U.S. Army Pfc. Dewayne Johnson sits with his teammates during an exercise at Helemano Military Reservation, Hawaii, in November 2023. (Joshua Linfoot/U.S. Army)
The Hawaii-based soldier accused of killing his 19-year-old wife and unborn child last summer has negotiated a plea deal, according to the Army.
Pfc. Dewayne Arthur Johnson II, 29, has been charged in the killing of Mischa Johnson, who disappeared from their home at Schofield Barracks on Oahu in early August.
“PFC Johnson has agreed to plead guilty, however further details are not releasable at this time as the guilty plea is subject to acceptance by the military judge,” Michelle McCaskill, a spokeswoman for the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel, said in an email Thursday.
That office referred charges in February against Johnson for the murder of his wife, as well as “intentionally killing her unborn child, obstruction of justice, providing false official statements, possession of child pornography and the production and distribution of child pornography,” the Army said in a news release at the time.
A military judge has scheduled a hearing next week at the Wheeler Army Airfield courtroom to receive Johnson’s plea, McCaskill said.
“If PFC Johnson’s guilty plea is accepted, the judge will sentence him pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement during the sentencing hearing,” she said.
Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson was last seen in her home at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, on the evening of July 31, 2024. (Honolulu Police Department)
The Office of Special Trial Counsel said in February that Mischa Johnson was presumed dead and that the Army Criminal Investigation Division was continuing to offer a $10,000 reward for information leading to her body.
Neither McCaskill nor CID responded to email queries Thursday regarding whether her remains had been since found.
Mischa Johnson was six months pregnant on Aug. 1 when her husband reported her missing from their home. That set off a flurry of searches on and around Schofield Barracks, the largest Army base in the state and home to the 25th Infantry Division.
Johnson, of Frederick, Md., is a cavalry scout with the 25th ID, where he was assigned in June 2023. He led his platoon on a six-mile search for his wife near the base days after he reported her missing, Marianna Tapiz, the missing woman’s older sister, said during an Instagram livestream in August.
Johnson told officers with the Honolulu Police Department and military police that his wife had been “emotionally distraught.”
He was arrested on Aug. 7 and held since in a brig on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor.
