Darryl Lamar Collins, 55, received a life sentence for the first-degree murder of his girlfriend, Fatima Johnson, in Los Angeles. This came less than a year after his release from prison for two prior murders in the 1990s. The sentencing highlights concerns over a 2017 change to California's youthful offender parole laws.
On March 22, 2026, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman announced that Darryl Lamar Collins, 55, was sentenced to life in prison without parole following his February conviction for first-degree murder. The victim, Fatima Johnson, a mother of six, grandmother of eight, and nursing home worker, was found dead by her daughters in her south Los Angeles home on July 2, 2021, after being missing for several days. Prosecutors determined her cause of death as asphyxia due to neck pressure and possible smothering; her wrists and ankles were bound with shoelaces and duct tape, she was gagged with underwear, and duct tape covered her mouth and nose. Collins took her cellphone, jewelry, and Lexus, pawning and selling them for drug money. This murder occurred nearly one year after Collins's parole in 2020. In 1995, at age 24, he committed two random killings: on September 17, he carjacked and shot 28-year-old Derrick Reese at a pay phone, then killed 44-year-old cashier Thomas Weiss in an Englewood diner 11 days later. Sentenced to 50 years, Collins was paroled after 25 years due to a 2017 California law raising the youthful offender parole age cutoff from 23 to 25. DA Hochman stated, 'Darryl Collins took three innocent lives. Today's sentence isn't just about punishment, it's also about protection from this sociopath to ensure he will never walk free again.' He added that without the law change, 'Collins would have been behind bars rather than on the street and able to senselessly and brutally take another innocent life.'