Mom of slain Vegas teen wants daughter’s death to have as much meaning as teen’s life

There’s hardly a moment Susan Johnson doesn’t think about her daughter in the year since the teenager’s death.

“It’s day by day, hour by hour,” the grieving mother told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Fond memories about Jazlynn Johnson, 18, hit in waves, she said. Constant reminders of her passing hurt.

“There’s just so many things out there that you never thought would be negatively triggering,” Susan Johnson said. “I still get physically ill some days, like truly physically ill.”

Each of her daughter’s close friends described her as their best friend, the mother said. She was the person they could count on to steer them in the right direction, giving them stern advice when needed.

Another mother told Susan Johnson that the teen had saved her daughter’s life multiple times “by talking her through really difficult times.”

‘It was an accident’

Jazlynn Johnson was two weeks shy from graduating Bonanza High School — planning to become a cosmetologist — when she was shot while hanging out in her car with 17-year-old Cesar Sandoval early on May 6, 2024, near St. Louis Avenue and 17th Street.

The shooter fled home and confessed to his parents, who turned him in to the Metropolitan Police Department.

“It was an accident,” he told his parents, according to arresting documents. “I did something wrong; I shot my friend.”

The teen told detectives that he didn’t know where the weapon was.

Initially charged with murder, possession of an unregistered gun and destruction of evidence, Sandoval pleaded guilty in late August to involuntary manslaughter.

He was sentenced to 14 to 48 months in prison with credit for time served, District Court records show. Sandoval recently appeared in front of his first parole board and is awaiting a decision about a possible release.

His attorney, Jess Marchese, said Sandoval maintained the shooting was accidental.

“He genuinely liked her,” Marchese said about Jazlynn Johnson. “There was no ill will. It’s just a very, very unfortunate accident.”

Susan Johnson said she’d met the boy, who’d been to the home she shared with her daughter.

“They were friends for several months, and it was common for them to get together and spend time in their car,” the mother said. “I even said to her, what do you guys do?”

“We listen to music, we eat food, we talk about things,” Jazlynn would tell her.

Susan Johnson said she will likely never know what happened inside the car.

“I do not believe that he set out that night to murder my child,” she said. “I do believe that his actions caused her death and it is a homicide. He made so many wrong choices that night that were all preventable.”

Why was Sandoval carrying a loaded gun, wonders Susan Johnson, adding that “the gun went off through no involvement” of her daughter.

‘She was very bright’

Jazlynn Johnson, born and raised in Las Vegas, was an inquisitive child who knew right from wrong from a young age. She was close with her older brother, who is four years older.

“She was so sure of herself” and had a keen sense of humor, her mother said. “Her mannerisms and things that she would do and say, facial expressions … she was very bright.”

She liked to make her own money, working her first job at age 15. She wanted to pay her way through cosmetology school.

The teen advocated for social justice causes, once refusing to buy a makeup kit because the company didn’t offer enough shades of color.

She loved “Hello Kitty,” rap artist Nicki Minaj and Raising Cane’s chicken. Susan Johnson has saved TikTok videos that show her and her friends flashing wide smiles as they danced in coordination.

Jazlynn Johnson enjoyed thrifting clothes and diving into mega bins of clearance items sold by Goodwill stores.

Taking high school courses in middle school, Jazlynn Johnson finished her curriculum months before her high school graduation. She was one of the only people in her friend group with a driver’s license.

She had started driving for a food-delivery application.

She attended prom a couple of weeks before her death. Her memorial photos show Jazzlyn posing with the black dress she’d been very happy with.

‘Jazlynn’s Legacy’

Susan Johnson, a Clark County School District administrator, who’d been an elementary school principal prior to losing her daughter, wants her daughter’s death to matter just as her life did.

She recently begun researching local gun violence data and wants to advocate for gun safety. She’s looking to resurrect a local chapter of the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children. She wants lawmakers to strengthen Marcy’s Law, which advocates for survivors.

She hopes to start a network so that other grieving parents don’t have to navigate the criminal justice system alone.

Susan Johnson said that, for example, she found out her daughter was dead with a card left by the Clark County coroner’s office at her door informing they were there to talk about her daughter.

She’s raised $4,000 for a “Jazlynn’s Legacy” cosmetology scholarship and published the “Justice 4 Jazlynn” website with information about her daughter and ways to prevent other gun-related tragedies.

No way ‘to describe’ the loss

Susan Johnson misses her “confidant” and her distinct laughter.

She knows her life will never again be the same and has to get used to the idea that her daughter is gone but hopes that the unbearable pain subsides, she said.

Susan Johnson said the current graduation season has been particularly rough on her as will be the upcoming Mother’s Day.

Jazlynn Johnson’s graduation diploma and her gold cap and gown sit on a coffee table alongside a birthday sash. Gifts the teen’s friends gave her in the aftermath of her death are proudly displayed in the living room.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t say, ‘I love you’ out loud to her,” she said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think something, whether it’s funny or sad. … It’s almost hour by hour still, even though it’s been a year.”

Added Susan Johnson: “She made a huge impact on so many people, and there’s not really a way to describe the loss, because it’s just a huge hole.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at [email protected].