John Jefferson
Left: Naasire Johnson (Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office). Right: Kylen Pratt (Philadelphia Police).
A 23-year-old Philadelphia man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for murdering another man to shield the fact that the two had a sexual relationship, prosecutors said.
Kylen Pratt was convicted Friday of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and possession of an instrument of crime, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said. Prosecutors described the murder of 20-year-old Naasire Johnson as a hate crime.
Johnson took an Uber to Pratt’s north Philadelphia home in the early morning hours of Feb. 17, 2022. When Johnson arrived, Pratt fatally shot him in the neck. Pratt wrapped Johnson’s body in plastic and tape and drove him to nearby Fairmount Park where he set the corpse on fire, prosecutors said. Two people walking a dog found Johnson’s badly burned body three days later. It took DNA analysis to identify the body as Johnson’s, prosecutors said.
Detectives turned their eyes on Pratt after receiving an anonymous tip. His cellphone records showed he was with Johnson and in the park at the time of the murder and when the body was burned. While searching his home cops found Johnson’s blood drenched in the carpet padding and hardwood floor. There was also a “sizable portion of the carpeting that had recently been heavily bleached,” according to prosecutors. Investigators also found the murder weapon in Pratt’s home.
Cops later found incriminating Google searches searching for news stories about the murder along with “traits of a psychopath,” “having sex with dead bodies,” and “killing in cold blood.”
“Make no mistake: The murder of Naasire Johnson was a hate crime. Kylen Pratt did not want anyone to know of his romantic involvement with the victim,” Assistant District Attorney Cydney Pope said in a statement.
Pratt was arrested in June 2022.
Johnson’s grandmother Cynthia Johnson said her grandson was a hard worker with a good heart.
“He was a lovable person. Everybody liked him,” she said during a press conference on Monday. “Sometimes I just force myself to go to sleep, my heart is torn into so many pieces.”
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