Prosecutors said the evidence contradicted Darryl Tyson Jr.’s account of the fatal shooting.
ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Autopsy evidence showing a pregnant woman was shot five times in the back helped end a Missouri murder case before trial, as her boyfriend entered pleas in her death and the deaths of her unborn twins.
The physical evidence became the center of the case against Darryl Tyson Jr., 41, who had claimed he acted in self-defense when he shot Bre’Anna Johnson, 28, inside her Wentzville home on Oct. 31, 2024. Prosecutors said Johnson was four months pregnant with twins. Tyson entered pleas June 2 to three counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree domestic assault.
The self-defense claim depended on Tyson’s account that Johnson had been facing him and threatening him when he fired. That account did not hold after the autopsy and discovery process, according to statements from both sides. St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph McCulloch said the path of the bullets showed Johnson was not in the position Tyson described. “Those bullets were traveling upwards, which tells us that she was falling down or on the ground at the time that she received some of those shots,” McCulloch said.
The defense had been preparing for trial when the medical findings changed the risk. Defense attorney Raphael Morris said Tyson first told police he believed Johnson was facing him, but the photographs and records did not support that. Morris said Tyson decided after reviewing the evidence that entering a plea was in his best interest. The plea did not produce a public trial record of every forensic detail, but it confirmed that the autopsy had become the piece of evidence neither side could ignore.
Johnson’s body was found in a home where her two young sons were also present. The children, then 6 months old and 17 months old, were not physically injured. Police and prosecutors have not publicly released a full minute-by-minute account of what happened before the gunfire. Known records place Tyson and Johnson in a domestic violence case earlier the same day. Tyson was accused of throwing a phone that hit Johnson in the head hours before the shooting, an allegation later reflected in the domestic assault count.
The case moved through several legal stages before the plea. A grand jury indicted Tyson in December 2024 on three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed criminal action and one count of second-degree domestic assault. The three murder counts were tied to Johnson and each unborn twin. By June 2026, the case was set for trial. Instead, Tyson entered pleas to second-degree murder counts, resolving the prosecution without a jury deciding whether the killing was planned, intentional or justified.
An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain innocence while acknowledging that the state has enough evidence to likely secure a conviction. Reports on the plea described Tyson’s action in that framework, while other accounts said he pleaded guilty. The distinction matters legally but not to the outcome of the sentencing. The court accepted the pleas, and Tyson was sentenced to a prison term that will keep him incarcerated for decades before parole eligibility can be considered.
Sentencing reports described the punishment as either life with parole possible after 25 years or a 30-year sentence with an 85% service requirement before parole. Both descriptions point to more than 25 years before any possible release review. The seven-year sentence for domestic assault runs at the same time as the murder sentences. No public report has indicated that Tyson received consecutive sentences for the three deaths, and no scheduled appeal hearing has been announced.
The hearing also showed the personal toll of the forensic findings. Johnson’s mother, Janette Perry, brought her daughter’s ashes to court. Perry said she wanted her daughter to hear Tyson accept the outcome. “I wanted her to see. I wanted her to hear him say guilty,” Perry said. “It wasn’t a jury that said he was guilty. He said he was guilty.” Her statement framed the plea as a moment of accountability, even though she said she wished Tyson would never leave prison.
Johnson had recently celebrated her 28th birthday. She was a mother of two surviving sons and was expecting twin boys when she died. The prosecution treated the unborn children as separate victims, a decision that shaped both the indictment and the plea. That approach meant the case carried three murder counts even though the shooting occurred in one home during one violent event. The charges reflected Missouri’s legal treatment of unborn victims in homicide prosecutions.
The evidence also became important beyond the courtroom because it countered a public claim often raised in domestic homicide cases. Tyson’s first account placed Johnson in a threatening posture. The autopsy placed gunshot wounds in her back and indicated some bullets traveled upward. Prosecutors said that combination weakened any argument that Johnson was advancing on Tyson. The public record does not explain every movement inside the room, but it does identify the evidence that led the defense to abandon the planned claim.
Johnson’s family has since attached her name to a proposed policy response. Relatives are advocating for “BreAnna’s Law,” a proposal described as a public registry for repeat domestic violence offenders. The effort remains outside the completed criminal case, and its next steps depend on whether lawmakers take up the proposal. Family members have said they want Johnson’s death to produce a public record that could alert others to repeated abuse allegations.
The murder case is now resolved in St. Charles County court, with Tyson sentenced and the self-defense claim left behind. The next milestone is not a trial but any future parole review, which would come only after he serves the required decades in prison.
Author note: Last updated July 7, 2026.