Bio 

Ruben Myran Johnson was born on April 26, 1979. Publicly available court records identify him as a member of the Lindo Park Crips, a Phoenix-area criminal street gang. Johnson’s criminal case began with an armed robbery committed on November 7, 2000, at Affordable Massage in Phoenix, Arizona. Johnson and Jarvis Ross entered the business through a back door and used weapons to rob Stephanie Smith and Russell Biondo. Smith later identified Ross as one of the robbers and was expected to testify. Johnson later killed her to stop that testimony.

Murder Story

On November 15, 2000, Ruben Myran Johnson entered the Phoenix home of Stephanie Smith. Smith was a witness in the Affordable Massage armed robbery case and was expected to testify against Jarvis Ross. Johnson went to the home acting as a member of the Lindo Park Crips and shot Smith in the head. She was killed inside her home in front of her four-year-old son while her other children were asleep.

A Maricopa County grand jury indicted Johnson for first-degree murder, assisting a criminal syndicate or criminal street gang, first-degree burglary, and armed robbery. On November 28, 2001, a jury found him guilty on all four counts. During the aggravation phase, a separate jury found multiple aggravating factors, including that Johnson had a previous serious offense and that the murder was committed in an especially heinous or depraved manner.

Johnson was sentenced to death for the first-degree murder of Stephanie Smith. He also received prison terms for assisting a criminal street gang and first-degree burglary. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and death sentence on May 9, 2006.

Johnson later pursued federal habeas relief. In 2021, a federal court described him as being on Arizona death row and denied his habeas petition.