Christopher Jeffre JohnsonA 52-year-old man pleaded guilty this morning to the murders of Melissa Ward and the Goetcheus brothers.
Christopher Jeffre Johnson was sentenced to life without parole in the Tennessee Department of Correction for the slayings, clerks said.
Johnson, who was transferred to Hamilton County in March, is already serving a 50-year sentence for an aggravated rape and kidnapping conviction in 2014.
Prosecutors said he was responsible for two long-unsolved murders in Chattanooga: The 1997 slaying of Sean and Donny Goetcheus and the 2004 disappearance of Melissa Ward.
Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston secured first-degree murder indictments against Johnson for both slayings in January 2016 and October 2016.
Johnson’s punishments today will run concurrent with each other and his current life sentence, clerks said.
That means they run at the same time and won’t carry an additional 51 years each in prison.
This is a developing story. Please check back later for more details.