NORFOLK, Va. — On Friday, 40-year-old Dustin James Wilder was sentenced in Norfolk Circuit Court to 20 years and six months in prison for the second-degree murder of 44-year-old Faith Ann Johnson and the illegal concealment of her body in 2019.
Close to midnight on Oct. 25, 2019, Wilder called 911 and told the operator, “My girlfriend is dead. I am pretty sure that I am the culprit.”
He identified his girlfriend as Mrs. Johnson, said that she was not breathing and was located at his address on West 26th Street, and that he was calling from a 7-Eleven on Monticello Avenue. When officers arrived at the 7-Eleven, they detained Wilder, and he repeated that Mrs. Johnson was dead inside his home. Officers transported Wilder with them to his residence, paramedics entered the house, and they found Mrs. Johnson’s body on the kitchen floor under a pile of blankets.
After being advised of his legal rights while still in the police patrol car, Wilder told a detective that Mrs. Johnson visited his house several days before, they had both been using drugs, and the next day she was dead from what he claimed to be an overdose. Johnson’s autopsy revealed 50 fractures to her ribcage that had not healed (indicating they happened at the time of her death), dozens more injuries to her ribcage in multiple stages of healing, blunt force trauma to her head, and trauma to her neck consistent with a prior strangulation, according to court documents. A forensic anthropologist concluded that Johnson’s injuries were indicative of her being crushed to death while lying on a firm surface.
Johnson’s husband had reported her missing to Virginia Beach police on Oct. 22, 2019, after not seeing or hearing from her since Oct. 18. On Oct. 23, Johnson noticed that her debit card was charged at a 7-Eleven on Monticello Avenue — the only time her card had been used since Oct. 20. He visited the 7-Eleven and contacted Norfolk police, who obtained video surveillance footage showing Wilder driving up to the store in Johnson’s vehicle and making a purchase.
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Mr. Johnson deduced that Mrs. Johnson had been visiting Wilder, whom he knew to be her friend. Mr. Johnson also told officers that, in the past, he had observed bruises to Mrs. Johnson’s body after she returned home from hanging out with Wilder. Johnson then visited Wilder’s home with officers and saw Mrs. Johnson’s vehicle in the driveway. No one answered the door when officers knocked, and officers did not have proper cause to enter the home at the time, so they advised Mr. Johnson to continue monitoring his wife’s bank records and to report her missing in Norfolk as well.
Video surveillance footage from the same 7-Eleven on Oct. 24, 2019, showed Wilder making three additional trips to the store. During the first two trips, Wilder arrived in Mrs. Johnson’s car and made purchases using her card. By the third trip, Johnson had placed a hold on Mrs. Johnson’s card, and Wilder was seen on video unsuccessfully trying to make another purchase.
Wilder pleaded guilty on March 6, 2023, to second-degree murder and concealing a dead body, and Judge David W. Lannetti accepted his plea with an agreement to a maximum active sentence of 20 years and six months in prison.
On Friday, Judge Lannetti sentenced Wilder in accordance with that agreement on the conditions that Wilder be of uniform good behavior for 10 years, complete an indefinite period of supervised probation, pay $6,000 restitution to Mrs. Johnson’s family, and not contact her family.
“Mrs. Johnson suffered a terrible death at Wilder’s hands, and my condolences go to her and her family,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Good police work and the persistence of Mrs. Johnson’s husband — to whom we are all grateful — helped to ensure Wilder will serve a sentence that fits his crime. I hope that the verdict and sentence offer some closure to Mrs. Johnson’s loved ones.”
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney William S. Maydosz prosecuted Wilder’s case on behalf of the Commonwealth, and Norfolk Police Detective Kyle D. Austin led the investigation.
