WASHINGTON — A Maryland man was found guilty of first-degree murder for killing his 2-year-old daughter and her mother after he was ordered to pay $600 in monthly child support in 2016.
Daron Boswell-Johnson was convicted Tuesday on all counts in the Feb. 2, 2016, murder of his daughter, Chloe Davis-Green, and her mother, NeShante Davis, in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
The mother and toddler were discovered in the parking lot of their apartment in Fort Washington.
Davis, a second-grade teacher, was strapping her daughter into her car seat to take her to day-care when she was shot in the back. Boswell-Johnson then shot Davis-Green twice in the head as she sat in her car seat.
“Killing a child is an act of war,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks said during a Wednesday morning news conference after the jury had returned its verdict. She added later: “This was a baby who sat in her car seat.”
Alsobrooks said Boswell-Johson’s sentencing is set for June and prosecutors will ask for life sentences without parole in both slayings. “It is our hope that he will never walk among civilized individuals again,” Alsobrooks said.
At the news conference, NeShante Davis’ sister, Nehanna Turner, said the trial was an emotional experience.
“It was as if a weight was lifted off of us hearing the verdict,” she said. “Hearing them say, ‘guilty’ was as if the time finally came for us to receive justice and for our angels to finally rest.”
During his trial, prosecutors played video of Boswell-Johnson confessing to the killings.
In the police interrogation video, Boswell-Johnson is heard confessing to killing the mother and daughter.
Detectives who interviewed the 25-year-old said that he waited outside Davis’ home on the morning of Feb. 2, 2016. Before shooting her and his daughter, he confronted her about child support he was recently ordered to pay and demanded she dropped the order, authorities said. Alsobrooks said Boswell-Johnson held the gun within 6 inches of his daughter’s head and shot her twice.
Prosecutors told the jury that Boswell-Johnson drew a map that led investigators along the route he took and to where he dumped the gun used in the shooting.
The weapon was never recovered.
Boswell-Johnson’s lawyer, Antoini Jones, painted a different picture of events.
He said Tuesday that Boswell-Johnson made his statement to police under “psychological pressure” after he was questioned for more than 10 hours.
Jones also asked why a detective had never reviewed Davis’ phone records.
Boswell-Johnson is awaiting sentencing and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
WTOP’s John Aaron and Jack Moore contributed to this report
