CLEVELAND — Armond Johnson was back in court Wednesday morning as the sentencing phase began for the July 2019 murders of four people -- including two young children -- in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood.
The sentencing phase is being held before Judge Timothy McCormick in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
The victims in the case include:
- 35-year-old David Cousin
- 25-year-old Takeyra Collins
- 6-year-old Armond Johnson Jr. (his son)
- 2-year-old Aubree Stone
Johnson could face the death penalty. The case is expected to go before the jury on Thursday.
We streamed the opening of the sentencing phase, which you can watch in the player below:
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley’s office says Johnson shot and killed Collins inside her residence near East 63rd Street and Fleet Avenue.
“He then set the house on fire and fled the scene,” according to the prosecutor’s office.
Her two young children -- including Johnson’s 6-year-old son -- were both inside the residence at the time and died as a result of the fire. Cousin was shot and killed in a vacant field near the residence.
“Armond Johnson brutally murdered four people including his own son,” Prosecutor O’Malley said in a previous statement on the case. “His callous actions demand that he face the ultimate punishment.”
Johnson, 29, was found guilty earlier this month on Sept. 2 for the following charges in the case:
- Fourteen counts of aggravated murder
- Three counts of arson
- Two counts of endangering children
- One count of kidnapping
- One count of tampering with evidence
Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in a previous story regarding this case on Sept. 2, 2022.
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