A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison Wednesday for stabbing his girlfriend to death in their Cypress Hills apartment, then living with her dismembered remains for nearly a month while impersonating her to keep up appearances with her family and employer. Justin Williams, 27, was sentenced in Brooklyn Supreme Court for the August 2022 killing of 22-year-old D'Asia Johnson, a Macy's employee who was studying to become a school teacher.
A Brooklyn Supreme Court jury convicted Williams on June 16 of second-degree murder, concealment of a human corpse, fourth-degree grand larceny, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, second-degree criminal impersonation and fifth-degree welfare fraud, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. Justice Danny Chun sentenced Williams to 25 years to life for the murder count, plus a consecutive one-to-three-year term for concealing Johnson's corpse, as reported by the New York Daily News. Chun told the courtroom that the killing itself occurred over a lengthy period of time.
According to the Daily News, Williams stabbed Johnson five times in the chest and four times in the back on August 21, 2022, inside the apartment on Linwood Street near Atlantic Avenue in Cypress Hills. He then hid her body parts in garbage bags stuffed inside two suitcases in the bathroom, using towels and cleaning products in an attempt to mask the smell as her remains decomposed for almost thirty days.
A Month of Deception
Rather than report her missing, Williams allegedly pretended to be Johnson in communications meant to convince her family she was still alive. Per the Brooklyn DA's office, he impersonated her to contact her employer and call out of work so her paychecks would keep arriving in her account while he stayed in her apartment with her remains. The Daily News reports he also used her benefits card to buy food and spent her money on prostitutes during that same stretch.
The cover-up unraveled on September 21, 2022, when building security guards knocked on Johnson's apartment door after she had not been seen for a while, according to the Daily News. Separate reporting from True Crime Report states that Williams and another man initially denied guards entry and fled the unit before security opened the door with a master key and discovered the bloodied suitcases. Williams later admitted to the killing during a two-hour police interview, per the Daily News.
Warning Signs Before the Killing
Johnson had obtained an order of protection against Williams before her death, and neighbors told Law & Crime that he had physically abused her in the months beforehand, including breaking her ribs and legs and leaving her on crutches, despite prior police responses and the active order requiring him to stay away from her. At the time of her death, Johnson was living in supportive housing through HousingPlus, a non-profit that serves domestic violence survivors and vulnerable women, according to True Crime Report.
Co-defendant Tatiana Hacket was sentenced in 2025 to five years of probation after using Johnson's public benefits card at Brooklyn supermarkets following the killing, the Brooklyn DA's office said.
Courtroom Statements
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Williams showed disregard for Johnson's life, dignity and loved ones. Williams's defense attorney, Erin Darcy, argued at trial that he never intended to kill Johnson and had requested a 15-years-to-life sentence, telling the court that Williams was remorseful and repentant and maintained that he did not intend the tragic result. Williams himself told the courtroom, “I love you all.” Johnson's family member Michael Bell responded to the sentence by saying, “It just doesn't seem fair. It's not fair.”
A Pattern Across the City
The case unfolded against a backdrop of domestic violence that continues to strain New York City's institutions. NYPD officers responded to 116,878 intimate partner-related domestic incidents in 2023, even as intimate partner homicides in the city fell 33% that year, from 33 in 2022 to 22 in 2023, according to the NYC Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, cited by NGO CSW/NY. Research from the Urban Resource Institute found that more than 60% of intimate partner homicide victims in the city had no prior contact with law enforcement, courts, shelters or social service agencies before their fatal attacks. The same research indicates domestic violence felony assaults accounted for at least 40% of the citywide increase in felony assaults, with Black and Latina women in parts of Brooklyn and the Bronx disproportionately affected.
