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Paso Robles man accused of murdering pregnant girlfriend headed to trial

February 23, 2021

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

A San Luis Obispo judge ruled last week enough evidence exists for a rural Paso Robles man to stand trial for the murder of his girlfriend and the couple’s unborn baby.

In 2019, Daniel Raul Rodriguez Johnson, 33, allegedly stabbed his girlfriend multiple times, killing her and the baby. Johnson’s girlfriend, Carrington Jane Broussard, 27, was nine months pregnant at the time and was scheduled to have a a C-section the week Johnson allegedly killed her.

Authorities discovered Broussard’s body at the couple’s Heritage Ranch area home after Johnson fled law enforcement in a stolen CHP vehicle.

Johnson is charged with two counts of murder, as well as charges of carjacking, evading a peace officer, theft of a law enforcement vehicle, resisting arrest and exhibiting a deadly weapon. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Daniel Raul Rodriguez Johnson

Early in the morning on March 3, 2019, a homeowner reported Johnson had crashed his car into a mailbox and through a fence on York Mountain Road in Templeton.

While officers spoke with an ambulance driver, Johnson commandeered a CHP patrol vehicle and headed westbound on Highway 46. Johnson left his and Broussard’s 2-year-old and 4-year-old children at the crash site.

Officers deployed spike strips and successfully stopped the CHP vehicle on northbound Highway 1. Johnson, however, fled into dense brush with a knife he took from the CHP vehicle.

After officers shot Johnson with multiple bean bag rounds, they managed to take him into custody. As part of the investigation, sheriff’s deputies went into the couple’s home in the 2800 block of Sorrel Lane in the Heritage Ranch area and found Broussard’s body.

Last Thursday, Judge Craig van Rooyen ruled enough evidence exists for Johnson to stand trial. Johnson’s next court hearing is scheduled for March 8.


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1 in 3 homeless are schizophrenic. This act of tragedy was not done by a sane person, no one helped, the signs had to have been there, what could a young vulnerable mother do?. This is a situation where people fell through the cracks. No cop, Gov, Sherriff, Neighbor saved the children from trauma, the 2 dead, the law enforcement and first responders trauma. This happens EVERY day everywhere. We chastise it, the mentally ill, vs, facilitate and guide it to be normalcy. 1 in 3, think of that, cant just kill people, you need medication, SOCIAL SERVICES, for the mentally Ill. This isnt Nazi Germany.


1

Every time I drive by that house it reminds me of the horror that occurred there, and my thoughts go to the surviving children.


10

Dito. The children who lived suffered unimaginable trauma under the hands if their Mentally Ill father; murderer.


4