A California teen killed his 16-year-old lover and her parents after he was caught by the pair in the underage girl’s bed, prosecutors said.
Mauricio Johnson pleaded guilty to the three murders in Humboldt County Superior Court Tuesday after making a deal with prosecutors, which saw the 19-year-old dealt a 150-year prison sentence.
Johnson told the court Tuesday that he killed Nikki Metcalf and Margarett Moon, both aged 40, after Metcalf found him in bed with their underage daughter, Shelly Autumn May Moon, in February.
The grisly triple murder took place at the couple’s home in Northern California, in the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria, a reservation situated in the small town of Loleta.
Mauricio Johnson pleaded guilty to the three murders in Humboldt County Superior Court Tuesday after making a deal with prosecutors, which saw the 19-year-old garner a 150-year prison sentence. The California teen killed his 16-year-old, underaged lover and her parents after he was caught by the pair in the underage girl’s bed, prosecutors said
The age of consent in California is 18 years old. The daughter was referred to as ‘Jane Doe’ in a statement from the Humboldt County District Attorney’s office Tuesday after the hearing’s conclusion.
During the Tuesday trial, prosecutors recounted how Johnson was invited into the family’s home the night of February 9, ‘with the permission of several minors’ who lived at the home.
Then, later that night, after most of the house had gone to bed, Metcalf, the girl’s stepfather, walked into her bedroom to check on the youth, and found Johnson in her bed getting ‘intimate’ with the girl, a search warrant affidavit issued by the Utah State Bureau of Investigations revealed.
Metcalf proceeded to attack teen, punching him once, according to a warrant who ran from the room with his pants down.
‘The male subject [Johnson] was on top of [Shelly]. Nikki Metcalf hit the male,’ the warrant reportedly states.
Johnson then ‘exited the room,’ the warrant stated, and ‘walked into the living room pulling up his pants.’
Metcalf then followed the teen out into the house’s living area, where, according to prosecutors, Johnson brandished a handgun from his bag, and shot Metcalf at point-blank range in the head, killing him.
Johnson’s brother, Damon Johnson, a witness in the case, reportedly spoke to Johnson after the shooting, and told Humboldt County police that ‘when the girl’s stepdad walked in, the stepfather started “getting tough” with Mauricio,’ which spurred the teen to shoot him, the affidavit states.
The girl’s biological mother, Moon, was then woken by the sound of gunfire, and walked into the living room to investigate.
She was shot by Johnson as well, as taken to a local hospital and later pronounced braindead. She died soon after.
Johnson then shot the girl ‘because he did not want to have any witnesses,’ the warrant chillingly reveals.
After the murders, Johnson
It is still not clear if Autumn May Moon was the one to invite the teen into the house – but according to Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal, the teen was was a ‘friend’ of the family and was a welcomed ‘guest.’
Honsal further stated that teen had been given permission to be inside the house by ‘at least one of the residents’ and specified that the teen had a relationship with Shelly, but said the context of their ‘exact relationship’ was not entirely known.
The teen, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to avoid life in prison without the chance of parole, is scheduled to receive sentencing on January 21.