Brianna LeShae Addison

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Remembering Brianna

Brianna Addison was only two years old, a little girl who should have been surrounded by safety, patience and love. She was a daughter and a sister with an entire childhood still ahead of her. She should have celebrated birthdays, started school, made friends, discovered the things she loved and had years to become whoever she wanted to be. Instead, Brianna's life ended before she ever reached her third birthday. Brianna was more than what happened to her. She was a little girl. She was here and her life mattered.

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Brianna's Story

On January 30, 2013, Brianna's mother, Shawna Hall, left two-year-old Brianna and two other children in the care of her boyfriend, Derric Johnson, while she worked a night shift. The children were reportedly in Johnson's care for more than ten hours. During that time, Brianna was brutally abused. According to the police report cited in contemporary coverage of the case, Johnson sent Hall a text message on the day of Brianna's death stating, “I'm tryna throw her in the air. She was cryn like someone killn her.” Brianna's sibling later told investigators that Johnson had given Brianna a “whooping” in the living room because she was being “bad.” The child reported seeing Johnson strike Brianna with a belt and a shoe while Brianna cried. According to the child's account, Johnson stopped hitting Brianna when she became quiet. Johnson did not call 911. Brianna's mother was instead contacted, and Brianna was later pronounced dead. Investigators documented fresh bruises and bumps across Brianna's head, torso, arms, and legs. A small belt was reportedly recovered from Johnson's apartment that was consistent with a welt found on Brianna's cheek. Johnson admitted to investigators that he had tossed Brianna into the air three or four times. He claimed that she fell and struck her head on something hard near the couch, while denying that she had fallen onto the floor. The extent of Brianna's injuries told a devastating story. According to the autopsy and investigative information, Brianna suffered nearly 20 bruises and scrapes to her head, face, and neck, with approximately 30 additional injuries covering her torso, arms, and legs. Brianna's cause of death was determined to be blunt-force trauma to the head that resulted in bleeding in her brain. 

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Another Child Left Traumatized

Brianna's four year old sister, Macayla, witnessed what happened to her. Macayla told investigators that she saw Johnson hitting Brianna with a belt and a shoe while her little sister cried. According to the police report, Macayla appeared deeply traumatized when officers spoke with her following Brianna's death. A Fort Myers police officer described the four year old as afraid, shaking, and unable to control her breathing. The report stated that Macayla repeatedly looked toward Johnson with what the officer described as “big eyes.” According to information from the case, Macayla was also made to share a bed with Brianna after Brianna had suffered her fatal injuries. Macayla suffered from asthma, and authorities alleged that Johnson had also failed to provide her with adequate medical care during an asthma attack. She required hospitalization for several days following her sister's death. Prosecutors later added a third-degree felony child-abuse charge involving Macayla to the charges Johnson already faced in connection with Brianna's death. Brianna lost her life. Her sister survived, but was left to carry the trauma of what she witnessed.

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Justice for Brianna

Derric Johnson was initially charged with aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child in connection with Brianna's death. Prosecutors also pursued a separate child-abuse charge involving Macayla. The criminal case continued after Brianna's death, and in 2015 Johnson was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

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Person convicted: Derric Johnson

Relationship to Brianna: Mother's boyfriend

Sentence: 30 years in prison

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A prison sentence could hold the person responsible accountable under the law, but no sentence could return what was taken. Thirty years could not give Brianna her third birthday.

It could not give her a first day of kindergarten, teenage years, graduation, adulthood, or any of the thousands of ordinary moments that should have made up her life.​

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Forever Remembered

Brianna's story contains details that are difficult to read. The injuries documented on her tiny body and the account given by her four-year-old sister are important because they tell the truth about what happened to her. But what was done to Brianna is not who Brianna was. Her name was Brianna Addison. She was two years old. She was a daughter, a sister, and a little girl whose life should have been measured in birthdays and memories not injuries documented in an autopsy report. Brianna's death also left another young child carrying an unimaginable burden. Her sister, Macayla, was only four years old when she witnessed the abuse that took Brianna's life. The bond between these two little girls is part of Brianna's story, too. There is much about Brianna's personality and short life that was never preserved in the news reports surrounding her death. We may not know all of the little things that made her laugh, what she loved, or who she was beginning to become. But we do not need to know every detail of a child's life to know that her life had value. Brianna was here. She mattered to the people who loved her, and she deserved safety, protection, and the opportunity to grow up. Abuse Angels tells the truth about the violence Brianna endured because what happened to her should never be minimized. But we remember Brianna herself because no child should be remembered only for the worst thing someone did to them.