PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Xavier Johnson pleaded guilty Friday to killing his foster brother and mother nearly five years ago.
Prosecutors say the murders happened about a month apart — the first being his foster brother, 20-year-old Jimmy Mao.
In December 2019, Johnson, now 22, went into Mao’s room while he was playing video games and choked and stabbed him in the head and chest before putting his body in a duffle bag and tossing it onto railroad tracks.
According to officials, someone on the other end of the video game heard Mao say, “Get out of here,” before the game cut out.
It took weeks to find the 20-year-old’s body.
Johnson was then moved to his foster mother Renee Gillyard’s home.
He was there for a short time before Gillyard told officials Johnson was not following her rules and was out all hours of the night. A day later, On Jan. 14, the 64-year-old was found stabbed to death in the bathtub by her son. Both her car, a Nissan Rogue, and her wallet were gone.
An officer noticed the car the next day and tried to stop it but the car sped off and led police on a high-speed chase through West Philly.
Eventually, it crashed, and Johnson and three others got out. Johnson was arrested and Gillard’s bank card was found in his pocket.
He was charged with both murders and pleaded guilty to two counts of 3rd-degree murder, theft, robbery, fleeing from police, and other charges.
Johnson told the court he suffers from PTSD and ADHD.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in July.