Originally published Sept. 11, 2015
On Sept. 11, Torry Mashone Johnson entered a guilty plea to first-degree murder in a cold-case murder from 1997.
The Wyandotte County district attorney’s office charged Johnson, now 34 years old. There is another 34-year-old suspect in the case who is now in the Wyandotte County Jail.
According to the district attorney’s office, police investigated Vicky Ernst’s death in 1997 at 950 Shawnee in Kansas City, Kan., but at that time were unable to identify the persons responsible for her death.
While the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department never closed the investigation, there were periods where no new leads meant the investigation was not active, the district attorney’s office stated. Over the course of years, forensic reports of the physical evidence were issued by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation Laboratory, and more recently the district attorney’s staff and detectives from the major case unit at the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department undertook a comprehensive review of this case.
Police followed-up on newly developed leads, and the district attorney charged two men in April 2015 with Ernst’s murder, according to the district attorney’s office.
Both Torry Mashone Johnson and Jason Lanell Rucker were charged with one count of first-degree murder.
Johnson was initially charged in the Juvenile Division of Wyandotte County District Court because he was 16-years-old when Ernst was killed; however, the district attorney filed a motion to authorize prosecution as an adult, which was granted. Johnson now faces a life sentence. Sentencing has been set for 9 a.m. Oct. 16, in Division 15 of the Wyandotte County District Court. Jennifer Tatum and Kristiane Bryant are prosecuting the case.
Rucker, also 34-years-old, was likewise charged in the Juvenile Division and later ordered to be prosecuted as an adult. Rucker’s case is still pending, according to the district attorney’s office. Rucker is now in the Wyandotte County jail. Bond was set at $1 million. Rucker is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
