Louisiana woman found guilty of fatally stabbing boyfriend, not reporting death

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A Shreveport woman was found guilty of stabbing her boyfriend and not reporting his death for more than eight hours.

Kimberly Johnson, 43, was tried before a jury in Caddo Parish, and the six-man, six-woman jury unanimously found Johnson guilty after deliberating for two hours.

During the course of the trial, jurors learned that on Sept. 3, 2020, the victim, Lemel Taylor, 43, and Johnson met with Taylor’s mother. After returning to Taylor’s home, where the couple lived in the 6100 block of Southern Avenue, Taylor was stabbed, and his death was not reported for more than eight hours.

Medics arrived on the scene the morning of Sept. 4 and found that rigor mortis had set in, after which the coroner placed Taylor’s death as occurring more than eight hours before 911 was called.

Johnson claimed she did not know what happened, but later she admitted to stabbing Taylor after receiving threats from him. Johnson had no injuries other than a self-inflicted cut on one hand. She told a story of a struggle, but physical evidence at the scene stood in contradiction to her story.

Johnson took police to a sewer drain where she had previously disposed of the murder weapon.

She will return to the courtroom for sentencing on July 6, where she will face a mandatory life prison term without the possibility of probation, parole, or reduction of sentence.

She faces an additional sentence of up to 40 years of hard labor for the obstruction charge.