US soldier gets 23 years for killing his pregnant wife with a machete
and dumping her in the trash
[June 06, 2025]
WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD, Hawaii (AP) — A Hawaii-based U.S. Army soldier
was sentenced Thursday to 23 years in prison for killing his wife and
unborn child last summer and attempting to cover up the crime by
dismembering and disposing of her body in the trash.
Pfc. Dewayne Johnson II pleaded guilty earlier in the week to voluntary
manslaughter, obstruction of justice and providing false official
statements, the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel said in a
statement.
His wife, Mischa Johnson, was 19 years old and six months pregnant at
the time of her death July 12, 2024. Her body has not been found.
Johnson, of the 25th Infantry Division, told the judge during testimony
in a military courtroom that he hit his wife with a machete in their
home at the Schofield Barracks military base on Oahu after an argument,
KITV reported.
He said he snapped after his wife yelled that his child won’t know that
he existed. He hit her on the head, and she stopped breathing and didn’t
have a pulse. He said he didn’t intend to kill her.
“I couldn’t picture my life without my child," he said. “I regret, I
shouldn’t have done it.”
He used a chain saw to cut up his wife's body to hide the killing and
placed her body parts in garbage bags that he put in a dumpster in his
unit. He said had heard the garbage was taken from there straight to an
incinerator.
Johnson reported his wife missing July 31, more than two weeks after her
death. He joined search parties looking for her around Oahu. He was
charged with her murder Aug. 27 after Army investigators found blood,
DNA and other evidence in his home.
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U.S. Army Pfc. Dewayne Johnson sits with his teammates during the
Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center 24-01 at Helemano
Military Reservation in Wahiawa, Hawaii, Nov. 2, 2023. (Spc. Joshua
Linfoot/U.S. Army via AP)
Prosecutors said Johnson, from Frederick, Maryland, received the
maximum sentence allowed under law. They dropped child sexual abuse
image charges under the terms of his plea agreement.
Johnson's rank will be reduced to private and he will forfeit pay
and allowances and be dishonorably discharged. He will serve his
sentence in a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Marianna Tapiz told KITV it was shocking and painful to hear what
happened to her sister.
“As a family together, we’re just trying not to focus on the
horrific details of her last moment with him," Tapiz said. “And
instead, right now, we’re trying to just remember the happy memories
that we have and remember her in that life.”
Army prosecutor Lt. Col. Nicholas Hurd, said he hoped the justice
proceedings will help the family heal.
“While no amount of confinement will ever be able to truly ease the
pain of the loss of Ms. Johnson and her unborn child for her family
and friends, it is my hope that Pfc. Johnson’s admissions of guilt
and the information he provided as part of the plea agreement can
provide some element of closure and finality for the family and all
stakeholders,” Hurd said in a statement.
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