Serial killer confesses to more murders he committed after Hurricane Katrina

A New Orleans serial killer has admitted murdering three more women in the city that was struggling with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Joseph Brant, 51, pleaded guilty last week to three counts of first-degree murder in a plea deal that spared him the death penalty. NOLA reports.

It was the conclusion of a year-long trial marked by delays and disruptions in the courtroom. Even as Brant entered his final plea last week, he threw a tantrum in court when he called one of his lawyers “accused a two-legged dog.” SF Gate reports. The plea came three years after a 2018 confession in which he admitted murdering three women in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans. He confessed to killing a sex worker, who was never publicly identified, in 2007 before the murder Jody Johnson, 47 and Kirsten Brydum, 25, the following year.

He raped the first victim at knifepoint before strangling her. He then doused her with gasoline and set her on fire in a car. Months later, in early 2008, Brant sexually assaulted Johnson, a former Georgia cheerleader, at gunpoint. He then shot her and set her body on fire. Months later, in the fall of 2008, he killed Brydum, a community activist from San Francisco who was visiting New Orleans during a cross-country trip. He sexually assaulted her before shooting her in the head. Brant said he got into a car accident while on his way to buy gas to burn her body and instead left her on a road.

Brant was previously sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a fourth woman. 32-year-old botanist Jessica Hawk, whom he murdered in her Bywater home in 2008. He also took a plea deal in that case and admitted second-degree murder in 2016.

The serial killer’s next court appearance is scheduled for June 1, where the families of Brydum and Johnson are expected to read victim impact statements.

“My sister and I look alike,” Jana Wood told NOLA of her plans to attend. “I want him to think he’s seeing a ghost. I just want him to know how much he took from me.”