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Every morning between the hours of 3:30-3:45 am, Renata Flot- Patterson, is awake. Her mind and body revisits the traumatic hour when her daughter and 7-month-old grandson, were shot and killed. Like many victims of homicide, Keli Mornay and Brixx Mornay Johnson knew their assailant; he was Keli’s ex- boyfriend Brixx’s biological father.
In the early morning of June 6, 2021, Byrain Johnson entered Kelli’s home by shattering the glass sliding door in her bedroom. The shattering sound woke Kelli’s older sons. The oldest (age 13) escaped out the front door with his cell phone and called his grandmother and 911 and the younger (age 10) heard his mom scream and arrived in the doorway to witness the shooting of his mom at point blank range in the head. He immediately turned and ran out the front door where his older brother called him for safety.
When Ms. Patterson couldn’t reach her grandson, she called her daughter’s phone which was answered by Byrain. He immediately admitted that he had killed Keli and declared that “we’re all about to be dead.” Byrain shot their son Brixx, and then used the gun to shoot himself. The infant was taken to the local hospital and died before being transported to the Children’s hospital.
Keli had tried to establish a life free of Byrain’s abuse. In February 2020, she ended the relationship when there was a domestic violence incident with him, and she learned that it was not his first. Byrain had a prior criminal record having served six months in jail for domestic violence charges that involved him kidnapping and holding his ex-wife hostage for three days where he pistol-whipped her, stripped her naked and basically
Putting a Face to Domestic Violence:
Keli Mornay’s Story
left her for dead. The same month, Keli learned of Byrain’s past, she also discovered that she was pregnant with his child. In her journals, Keli memorialized the physical and mental abuse she experienced at the hands of Byrain including threats of harm to her children and mother. Over the course of their relationship, Byrain had held a gun to Keli’s head and a knife to her throat twice. She had called the police on him several times for many incidents, yet he was never arrested on any occasion.
On May 24, 2021, twelve days prior to Keli’s and Brixx’s murder, Byrain physically assaulted Keli at her Biloxi home. He kidnapped and threatened to kill Brixx and himself. This threat was witnessed and recorded by a Biloxi police officer during the standoff at his home in Gulfport where the police convinced him to return Baby Brixx to Keli, the full custodial parent. Following the incident, Byrain was taken for a psychiatric evaluation, not arrested, and within six hours he was released and immediately started calling Keli. The next morning on May 25, 2021, she took the next steps and filed charges against him as well as obtained a temporary protective order. She was awaiting the permanent protective order hearing scheduled for June 7th, 2021, when she was killed.
Less than 36 hours prior to the protective order hearing on the early morning hours of Sunday, June
6th, 2021, Byrain took matters
into his own hands. Feeling
the loss of power and control of Keli and their relationship, he went to her home and at 3:45 am murdered her and Baby Brixx leaving a void in the family. Ms. Flot-Patterson wakes up every morning at that deadly hour. She now spends her days sharing her daughter’s experience to implement positive change, education, and awareness as it relates to domestic violence. She shares interviews of victims and survivors so other domestic violence victims may see how
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