Ex-model sentenced to 12 years for killing man he met on gay dating app

Former model, 43, who killed a man in a stabbing frenzy after meeting him on gay dating app Jack’d is sentenced to 12 years in prison

  • David Keegan Riotto Haigh, 43, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a Brooklyn court on Thursday
  • He was convicted of fatally stabbing James Johnson Jr., 41, in April 2017
  • The pair met on gay dating app Jack’d and arranged to meet up in Manhattan
  • They returned to Johnson’s Brooklyn apartment after a 48-hour bender 
  • Haigh had claimed Johnson attacked him when he tried to leave
  • The victim was found with a knife sticking out of his chest and bite marks over his body  

A former model who killed a man he met on a gay dating app has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. 

David Keegan Riotto Haigh, 43, was convicted of killing James Johnson Jr. in a stabbing frenzy inside the victim’s Brooklyn apartment in April 2017. 

Haigh was sentenced on Thursday in a Brooklyn court after a jury found him guilty of first-degree manslaughter.

Prior to his sentence being handed down, prosecutors read several victim impact statements from Johnson’s family saying they were heartbroken of the 41-year-old’s death. 

David Keegan Riotto Haigh, 43, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a Brooklyn court on Thursday for the fatal 2017 stabbing of James Johnson Jr.

‘Manslaughter is a fitting term for what you did. You slaughtered James,’ his sister Loretta Johnson Monroe wrote in her statement. 

‘You showed him no mercy when you put a knife to his heart and a knife to ours.’ 

Haigh has claimed that he acted in self defense when he killed Johnson, saying that the victim had attacked him inside the Brooklyn apartment on April 9, 2017.

He addressed the court during his sentencing, saying he did what an reasonable person would have done if they feared for their life. 

Haigh tearfully told the judge that he remained at the scene, called 911 and cooperated with police and EMTs. 

Haigh and Johnson organized to see each other in Manhattan after meeting on Jack’d – a dating app for gay men. 

They went back to the victim’s apartment after embarking on a 48-hour bender. 

James Johnson Jr., 41, was stabbed to death inside his Brooklyn apartment after meeting Haigh on a gay dating app a few days earlier

James Johnson Jr., 41, was stabbed to death inside his Brooklyn apartment after meeting Haigh on a gay dating app a few days earlier

Haigh is a former model who was working as an interior decorator at the time of the killing

Haigh, who was an interior decorator at the time and lived in Philadelphia, claimed Johnson attacked him when he tried to leave the home. 

He dialed 911 at 4.42am and again at 5.58am to report the stabbing. 

When first responders arrived, they found Johnson on his back in a pool of blood with a knife sticking out of the left side of his chest. 

The autopsy noted bite marks on Johnson’s chest and body hair between his teeth. 

Police found a broken mirror in the apartment and the flat screen TV known onto the floor. A glass table had also been tipped over and a drawer of silverware was turned over.  

Haigh’s face was covered in bruises and his finger was injured by a bite. 

The jury rejected Haigh’s claim that he was acting in self defense when he fatally stabbed Johnson. 

His attorney said he would appeal the sentence.  

Haigh, who claimed he acted in self defense, addressed the court during his sentencing, saying he did what an reasonable person would have done if they feared for their life

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk