BRENHAM MAN GIVEN LIFE IN PRISON SENTENCE

  

A Brenham man was given a life in prison sentence by a Washington County jury.  Johnnie McKissack, 62, of Brenham, was found guilty by a jury of Aggravated Assault late Wednesday evening in District Court.  Thursday afternoon the jury announced its verdict and sentenced McKissack to life in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Aggravated Assault is typically a Second Degree Felony, however the evidence at trial showed McKissack used a firearm, caused serious bodily injury, and the victim was his roommate.  Because of those three factors, the offense became a First Degree Felony.  McKissack was convicted in Washington County in 1999 for Aggravated Assault and sentenced by a jury to 19 years in prison, and that prior conviction made the final punishment range at trial 15-99, or life, in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.

McKissack was arrested in Rosenberg on January of 2021 after he fled his residence four days earlier.  He was involved in an argument with his roommate that ended with McKissack shooting him in the hip, requiring reconstructive surgery.  The victim passed away a year later of unrelated causes.  The Washington County Sheriff’s Office investigated the shooting and tracked McKissack to Rosenberg after locating a witness to the shooting.

At the punishment phase, multiple women testified as having been victims of domestic abuse at McKissack’s hands.  They described being isolated from their families and stripped of self-worth but too afraid to leave.  The victim of the case from 1998 testified about the facts of that case.  While she and a friend were trying to leave the residence where she and McKissack lived, he shot her multiple times.  She survived the attack, left McKissack and after 23 years was able to face him and describe her road of recovery.

During her closing argument District Attorney Julie Renken highlighted McKissack’s past, “He’s left a string of victims going back decades,” and challenged the jury to “Sentence him to long enough that there won’t be any more.”  Afterwards she commented, “Washington County is a safer place with Johnnie McKissack doing a life sentence.  The jury definitely sent a message about what matters to our community.”