A woman who stabbed an elderly woman and her daughter in their Grand Prairie home was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday.
Jillian Johnson, 44, faced sentencing on November 1 after having entered a guilty plea to the court last week. She had been held in Grand Prairie jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond on a capital murder charge stemming from a double stabbing three years ago.
Johnson had been living with the victims, Gloria Jean Prince, 71, and her daughter Gloria Marie Booker, 53, in their home located in the 2500 block of Riverside Parkway. On the morning of October 25, 2020, Johnson became irate after the two women told her to move out.
The victims were reportedly unhappy about a “relationship between the suspect and another family member,” Grand Prairie police said, according to WFAA.
In a fit of rage, Johnson attacked and fatally stabbed both Prince and Booker.
Booker’s daughter, Tye Jones, addressed the defendant while delivering a victim impact statement.
Calling her mother her “best friend,” she said, “You stabbed two of the most important people in my life,” according to The Dallas Morning News.
The incident has been classified as a “family violence-related” homicide by the authorities.
In nearby Dallas, such offenses comprise 12% of murders and non-negligent homicides recorded since the start of the year to date, according to the Dallas Police Department’s crime analytics dashboard. Overall, this represents a startling rise of nearly 14% year over year.
Despite DPD rolling out a campaign against violent crime, the murder rate remains high.
The department labors against a longstanding officer shortage, with just 3,200 officers sworn in. This is well below the 4,000 deemed necessary to effectively police a city the size of Dallas indicated in a prior analysis from the city authorities.
Bearing the brunt of this shortage, Downtown Dallas logs significantly more crimes than neighboring downtown Fort Worth, which is reportedly patrolled by dedicated police units and private security guards.