Missouri – In a devastating case in Missouri, a 19-year-old woman, identified as M. Cornelius has been sentenced to prison for fatally shooting her 16-year-old girlfriend, identified as M. Johnson, while the two were playing with a gun in what prosecutors described as a reckless and senseless act.
Cornelius pleaded guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter in the death of M. Johnson, who was shot in the head at her family’s home on January 3. Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Cornelius was sentenced to seven years in prison, and a more serious charge of armed criminal action was dropped. According to court records, police were called to a home after reports of a shooting just before dawn. When officers arrived, they found Johnson lying on the living room floor with a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Cornelius, who had been living in the home at the time, was also there. Prosecutors said the shooting occurred as the two girls were playing a dangerous game, with Cornelius “spinning the gun around her finger” when it went off. The single bullet struck Johnson in the head.
In the moments after the shot, Johnson’s two younger sisters, aged 9 and 11 years old, were inside the home. It was the 9-year-old who frantically called her mother, N. Pettis, saying her sister had been shot. When police questioned Cornelius about the incident, she told them she didn’t know who had placed the bullet in the gun and claimed the shooting was an accident. Pettis, however, was not convinced. She described the relationship between her daughter and Cornelius as abusive and said she never believed the shooting was truly accidental.
During Cornelius’s sentencing, the courtroom was filled with raw emotion. Johnson’s family and friends spoke through tears, describing a young girl full of life and potential who had been taken from them far too soon. Pettis, who has remained vocal throughout the case, shared the pain of losing her daughter in such a horrific way. She said she wanted Cornelius to live every day with the image of what she had done. “I will get justice for my daughter,” Pettis had said earlier in the case. “I don’t want to see anything bad happen to her besides sit behind bars, think about it for the rest of your life, hold that image in your head for the rest of your life of what you did to my daughter. I hope that she haunts you, God forgive me, but I hope that my daughter eats her alive every night when she goes to bed.”
Pettis said she is proud of her younger daughters for testifying and facing the person responsible for their sister’s death, though the trauma will follow them forever. She said, “They talked about her spinning the gun around her finger, and that’s apparently when the trigger was pulled and the gun killed my daughter.” The judge in the case accepted Cornelius’s plea deal and sentenced her to seven years in prison. Before the sentence was read, Cornelius stood and apologized to the victim’s family, saying she would live with the regret of her actions forever. Her sister also spoke, telling the court, “A child is gone, so you’ll have to take responsibility.”
Outside the courtroom, a friend of the Johnson family voiced frustration that the apology meant little after such a devastating loss. “Nothing is a game when it comes to guns,” she said. The death of Johnson has become a sobering reminder of how one moment of carelessness can destroy countless lives. A mother is left mourning her child, two little girls will carry memories they should never have had to witness, and a young woman now faces years in prison for a tragedy that could have been avoided. For Pettis, the grief lingers beyond words. Her daughter is gone, and all she can hope is that the young woman responsible will never forget the life she took.
