HATTIESBURG, Miss. (Court TV) — A man was sentenced to life in prison after admitting to killing his girlfriend, whose body was found in her car.
(L) Bricen Rivers (Harrison County Sheriff’s Office), (R) Lauren Johansen (Provided to Scripps News Nashville)
Bricen Rivers, 25, pleaded guilty on Friday to capital murder; he had previously been indicted on charges of capital murder, taking possession of a motor vehicle and tampering with physical evidence in the death of Lauren Johansen.
Johansen was killed just days after Rivers had bonded out of jail in Nashville, Tennessee, on charges that he had assaulted her. In the assault case, the couple had been on vacation in Nashville when Rivers was found lying on top of the victim in a parked car. An 11-minute recording on Johansen’s phone revealed that Rivers had accused Johansen of having sex with another man before assaulting her. The recording featured Rivers taunting Johansen, who was heard gasping and crying.
Days after that assault, Rivers called Johansen from jail and gave her instructions about what to say to police; Johansen told officers she did not want to press charges.
Rivers posted a $150,000 bond and was released from custody on June 24, 2024. Under the conditions of his bond, he was ordered to wear a GPS device, not leave the county and not have any contact with Johansen. A filing error let Rivers walk out of jail without supervision; then the bonding company assigned the wrong type of monitor to the case. Four days later, Johansen’s body was found in her car, seven hours away in Mississippi.
“He threatened my daughter, Lauren, to kill her family, kill her dogs, and do anything to her animals,” the victim’s father, Lance Johansen, said after Rivers changed his plea on Friday, WLOX reported. “He would threaten her to do whatever he wanted…He manipulated her every way he could, and he is the lowest of the lowest person in the world.”
Rivers spoke briefly on his own behalf at the hearing. “I just wanna apologize for everything that’s happened throughout this process,” he said, WDAM reported. “Lauren didn’t deserve this, and I wanna apologize. That’s all I have to say.”
“You’re right. Lauren didn’t deserve this. No woman deserves this. No person deserves this,” Judge T. Michael Reed responded. “You’ll never walk out of that jail a free man, but I hope and pray that you take this time to get right with the Lord, because if you don’t, I know where you’re going to be, and that’s not a good place.”
Rivers’ guilty plea form, reviewed by Court TV, revealed that he was diagnosed with depression, PTSD and bipolar disorder.
