Bio

Laverne Johnson was born in 1953. Before the killings, Johnson was involved in a romantic relationship with Luisa Anna Castro, who worked as a nightclub security guard in Oakland, California. Through this relationship, he became a frequent visitor to the Daly City home Castro shared with her mother, Maria Victoria Holmes. Both women owned valuable collections of gold jewelry, and prosecutors later argued that Johnson became aware of these possessions because of his close relationship with Castro.

Evidence presented at trial showed that Johnson also maintained relationships with other women during this period. One of them, Roshaun Fuller, later became an important witness after telling investigators that Johnson had admitted details of the crimes to her.

Murder Story

On the evening of January 15, 1986, Luisa Anna Castro spent time with her boyfriend, Laverne Johnson, after the couple dropped off Castro's children with a babysitter. They later returned to Castro's home in Daly City, California, where she prepared dinner for Johnson. Also living in the home was Castro's mother, Maria Victoria Holmes.

Later that night, tragedy struck inside the house. Police and firefighters responded to reports of a house fire and discovered that two separate fires had been deliberately set one upstairs and another downstairs. Investigators believed the fires were started to destroy evidence and cover up what had happened inside the home.

When emergency personnel entered the residence, they found the bodies of Holmes and Castro. An autopsy revealed that Maria Victoria Holmes had been beaten to death after suffering numerous blows to her head and face. Luisa Anna Castro had been strangled with a wire before the fire was set. Although a knife was found near her body, medical examiners determined that strangulation was the actual cause of death.

Investigators soon focused on Johnson. Holmes and Castro were known to own valuable gold jewelry, and prosecutors argued that robbery was the motive behind the killings.

A major breakthrough came when one of Johnson's girlfriends, Roshaun Fuller, told police that Johnson had confessed aspects of the crime to her. According to Fuller, Johnson said he first attacked Castro and then assaulted Holmes when she came to investigate the disturbance.

Additional evidence strengthened the case against him. Witnesses reported seeing Johnson wearing gold jewelry shortly after the murders, and investigators learned that he had pawned several pieces of jewelry around the same time. Although the items could not be conclusively identified as belonging to the victims, prosecutors argued that the evidence supported the robbery motive.

During police questioning, Johnson admitted that he had been with Castro at her home on the night of the murders but denied killing either woman. However, he later made a statement that prosecutors used during trial, saying, "I probably did do it, but you are not going to get me to say I did do it."

Following a trial in San Mateo County, Johnson was convicted of the murders of Maria Victoria Holmes and Luisa Anna Castro. The jury also found that the crimes involved special circumstances, including robbery, arson, and multiple murders. In March 1990, he was sentenced to death.

In 1993, the California Supreme Court upheld both Johnson's convictions and death sentence in People v. Johnson, concluding that the evidence presented at trial supported the jury's verdict.

Laverne Johnson remains under a sentence of death in California. However, because executions are currently suspended under the state's execution moratorium, his sentence has not been carried out.