At just 24 years old, Brooke Lauren Whitaker was a mother of four who, according to her family, enjoyed life and loved her family. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on April 13, 1983, she grew up in the Tulsa and Sand Springs communities. Her youngest child was her daughter, Kya Jade Whitaker, a baby girl born on November 21, 2006. Their lives were brutally cut short on Saturday, June 23, 2007, in an act of domestic violence that shocked the city of Tulsa.
The man responsible was Brooke’s
abusive ex-boyfriend, Raymond Eugene Johnson. Their relationship had been volatile, with Johnson becoming physically abusive, stalking Brooke, and threatening to kill her on multiple occasions. She had sought a restraining order against him in April 2007, but it was dropped a month later when neither appeared for a court hearing. Johnson was a convicted serial killer with a violent past, having previously served time for a 1995 manslaughter conviction for which he was paroled in 2005.
In the early morning hours of June 23, 2007, Johnson went to Brooke’s Tulsa home after she returned from work. An argument escalated into unimaginable violence. Johnson attacked Brooke, then 24, with a claw hammer, striking her repeatedly in the head. For hours, she remained conscious, pleading with him to call 911 and to let her mother come get baby Kya, who was asleep in another room. Johnson refused, telling her he did not want to go back to jail.
Instead of seeking help, Johnson retrieved a can of gasoline from a shed. He doused Brooke and the house, including the bedroom where 7-month-old Kya slept, with the fuel. He then lit a dish towel on fire, threw it at Brooke, and fled the home, leaving mother and daughter to perish in the flames. When firefighters arrived, they found Brooke, who died from her head injuries and smoke inhalation. They initially mistook Kya’s severely burned body for a baby doll. An autopsy later revealed the infant died from the severe burns themselves, not smoke inhalation, indicating an excruciating death.
The investigation quickly led to Johnson. Brooke's cell phone, found at the scene, showed two recent calls to a friend of Johnson's, who later told police she had taken him to a dumpster after the fire. There, investigators recovered a bag containing bloody clothing, Brooke's wallet, and the claw hammer used in the attack. Johnson was arrested later the same day in the nearby town of Coweta. He confessed to the crimes, admitting he beat Brooke with the hammer and intentionally set the fire to kill her. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson.
In 2009, a Tulsa County jury convicted Raymond Eugene Johnson on all counts and sentenced him to death. Over the next two decades, his case went through numerous appeals, all of which were denied. At a clemency hearing in April 2026, Johnson’s attorneys argued that he had bipolar disorder and had grown into a different person while in prison. Johnson apologized to the family, stating, "My crime doesn't define who I am. It defines a moment I deeply regret." The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously voted against recommending clemency. On May 14, 2026, Raymond Johnson, 52, was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. His last words were an apology to the family. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond stated, "Justice has been served for Brooke Whitaker and her infant daughter, Kya. Their lives were taken far too soon in a heinous act of violence." For the family, the execution marked the end of a long and painful legal chapter. Brooke’s aunt, Angie Short, said, "This couldn't bring them back. But we'll no longer have to see his face on TV. He's no longer associated with Brooke and Kya. Now I think we can finally begin to heal after 20 years.”
