On the evening of March 14, 2024, 17-year-old Javonta Morgan, a male from Dayton, Ohio, was fatally shot along with 14-year-old Corey Prater. The shooting occurred around 7:20 p.m. in the 1600 block of Miami Chapel Road, near Louise Troy Elementary School. A 911 caller reported that a fight involving a group of boys had preceded the gunfire. When police arrived, they found Corey injured and a bystander performing CPR on him. He was transported to a local hospital, where he died. Javonta was taken from the scene to the hospital by a private vehicle and also died from his injuries.
The Dayton Police Department’s Homicide Unit launched an investigation, and a week after the shooting, they asked for the public’s help in locating a suspect. The investigation led them to 14-year-old Michael Johnson Jr. On April 23, 2024, members of the U.S. Marshals’ Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team arrested Johnson in Peoria, Illinois, about five hours away from Dayton.
He was held in a juvenile facility there before being extradited back to Ohio to face murder charges.
Although initially processed in juvenile court, Johnson's case was later transferred to the adult system. In November 2025, a Montgomery County grand jury indicted the then 15-year-old as an adult on four counts of murder and four counts of felonious assault. In July 2026, Johnson, by then 16, accepted a plea deal and pleaded guilty to two counts of murder for the deaths of Javonta Morgan and Corey Prater.
In August 2026, Michael Johnson Jr. was sentenced to 33 years to life in prison. He will be eligible for parole after serving 30 years. The case is considered resolved with his conviction and sentencing.
In a separate incident on March 25, 2024, relatives of Corey Prater were shot at as they left his funeral. Witnesses reported that individuals in a Chrysler 300 followed them and fired at their vehicle. Two men, Thomas Michael Peck Jr. and Daviontay Maurice Travis Hunter, were arrested in connection with that shooting. Sources did not clarify whether this event was connected to the murders of the two teenagers.
