Reeds man pleads guilty to Avilla revenge slayings

May 22—Kevin C. Johnson pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of second-degree murder in the revenge slayings two years ago of Mason McClure and Nicole Hodges.

Johnson, 26, of Reeds, was scheduled to go to trial in Jasper County Circuit Court on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action. He instead accepted a plea offer at the last minute that will send him to prison for 28 years.

Johnson gunned down McClure and Hodges on Feb. 20, 2021, inside McClure's home at 255 Greenfield St. in Avilla.

The defendant told investigators following his arrest the next day that he killed them after McClure purportedly admitted that they had killed his 25-year-old girlfriend, Brylee O'Banion. Her charred corpse was discovered later the same day in a ditch near State Line Road and Angus Drive in Newton County.

"I felt (all along) this was a case that should be decided by plea," Prosecutor Theresa Kenney said of Monday's plea change before jury selection began. "But we had a very difficult time agreeing on the number (of years)."

She said she wanted Johnson to get life sentences without parole. But the defendant would not accept life sentences, and taking the case to trial had its risks.

The defendant's stated revenge motive for the slayings was just "one of the challenging issues in the case," Kenney said.

There also was the potential for a self-defense argument at trial and other extenuating circumstances to consider, including the reluctance of a couple of state witnesses to testify against Johnson, she said. There was little dispute about the facts of the case, she said.

"The issue would have been why he shot them," Kenney said.

Jasper County deputies found the two 34-year-old victims lying in pools of blood inside McClure's home the day after the slayings with five 9 mm casings left at the scene.

Johnson later admitted to investigators that he went to the Avilla address the previous morning looking for O'Banion and purportedly learned from McClure that they had killed her. He further admitted that he then shot the victims with a Ruger 9 mm pistol he had taken from his father's home, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in the case.

Kenney said Johnson had driven O'Banion to McClure's residence the previous day. She was to be a witness in a federal case in another state and apparently had some reason to fear for her own safety.

"She thought she would be safe with these two people," Kenney said.

The next morning, Johnson was unable to reach her by phone and became concerned, she said. He took the gun from his father's place and drove to Avilla, arriving there at 8:25 a.m. in a Nissan Altima in video footage that was captured on a neighbor's home surveillance system.

Kenney said he could be seen on the video entering the residence about 15 minutes later and coming back out in a hurry at 10:24 a.m.

"He jumped in his car and drove away," she said.

In the meantime, the defendant's father had reported his gun missing to the Jasper County Sheriff's Department. The father called the sheriff's office back about noon and informed them that his son had returned with the gun.

About 4:30 p.m. the day of the double homicide, O'Banion's body was found in the ditch in Newton County. But it was not until almost 24 hours later that McClure's family reported finding him and Hodges dead with multiple gunshot wounds.

Kenney said four rounds appeared to have struck McClure in his back before passing through his body and into Hodges. Two rounds were found embedded in a bookcase in the living room where the bodies lay.

Johnson had already been developed as a suspect when investigators learned that six rounds were missing from the gun he returned to his father. He was interviewed late that night by detectives from both counties and eventually admitted to having committed the slayings in revenge for his girlfriend's death.

Johnson told them that he did not immediately kill the couple after learning that they killed O'Banion, Kenney said. They had even sat down and smoked a bowl of methamphetamine together, he told them.

"But then he said he began to feel paranoid and was wondering why they would tell him that they killed her," Kenney said.

It made him suspect they were going to kill him next. When McClure asked him for help with a task in their garage and turned to Hodges to give her a hug, Johnson said he pulled out the gun, waited until they were close together and fired six rounds from across the living room, Kenney said.

"They both fell to the floor and were bleeding out as he left the house," she said.

He then got rid of his phone, burned his clothes and returned the gun to his father, she said.

Jeff Lehr is a reporter for The Joplin Globe.