An Oklahoma death row inmate due to be executed this week said he knew he committed a “horrible crime” by killing his ex-girlfriend and her infant daughter, but he didn’t deserve to die. Relatives of the victims say justice is long overdue.
Raymond Eugene Johnson, 52, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Thursday, May 14, for the brutal 2007 murders of 24-year-old Brooke Whitaker and her 7-month-old baby girl, Kya. Johnson hit Whitaker multiple times with a claw hammer and then set her and her Tulsa home on fire.
Kea died in the blaze and mother-of-four Whittaker later died in hospital from severe burns and head injuries.
“Raymond Johnson was a heinous murderer who violently attacked and tortured Brooke Whitaker, ultimately setting her and her young daughter on fire,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement last month. “Johnson has never taken full responsibility for these unconscionable actions that not only destroyed a family but left three young children without a mother and sister.”
Johnson has argued that he deserves clemency on the death penalty and says he has changed.
“This was a horrific crime and the worst moment of my life,” Johnson said during a recent pardon hearing. “There are no versions of this story, only the horrific facts… (But) my crime does not define who I am. It defines a moment that I deeply regret.”
The clemency committee voted 5-0 to deny his request.
Here’s what you need to know about the execution, including more about Brooke Whitaker and baby Kya.
In this screenshot, death row inmate Raymond Eugene Johnson is sworn in before speaking via video during a pardon hearing before the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole on April 8, 2026.
When will it be executed?
Raymond Eugene Johnson will be executed at 10 a.m. Thursday, May 14, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
If all goes well, Johnson will be the 11th inmate executed in the United States this year and the second in Oklahoma to be executed.
What did Raymond Eugene Johnson do?
On June 23, 2007, Raymond Eugene Johnson attacked his ex-girlfriend Brooke Whitaker at their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to court records and his own admission.
Johnson told police he and Whitaker started arguing and she pushed him and grabbed a knife, court records show. Johnson told police he then grabbed a claw hammer and struck her in the head about six times.
Whitaker was still alive, begging Johnson for help and promising not to tell police, Whitaker said. Johnson said he was afraid of going back to jail, so he took a gas can and doused Whitaker and the house with gasoline. He lit the fire and left.
“Johnson intentionally decided to kill Brooke and her baby in a manner that would cause the greatest suffering,” First Assistant Attorney General Amy Ely recently told the clemency committee. Board members are considering whether to grant Johnson clemency.
“Johnson could have allowed the child to live without increasing his risk of capture… Instead, Johnson allowed Kea to die in flames,” Ely told the board.
In some cases, she said, “it’s a close call whether to seek or impose the death penalty.”
“This is not one of them,” she added.
Angie Short, Brooke Whitaker’s aunt, told the committee that both Whitaker’s and Kea’s bodies were so damaged that their loved ones could not see them.
“I can’t stop thinking about the fear and pain Brooke and Kya experienced before they died,” she told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. “We are extremely grateful that Brooke’s other children were not at home that night. There is no doubt that he would have killed them all and we would have had funerals for all five of them.”
Who are Brooke Whitaker and her baby Kia?
Loved ones recently told the parole board that Brooke Whitaker, 24, was a loving mother of four who was known for her infectious laugh and hugs. They described Kia as a curly-haired baby who brought joy to her loved ones during the seven months she lived.
“I’ll never forget her hug,” Short said tearfully about her niece Brooke. “She wrapped her arms around me so tightly it was almost painful. I wanted more than anything to feel her hug just one more time.”
Logan Kleck, who was 7 when his mother was murdered, told the board in a letter that when she thinks of her mother and little sister, she thinks of all that was lost.
“My mom didn’t just miss moments, she missed my entire life,” Clerk wrote. “She missed my first days of junior high and high school. She missed prom. She didn’t get the chance to witness my first heartbreak or my first true love. She didn’t get the chance to see me walk across the stage at my high school graduation. She missed the day I welcomed my son into the world. She didn’t get the chance to hug him, or my second son.”
Pictured: Brooke Whitaker.
As for Kia, Clerk said her little sister “never spoke her first words or took her first steps.”
“She never had to go to kindergarten or lose her first tooth,” Clerk wrote. “The opportunity to grow was taken away.”
Carolyn Short, Brooke’s grandmother and Kya’s great-grandmother, said Brooke was her first grandchild.
“I can’t put into words how much I love her,” she said. “Sheer joy doesn’t even begin to describe what she has brought to my life. She is the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen. A true gift from heaven.”
Not only did Short have a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter to bury, but her daughter (Brooke’s mother Andra) also died of a heart attack eight months ago “after 17 years of unrelenting stress and anxiety, and the constant reopening of wounds from a legal process that seemed to never end.”
“I saw her heart break, literally and figuratively,” Short said, “as she waited for the justice she never got to see.”
Clerk said executing Johnson “does not undo nearly 20 years of pain.”
“This will ultimately stop him from hurting us any further,” she said. “There will be no more hearings, no more news articles, no more updates, no more having his name attached to theirs. It will allow their names to stand on their own and have people remember them rather than because of what he did to them.”
Pictured here are Brooke Whitaker’s four children, including baby Kia (lower left).
Why did Raymond Johnson think he should be spared?
During the pardon board hearing, Johnson apologized for killing Brooke and Kea but spent more time talking about how he had changed, finding God and helping others avoid a destructive path.
“I killed two people that I loved dearly,” he said, adding that he also believed his execution caused his own grandmother’s death from a broken heart.
“I ask for forgiveness,” he said. “Give me the opportunity to save more lives, stop more violence, and lead more people on the path to redemption.”
Raymond Eugene Johnson is pictured during a prison visit with his sister and niece.
Johnson described himself as “a father, a man of God, a teacher, a man who strives to be the best he can be, and when he falls, he gets back up.”
“He never bowed his head because not only were my children learning from my life lessons, but others within the prison walls were learning as well, and so were others outside the prison,” he said. “This is my legacy and I hope to have the opportunity to continue it as compensation for the two precious lives I was unable to save for myself.”
In a video presented to the board in 2024, Johnson’s son Kelal said his father taught him important life lessons.
“I love you, Dad,” he said.
When is the next execution?
The next U.S. execution could take place later Thursday.
The state of Texas was scheduled to execute Edward Lee Busby on Thursday night for the 2004 robbery and murder of a retired Texas Christian University professor. But on May 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision to temporarily suspend the trial due to Busby’s intellectual disability. If the state successfully appeals the ruling, enforcement could still proceed.
But if Busby’s execution is postponed indefinitely, the next execution will be that of Leroy McGill on May 20 in Arizona. McGill was convicted of murder in 2002 after dousing a couple with gasoline and setting them on fire.
Amanda Lee Myers is a veteran crime reporter covering death penalty, cold case investigations and breaking news for USA TODAY. Follow her on X @amandaleeusat.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Oklahoma executes Raymond Johnson for killing ex-baby
