Mailos Found Guilty of Murder and Gets Near Two-Decade Sentence—Classic Hits 100.7 KLOG NEws

There has been a conviction in the deadly 2024 stabbing involving two R.A. Long students at Lake Sacajawea Park.

The Cowlitz County Prosecutor’s Office says that after a two-week trial, a Cowlitz County jury found 18-year-old Johnson Mailos guilty of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement. The jury also found that Mailos killed 16-year-old Brayden Barber with deliberate cruelty.

Mailos, who was 17 when he committed the crime, received an 18-year sentence. Previously, the state was pushing for 27 years, while Mailos’s attorney asked for just under eight years. The reason for the shorter-than-initially-pushed-for sentence was because the court found that Mailos’s “youthfulness” did play a role in the murder.

On February 21, 2024, a fight reportedly occurred between Mailos’s friend and Barber at the Lake Sacajawea basketball courts. Video surveillance showed Barber running to exit the court afterward, and Mailos pursued him and stabbed him in the chest with a knife. This eventually led to Barber’s death.