FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 19, 2025
Woman Sentenced to 23 Years to Life in Prison for Execution-Style Murder
Of Another Woman on Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights
Defendant Approached Victim from Behind and Shot Her in the Head,
Then Shot Her Several More Times as She Lay Dying on the Sidewalk
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a woman has been sentenced to 23 years to life in prison for fatally shooting Delia Johnson in the head at point blank range during a candle-lighting ceremony for mourners in the hours after a funeral for a mutual friend of the victim and the defendant.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This shooting was a cold-blooded execution of a woman who was attending a ceremony to honor a late friend. It is especially shocking that the defendant was so brazen as to carry out this murder among a crowd of mourners, causing chaos and fear as they ran from the gunfire. My thoughts are with Delia Johnson’s friends and family who are heartbroken by this senseless loss of life.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Claudia Banton, 46, of Allenwood, Georgia. She was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Margaret Martin to 23 years to life in prison. The defendant was convicted of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon on April 3, 2025, following a jury trial.
The District Attorney said that, according to the evidence, on August 4, 2021, at approximately 9:40 p.m., the defendant approached Delia Johnson, 42, a former friend, from behind as she chatted with a group of people in the vicinity of Franklin Avenue and Prospect Place in Crown Heights. The group was attending a candle-lighting ceremony in the hours after a funeral for a mutual friend.
The defendant shot Johnson in the head, and then shot her again after she fell to the ground. The defendant fired at least five shots at the victim. She then fled in a vehicle that was double parked nearby.
The defendant was apprehended in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 8, 2021, by United States Marshals.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Michael Diamond, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Zachary Safrin, of the District Attorney’s Orange Zone Trial Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Leila Rosini, Homicide Bureau Chief.
#