Mollian Johnson had been planning to leave her live-in boyfriend for months, her daughter said, before he allegedly shot and killed her and her family in their apartment last week.
Records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show that Jonathan Darden had a criminal history dating back years — including rape and a new related charge made just days before DeKalb County police say he fatally shot Johnson, 43, Kaylyn Samuel, 25, and Samuel’s two children, 1-year-old Jontavious Powell and 5-year old Jedorah Powell, and then took his own life.
“They had so much life left to live, and it’s just sick that it got taken away from them, all of them,” Johnson’s daughter, Chanel Carter, told the AJC.
Officers arrived at the Vineyards at Flat Shoals apartment complex at around 7:30 p.m. Saturday and found all five of them dead from gunshot wounds, officials said. Police did not say when they believe the shooting took place. An investigator with the DeKalb Medical Examiner’s Office said the time of death is still under investigation.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Earlier that week, calls to the family went unanswered, Carter said. Samuel’s boss, a manager at Walgreens, called police Thursday and asked them to check on her after she didn’t show up to work, according to 911 records.
Officers went to the complex but did not have an exact apartment number, according to records. So they left the scene without speaking to anyone, a 911 supervisor confirmed. Police have not responded to requests for information about that call.
Carter said she called police again Saturday about doing another wellness check, then went to the apartment herself, hoping the family had just lost their phones. Instead, much to her horror, she discovered the gruesome scene before authorities arrived.
Darden and Johnson had been dating for about nine months, Carter said. On the Monday prior to the killings, he was indicted by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office on a charge related to his status as a sex offender. He had an arraignment scheduled for Dec. 17.
Darden had been placed in the sex offender registry after being convicted of rape in 1998 when he was 16 years old, court records show. He served a 10-year prison sentence.
He initially faced several charges: rape, statutory rape, aggravated child molestation and cruelty to children. He pleaded guilty to rape, while the other charges were dropped as part of a plea deal, according to court documents. The victim’s name and age were not released publicly, but she was under the age of 16, records show.
Credit: Georgia Department of Corrections
Credit: Georgia Department of Corrections
More than a decade later, Darden was arrested by the Chattahoochee Hills Police Department in 2013 on charges that included firearms and alcohol possession and a state sexual offender registry violation, according to Fulton records. He spent a week in jail.
After his prison stint in Augusta, he faced several charges in Alabama and Georgia for failing to update his address with the offender registry, according to online records in both states. The most recent such indictment came just days before the killings.
Police have not released details about what led to the slayings and said a motive is unclear at this time. The AJC has requested multiple reports related to the case.
Carter said she and her mother had no idea about Darden’s criminal history.
“She wouldn’t have stayed with him. I know my mom. She would not have stayed with him,” Carter said emphatically.
Johnson was the kind of mother who sacrificed for her children, and the kind of person people in the community gravitated toward, Carter said.
“She would give you the clothes off her back if you needed them,” she said.
Samuel, the mother of Johnson’s grandchildren, was a cherished family member. She and Johnson had a close bond, and Carter considered her a sister.
Samuel had two children with Carter’s brother, Jontae Powell, and although the first baby was a surprise, the young mom was ready for it, Carter said.
“Kaylyn loved being a mother. That was her favorite thing in the entire world,” Carter said. “It was like she was meant to be a mom.”
The family is raising money through GoFundMe to take them to Milwaukee for the funeral and burial.
