The woman convicted of brutally beating and waterboarding her 15-year-old autistic cousin to death inside her Manhattan apartment in 2021 was sentenced on Monday to 20 years behind bars in what the presiding judge called the saddest case of her career.
Johnette Booker, 43, appeared in court on March 24 with her head bowed. She wore a rosary over a black sweater and was forced to listen to her victim’s sister weep over the loss.
“I’m still waiting for a phone call,” Mykarsha Rogers cried.
Prosecutors said Jallen McConnie, just 15, was sent to live with Booker in Manhattan, where he had previously lived in North Carolina and Georgia. According to court documents, Booker referred to the summer stay as “cousin boot camp” for what she believed to be recent misbehavior.
McConnie was in Booker’s care at the West 94th Street and Columbus Avenue home for just 32 days before he lost his life. Over the course of the stay, prosecutors said, he was beaten multiple times with belts, forced to sleep sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, and even to hold heavy books over his head.
Court documents also revealed that the teen was made to perform chores in addition to the bestings, like scrubbing the floor, while also being denied medication for ADHD.
“The defendant took perverse pleasure in torturing jail for a month before his death,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said. “There’s simply no line that this defendant is not willing to cross to benefit herself.”
The worst of the beatings came on June 28 that summer, leaving the boy with welts and bruises across his body. With McConnie already weakened, Booker and her brother Mitchaux Booker used the shower to force water into his mouth. He collapsed and died. The medical examiner would later rule his death to be homicidal asphyxia.
“They realized that his injuries were still too visible, so the defendant dressed her unconscious cousin. She put on his usual diaper, long sleeve shirt and jeans on that hot summer night to cover his arms and legs, even putting socks and sneakers on, knowing full well that he wasn’t walking out of that apartment because he was already dead,” Blumberg added. “She readily agreed to be his caretaker and instead was his executioner.”
Prosecutors say Booker not only delayed dialing 911 while she attempted to cover up the abuse, she also lied to EMS and police, telling cops she was not at home when he was waterboarded and that other boys attacked him while he was at a nearby park. At one point she even claimed he attempted to choke himself.
“Johnette Booker stands convicted of killing her younger, vulnerable cousin, through her vicious and cruel behavior,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. “For over a month, Booker knowingly put Jallen McConnie through an excruciating level of abuse and trauma, up until the final moments of his life. Booker will serve a significant prison term for this utterly horrific conduct and my thoughts remain with Mr. McConnie’s loved ones, who continue to grieve this devastating loss.”
Booker’s attorney bizarrely argued that she herself had been beaten with a belt growing up and was following the parenting that she knew. Booker herself told the courtroom that she was ready to accept whatever punishment would be handed down.
“I just want to say I appreciate and thank you for whatever you impose,” Booker said.
“I don’t usually say much during sentencings,” Judge Cori Weston began. “This is one of the saddest cases in all my years as an attorney and a judge.”
Booker was convicted of manslaughter, gang assault, assault and endangering the welfare of a child. She was sentenced to 20 years in state prison.
