40-year-old Johnny Brandon Lee Johnson was sentenced by Anchorage Superior Court Judge Catherine Easter for the murder of 69-year-old Alan Wagers on Jan. 18, 2022.
In August 2023, an Anchorage jury found Johnson guilty of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, and one count of tampering with physical evidence. At trial, the evidence showed that Johnson was living with Mr. Wagers at a residence at 2642 Cottonwood Street in Anchorage. Johnson and Mr. Wagers had a verbal disagreement about another person being at the residence. Johnson then retrieved a hatchet from his room and attacked Mr. Wagers in his living room. Mr. Wagers was struck multiple times in his head, face, right arm, and right hand. Johnson fled the scene and was not located until March 2022. Despite being gravely injured, Mr. Wagers survived for 40 days before ultimately succumbing to his injuries from the attack.
At the time of the murder, Johnson was on parole for first-degree assault from an incident in 2006 in which Johnson seriously injured three people.
At sentencing, the second-degree murder convictions merged into a single conviction for first-degree murder. The court was permitted to sentence Johnson to a sentence of active imprisonment between 30 and 99 years. The State requested a sentence of 99 years with none suspended. Johnson requested a sentence of 40 years with 10 years suspended. In emotional victim impact statements, Wagers’ daughters testified about the impact that losing their father had on their lives and talked about how nice of a person he was.
Judge Easter found that Johnson was a “worst offender” and found several statutory aggravating factors applied by analogy to the murder. Judge Easter discussed Johnson’s lengthy criminal, primarily assaultive, criminal history and found that his rehabilitative prospects were “nonexistent” and “poor at best.” She indicated that Johnson is an “extremely dangerous person” and expressed no doubt that he would attack again. She determined that isolation of Johnson and community condemnation for his crimes were the primary sentencing factors to be considered.
Johnson was sentenced to 99 years with none suspended. He will not be eligible for discretionary parole until he serves 66 years of his sentence.
This case was investigated by the Anchorage Police Department’s robbery-assault and homicide units. Johnson is currently in the custody of the Alaska Department of Corrections.
Original source can be found here.