KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A mother being sent to prison Wednesday for doing nothing while her daughter was dying on a bedroom floor thanked Kansas City for loving the slain girl known for four years only as "Precious Doe."
Michelle Johnson, 33, also apologized in court for not being a better parent to Erica Green, then was sentenced to 25 years for the girl's murder. Prosecutors had recommended that sentence after Johnson testified at her husband's murder trial.
"Certainly, there is no further departure from the essence of humanity than this — a mother whose selfish indifference kills her small daughter," Judge John O'Malley said as he imposed the sentence.
In 2001, Harrell Johnson kicked 3-year-old Erica in the head when she wouldn't go to bed, and the adults didn't seek medical help for her because they feared going to jail on outstanding warrants.
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Erica's beheaded body was found in woods in Kansas City, and she wasn't identified until 2005, when Harrell Johnson's grandfather in Oklahoma tipped an activist prominent in trying to identify "Precious Doe."
Michelle Johnson's statement in court acknowledged the activist, Alonzo Washington, community leader Alvin Brooks and others.
"I would like to thank the Precious Doe Foundation, Alonzo Washington, Al Brooks, the prosecutor and Kansas City for finding my daughter, for giving her a name, for burying her and loving her," she said.
Her sentence includes 15 years for second-degree murder, plus 10 years for endangering the welfare of a child, abandoning a corpse and tampering with physical evidence.
Harrell Johnson, 29, is expected to receive life without parole when he is sentenced Nov. 20 for first-degree murder.
