A Downey man was sentenced today to 12 years in prison for fatally stabbing a Long Beach man at a Norwalk home, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office announced today.
William Johnson, 38, pleaded no contest on November 19 to a felony count of voluntary manslaughter, and also admitted a special allegation that he personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, identified as a knife.
Prosecutor and Deputy District Attorney Don Syn said that Johnson and victim Darin Sivley, 53, of Long Beach, were at a friend’s house in Norwalk when Sivley began to irritate the homeowner, who wanted him to leave.
Johnson pulled out a knife and stabbed Sivley in the upper arm, leaving him with a puncture that severed a major artery. Sivley began bleeding profusely, the prosecutor said.
Sivley placed a tourniquet on his arm and left the home on his bicycle to go to the hospital, but he collapsed on the street and died. Two days after the incident, Johnson was arrested in connection with Sivley’s death and held on $1M bail.