David Dewayne Johnson was born on January 10, 1963, in the United States. Very little is publicly documented about his early life, family background, or personal history before his involvement in the murder of Leon Brown. At the time of the crime in 1989, Johnson was living in Arkansas and driving a white Oldsmobile. There is no information available indicating a prior criminal history or mental health issues before the murder.

From court records and reports, Johnson’s life leading up to the crime appears to have been transient and largely undocumented. The nature of the murder, which occurred during an apparent attempt to gain unauthorized access to private property under false pretenses, suggests a level of premeditation and desperation. His later legal appeals centered on claims that he did not receive adequate representation at trial, citing his attorney’s mental health issues and professional conduct as potential grounds for appeal.

On the night of September 2, 1989, David Dewayne Johnson approached the Little Rock Crate and Basket warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas. According to court records, Johnson convinced 67-year-old night watchman Leon Brown to let him inside, claiming he needed to use the telephone because his car, a white Oldsmobile, had gone into a ditch nearby. Earlier that day, the company’s principal stockholder, Dudley Swann, had encountered Johnson and asked him to leave the property, stating he could return the next day. Despite this, Johnson returned after dark.

Later that night, Leon Brown was found dead inside the warehouse. He had been brutally beaten with a wooden 2x4 and was discovered lying in a pool of blood. The scene showed signs of violence and theft. Investigators found Johnson’s fingerprints at the scene and recovered stolen property from the warehouse in Johnson’s possession. These pieces of evidence quickly led to Johnson’s arrest and subsequent murder charge.

On November 30, 1990, Johnson was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. His defense team argued during the trial that his legal representation was ineffective, claiming his original lawyer was manic-depressive and had a suspended law license as of 1993. Johnson’s appeal claimed that his trial attorney failed to introduce important testimony and behaved erratically during jury selection.

Despite these concerns, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction and sentence. The judges noted that although the attorney’s performance was flawed, Johnson had not proven that a more competent defense would have changed the outcome. They wrote that “specific facts, not abstractions,” governed the case, and there was no reasonable likelihood the verdict would have been different even with perfect legal representation.

On December 19, 2000, at 9:11 p.m., David Dewayne Johnson was executed by lethal injection at the Cummins Unit in Arkansas. He declined to make a final statement before his death. Johnson became the 23rd person executed in the state of Arkansas since capital punishment was reinstated in 1973 following the Furman v. Georgia decision. Leon Brown’s sons, who lived out of state, did not attend the execution.