Johnette Booker Found Guilty for Death of Special Needs Teen Cousin

Manhattan D.A. Bragg has announced the guilty conviction of 43-year-old Johnette Booker, who caused the death of her 15-year-old special needs cousin in June 2021 while he was staying at her Upper West Side apartment. Booker was found guilty on a slew of manslaughter and assault charges, and is expected to be sentenced on March 7.

“Johnette Booker has now been found guilty for causing the death of her younger cousin,” said D.A. Bragg. “She physically and emotionally tortured her special needs cousin, in what can only be described as absolutely shocking and horrific behavior. Instead of providing him with love and care when she assumed the role of caregiver by taking him into her home for the summer, she preyed on him, and her actions and omissions caused his tragic death. No child should ever be treated this way, and I thank our prosecutors for their hard work to deliver accountability in this case.”

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Jallen McConnie was a special needs child who lived with his adoptive sister, his legal guardian, in North Carolina and Georgia. In the summer of 2021, his sister sent him to live with Booker, and he stayed at her apartment on 94th and Columbus Avenue.

“For the 32 days he was in the defendant’s care, he was repeatedly physically and emotionally tortured by BOOKER,” the D.A.’s report states. “He was physically assaulted multiple times with belts, forced to sleep on the floor, forced to sit facing the wall with his legs crossed for the majority of the day, forced to do intensive exercises, hold heavy books over his head, scrub her floor, stand in the corner touching his toes, and was denied his prescription medications.”

The report recounts an incident which took place on June 28, 2021, in which Booker–”act[ing] in concert with the victim’s cousin and allegedly another family member”–used a belt to assault McConnie for over an hour, hitting him on his arms, legs, body and face.

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They then “brought Mr. McConnie to the bathroom and aided as a family member allegedly ordered Mr. McConnie to open his mouth and forced water down his throat. Mr. McConnie collapsed in BOOKER’S bathtub. A medical examiner deemed the cause of death to be homicidal asphyxia.”

Booker delayed calling 911 and was caught multiple times lying to emergency responders and family members, first saying she wasn’t home when the incident occurred, and that he was attacked by a group of boys in the neighborhood. She then claimed McConnie had committed suicide, “and at one point filed a letter with the court falsely stating that she was in her bedroom when the incident occurred and could not hear what was happening.”

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