Johnson. He was arrested the following day and confessed to the police, admitting that he had hit Brooke with the hammer and set the house on fire because he didn't want to go back to jail. Johnson was a serial killer, responsible for at least three deaths between 1995 and 2007. In 2009, a Tulsa County jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson. He was sentenced to death.
For nearly two decades, Brooke's family waited for justice. The legal process was long, with numerous appeals. Finally, on May 14, 2026, Raymond Eugene Johnson, aged 52, was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Before his execution, Johnson apologized to the family. Brooke's aunt, Angie Short, expressed the family's enduring pain, noting that Brooke's own mother had passed away before she could see justice served. Of Johnson's apology, she said it was too late. "The damage he did to Brooke and the torture he put her through," Short said. "The way he died today was so simple." Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond stated after the execution, "Justice has been served for Brooke Whitaker and her infant daughter, Kya... I pray that Brooke and Kya’s family find some measure of peace today after enduring unimaginable pain and grief for nearly two decades."
