On February 1, 2022, a Mississippi man, Drew Johnson, pleaded guilty to a series of unrelated violent crimes, including striking a fellow prison with a brick, setting fire to a jail on two occasions, and killing an acquaintance by stabbing him more than two dozen times, according to the Shelby County District Attorney.

Johnson pleaded guilty to First-Degree Murder, Attempted First-Degree Murder, and two counts of Aggravated Arson. Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole of the murder.

On April 23, 2016, 25-year-old Calvin Holloway Jr. was reported missing. A friend saw on his Facebook page that he planned to meet Johnson in the area of Southwest Memphis. Four days later, authorities found Holloway’s body in a field in the 5100 block of Crossfield Road.

Police say he had been stabbed more than two dozen times. In another case, Johnson pleaded guilty to Attempted First-Degree Murder related to an attack on December 21, 2021 in which he repeatedly struck another prisoner in the head in the Shelby County Jail.

Drew Johnson was charged with attempted murder in the December 2021 attack in which he used portions of a concrete block to nearly beat Cordero Ragland to death.

Johnson had a separate murder case in Rankin County, Mississippi. On February 14, 2022, Johnson was sentenced to life in prison for murder in Rankin County.

On December 24, 2024, the Mississippi Department of Corrections announced it was searching for an inmate who escaped from the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville on Tuesday afternoon.

Johnson, MDOC #151009, is serving life for homicide/murder in Rankin County after being sentenced on February 14, 2022. Anyone who sees him is asked to contact law enforcement.

Update – Johnson is now in custody.