Judge sentences Pennsylvania man who killed gay lover to hide their sexual relationship

A Pennsylvania man who killed his male lover and dumped the burned body in a public park to hide their sexual relationship learned his sentence in a Philadelphia courtroom on Friday.

Kylen Pratt, 23, was convicted last week of the murder of Naasire Johnson, 20. Pratt shot Johnson once in the neck shortly after the young man had arrived in an Uber at the Pratt's residence in the early morning hours of Feb. 17, 2022. Johnson’s burned remains were found later that day on a remote trail in Philadelphia’s Fairmont Park.

Cell phone data presented at the trial showed Pratt searched Google using the terms “traits of a psychopath,” “killing in cold blood,” and “having sex with dead bodies.”

Police and prosecutors had long contended the murder was a hate crime committed by Pratt to hide his sexual relationship with Johnson. Police said the two men were romantically involved and Pratt, known locally as 29th Street Rich, killed the openly gay Naasir after the man threatened to go public with their relationship, Metro Weekly reported at the time.

On Friday, a jury agreed with prosecutors on all charges and convicted Pratt of First-Degree Murder, Abuse of Corpse, Tampering with Evidence, and Possession of an Instrument of Crime.

Judge Giovanni O. Campbell then gave Pratt a mandatory sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole, followed by an additional sentence of up to nine years.

“Make no mistake: the murder of Naasire Johnson was a hate crime,” Cynthia Pope, assistant district attorney, said in a press release announcing the conviction and sentencing. “Kylen Pratt did not want anyone to know of his romantic involvement with the victim.”

“These types of crimes are not just individual tragedies. They infect entire communities,” Minister Sultan Hakeem Pitts of Interfaith Community said in a statement. “LGBTQIA people, especially Black and Brown people, are disproportionately impacted by these hate crimes, causing our community profound and lasting mental health challenges. And while this moment does bring some small form of closure, no sentence can fully heal the pain caused by Naasire’s tragic death. He was and is a full person and more than just a name, with love, with light, with intelligence, and with potential. His death has left an indelible mark upon our hearts.”

In a 2022 interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Johnson’s grandmother, Cynthia Johnson, she had raised Naasir since he was a year old, and that the two shared all their meals. Her grandson’s murder left her devasted.

“I’m in the process of trying to move because it was just him and me here, together,” she said at the time. “Every time I wake up and see his picture and I start crying. I can't eat, I can't sleep.”