Truth and Justice ⚖️
Legal updates
December 9th 2025: State Attorney announces grand jury indictment against my brother Devin Johnson, upgrading his murder charge to the 1st degree, punishable by death or life in prison. He’s been accused of strangling and stabbing our mother to death over 100 times. Prosecutors have about 50 days from today to decide on seeking the death penalty or not.
Welcome back to The Dream Lounge.
It’s been over a month since my last newsletter. There’s a reason for that.
On November 19th 2025 I filed my first lawsuit pro se against my younger sister, seeking a domestic violence restraining order for myself and my daughter Charlotte Dream Johnson.
A hearing was scheduled in civil court for December 3rd 2025.
I have a lot to say about the hurdles and challenges of seeking a domestic violence protection order against a woman as a man, at a later date. To say the least, it can be a difficult and rough process.
Subsequently the hearing was in fact held on December 3rd. Care to guess how it went?
Well I walk in with my domestic violence legal advocate present as emotional support - one of the few people who have really had my back in this process. My sister then walks in with her attorney, a former state prosecutor.
Then about 30 seconds later she is arrested in civil court.
The charge is similar to the civil court case, so the judge spoke with her attorney, and rescheduled our civil court hearing to January 14th 2026. Fine by me.
As I understand it from the judge’s comments, it is dangerous to testify in civil court under oath while facing criminal charges that are similar. Basically anything you say in civil court can and will be used against you in criminal court.
My brother Devin is facing the same dilemma, being removed from our mom’s estate under Florida’s slayer statute in civil court.
The hearing with my sister then ended, she was escorted out of court by police and sent to the local county jail. She bonded out about 30 hours later under the condition of agreeing to a criminal court “no contact” restraining order.
This is similar to what I’m seeking in civil court for a longer duration, encompassing both myself and my 2 year old daughter. It stipulates zero contact with me by any means, directly or indirectly, staying 500 feet away from me and my home, etc.
I’m told it will last the duration of her criminal trial.
Obviously I won’t be dropping charges or asking the state attorney to drop them, like I did last time in 2010 when she was first arrested for domestic violence battery against me. I was 21 at the time and she was 18. She had a long life ahead of her and I was hoping for the best with her future.
From what I’ve read and understand, stalking charges in Florida are considered a domestic violence issue under certain conditions (like a blood relationship) because the behavior often precedes actual contact violence.
I can’t say much more about the cases right now since both have upcoming court hearings. I will be writing a 4 page victim impact statement for criminal court however. Clearly I’m done tolerating any abuse against myself and my family.
It’s tragic that our sibling relationship has come to this state of total disrepair, that I have to go to court and law enforcement to protect my family.
At the same time, I have to watch my little brother face down the death penalty for the 1st degree murder of our mom, among other major felony charges in Lee and Collier County.
I love my mom and brother both. It’s clear based on the evidence that police have provided in court that he will be convicted of the crime. Leaving me in the incredibly bizarre and heart breaking position of loving my mother in death, and brother facing due process and death row.
People seem to think I want to excuse what he has done, which is false. I don’t forgive him. Fundamentally I reject the conventional wisdom of forgiveness in polite society, a concept that is often abused to the point of my disgust.
I understand better than anyone alive how and why this happened. My mom’s murder is truly a domestic violence train wreck 40 years in the making, finally erupting in bloodshed and death. Tragedy beyond tragedy.
I’ve lost a mom and brother. My baby daughter lost a grandma and uncle. My wife lost a mother in law. And many other extended family are directly impacted by this.
So what is justice here? I see this term thrown around a lot without any meaning or substance attached.
In the Objectivist sense justice is bringing something - such as a conflict, dispute, or moral wrong - into alignment with objective reality. Righting a wrong. This is why you can file a lawsuit against someone, to right something that you believe is wrong.
With my mother I do seek justice for her life and death, and a fair trial for my brother. That is the best justice he can hope for at this point.
And then what? Life in prison? Lethal injection? Life in a mental facility? (What my mom would certainly want for him and did in fact try early this year in court).
As serious as these details are, I’ve come to realize that only the truth being spoken about my mom and brother can bring justice for both of them. In the court of public opinion and criminal court.
Him getting killed by the state won’t bring my mom back. So while I’m not opposed to the death penalty for a crime this severe, I’m also not advocating for it. I will not wish death on my brother, even now, knowing what he has suffered in this life.
I also have serious concerns about him being abused, raped, and killed in prison long term. So that’s fucked.
And getting someone accused of a crime this violent, under the surrounding circumstances, committed to a mental hospital for life, is a very high bar no matter his mental health issues. This isn’t a movie. Sending someone to “the nut house” for life rarely happens these days.
In short the whole situation is completely fucked, and only the truth being spoken clearly and boldly can actually bring about justice for me as a son and brother, independent of what the jury decides or other outcomes of the court process.
My view is that it’s critical for the public, the jury, and the judge to understand the full scope of how he, my mom, and I were abused for decades. Only with these facts sworn under oath can any of them make informed, fully contextualized decisions about what to decide about the crime and his future.
Devin wasn’t born a monster, he became one. He was beaten into one by our father, with our mother as the chief enabler, while also being a domestic violence victim herself.
He was just a kid once that went fishing, camping, and boating with my friends and I.
I empathize with him directly because I come from the same blood and same family. My life went in the complete opposite direction, and yet, that could be me in jail right now.
His actions may be inexcusable but they are not random or without cause. They are not a lightning strike of mental illness. My mom’s murder comes on the heels of over 40 years of non-stop domestic violence.
The world is going to know that truth now, so help me god.
/s/ Anthony Dream Johnson