Kenn Johnson was a 26-year-old man from Albuquerque who was kidnapped and murdered on January 28, 1980, alongside 21-year-old Noel Johnson. The killings were part of a series of violent offenses attributed to William Wayne Gilbert, who was arrested January 19, 1980, after a shooting at a local sandwich shop and later confessed to six murders, including Kenn and Noel.

Gilbert’s trial produced convictions for first-degree murder, kidnapping, and criminal sexual penetration; the jury found aggravating circumstances and imposed death sentences for each murder, plus consecutive terms for the other kidnappings and sexual assaults. The convictions and sentences were upheld on appeal, though in November 1986 Governor Toney Anaya later commuted all death sentences in New Mexico to life imprisonment.

Kenn’s murder was prosecuted with Gilbert’s confession admitted at trial and remains tied to a broader pattern of violent crimes that drew extensive litigation and appeals.