Prosecutors said the 2021 killing happened 364 days after Darryl Lamar Collins was released from prison for two 1995 murders.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In a Los Angeles courtroom, Darryl Lamar Collins was sentenced March 20 to life without the possibility of parole for killing his girlfriend, Fatima Johnson, in South Los Angeles, nearly five years after prosecutors said he strangled and bound her less than a year after his release from prison for two earlier murders.

The sentence brought a close to a case that prosecutors have framed as both a brutal domestic killing and a warning about the release of a man with a long record of serious violence. Collins, 55, was convicted Feb. 19 of first-degree special-circumstance murder. At stake in the case was not only punishment for Johnson’s death, but whether Collins would ever again be eligible to return to the community.

Prosecutors said Johnson, 53, was killed July 2, 2021, in her apartment in the 7600 block of South Western Avenue. She had been missing for days when her daughters and best friend found her bound, gagged and wrapped in a blanket. Authorities said she died from asphyxia caused by neck pressure and possible smothering. Her wrists and ankles were tied with shoelaces and duct tape, underwear had been used as a gag, and duct tape covered her mouth and nose. After the killing, prosecutors said, Collins stole her cellphone, jewelry and Lexus. Within hours, he pawned two necklaces and sold the vehicle for drugs. The evidence, prosecutors argued, showed not a sudden confrontation but a killing followed by quick efforts to profit from the aftermath.

The case landed with unusual force because Collins was not an unknown offender. Prosecutors said he had already killed two strangers in 1995. On Sept. 17 of that year, Derrick Reese, 28, was using a pay phone when Collins carjacked him. After taking the vehicle, prosecutors said, Collins backed up and shot Reese at least twice. Eleven days later, Collins entered an Inglewood diner, pointed a gun at cashier Thomas Weiss, 44, and demanded money. When Weiss did not comply, prosecutors said, Collins shot him in the face. The victims had no known connection to Collins, and officials described both killings as random acts of violence. He was sentenced in January 1998 to two consecutive terms of 25 years to life, a punishment that appeared to keep him imprisoned for decades.

But the story turned on a change in California parole law. Collins was 24 when he committed the 1995 murders, putting him within a youth-offender parole category that was later expanded by state lawmakers. He was released in 2020 after serving 25 years, or roughly half of his sentence. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said after the new sentencing that Collins should never have been freed. “This case shows exactly what can happen,” Hochman said, “when someone with a history of extreme violence is released from prison early.” Supporters of youth-offender parole laws have argued that younger offenders can mature and deserve later review, but in this case prosecutors used the release timeline itself as a central fact, noting that Johnson was killed 364 days after Collins got out.

The March 20 hearing centered as much on loss as on law. Judge Craig Veals said Johnson could not be brought back and told Collins he would be locked up for the rest of his life. A courtroom filled with Johnson’s relatives and friends answered with loud applause, according to local coverage. Three of Johnson’s children addressed the court. One daughter called Collins “a monster” and said he should never have been released. Another told him her mother had been killed for “a hit of dope,” not because she had done anything to deserve harm. Collins did not speak before sentencing. His lawyer, Ilya Alekseyeff, said Collins was remorseful, but that statement did little to soften the hearing’s tone.

Johnson’s family and prosecutors also pushed back against the risk of this case being reduced to a parole debate alone. Johnson was a mother of six, a grandmother of eight and a nursing home worker who had been sober for eight years, according to prosecutors. She was pursuing her nursing license when she was killed. Those details gave the case a second center of gravity: not only the failure to stop a repeat killer, but the life cut short in the process. By the time of sentencing, Collins had been in custody since his September 2021 arrest. The special-circumstance murder conviction ensured that this time, unlike after the 1995 killings, the sentence carried no path back to freedom.

The case now stands as a completed prosecution rather than an open question. Collins has been sentenced to life without parole, and any further movement would come through the appeals process rather than a new penalty phase. For Johnson’s family, the legal calendar has narrowed to one point: keeping watch over what comes next in court.

Author note: Last updated April 14, 2026.