A24-year-old Washington state man who crept into a family’s home before dawn and shot a mother in the head while she slept next to her husband and young child has now been sentenced — and the details of the crime are as chilling as they come.
Christopher Johnson was handed a 25-year prison sentence this week after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Irah Sok, 36, a beloved local photographer known throughout the Everett area. Sok had just opened her own maternity and newborn photography studio only months before she was killed.
According to court records, Johnson and two accomplices forced their way into the Sok family home in the early hours of August 19, 2022 — sometime before 3 a.m. While Sok lay sleeping beside her husband and 7-year-old son, Johnson shot her in the head. He then forced her husband to the floor and bound him with zip ties.
The trio ransacked the home, stealing thousands of dollars in luxury items before fleeing. Sok’s husband managed to free himself and run for help. The young boy was physically unharmed.
Johnson’s 25-year sentence will run at the same time as a separate federal prison term tied to RICO charges — charges that revealed a pattern of organized, violent home invasions across Washington state. Prosecutors said Johnson and his associates would study targets on social media, surveil their homes, and then strike between 2 and 5 a.m., falsely announcing themselves as law enforcement to gain entry. Victims included children as young as 9 years old.
A federal judge recommended Johnson serve his time in the Washington state prison system. He also faces five years of supervised release following the completion of his sentence.
For the Sok family, no sentence can undo the loss of a wife, a mother, and an artist who had just begun the next chapter of her life.
