Fairton Federal Prison Inmate Charged with Murder in Cellmate's 2025 Death

The man died in March 2025, the day after prison staff found him in his cell. The murder charge came 20 months later.

William Vontrail Johnson, 39, of Oklahoma City, is charged by criminal complaint with one count of murder in the death of his cellmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, the federal prison in Cumberland County, U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer's office announced Friday, Nov. 6. Officials have not publicly named the man who died.

According to federal prosecutors, Bureau of Prisons staff found the cellmate unresponsive on March 4, 2025. He was not breathing and had no pulse. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead the next day. A forensic pathologist found puncture wounds to his head, neck and chest and ruled the death a homicide, prosecutors said.

The complaint lays out what prosecutors say Johnson told the FBI himself. According to the charges, he said he tried to choke his cellmate and stopped when he believed the man was dead. When the man started breathing again, Johnson allegedly told agents, he tried to kill him in other ways, including stabbing him with a pencil. At the time, Johnson was already serving a federal sentence for child sex trafficking imposed in the Western District of Oklahoma, prosecutors said.

Johnson made his first appearance last week in federal court in Camden before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth A. Pascal. The case was investigated by the FBI's Newark office and the Bureau of Prisons' Special Investigative Services.

The murder charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge is an accusation, and Johnson is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty. No trial date has been announced.

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey. Originally reported by RLS Media.

Photo: Federal Correctional Institution, Fairton. U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons / Wikimedia Commons (public domain).