On-again, off-again boyfriend arrested in slaying of Warren mom earlier this month

Johncarlos Johnson fatally bludgeoned Shalisa O’Dell, the mother of his 2-year-old son, during an argument at her Warren home earlier this month over her relationship with another person, Warren Police Commissioner Jere Green said Monday.

Now, the 26-year-old Detroiter is being held in the Macomb County Jail on a $2-million bond on a second-degree murder charge. His preliminary exam is set for Jan. 7. Green said Johnson has no criminal history.

Green said O’Dell, 25, who worked as an exotic dancer in Highland Park and at a shoe store near her home, had an on-again, off-again relationship with Johnson.

“We’re told by friends and neighbors it’s been a pretty rocky relationship,” Green said. “There’s been a lot of aggression and violence in the past.”

That violence escalated to O’Dell’s death, but Green said police had not been called to the rental home in the six months that O’Dell lived there.

O’Dell’s cousin, who was caring for O’Dell’s son, found O’Dell’s bloodied, partially-clothed body Dec. 8 in the front room of the house in the 2100 block of Garrick near 9 Mile and Dequindre.

Police said O’Dell suffered several skull fractures. Green said police recovered the weapon believed to be used in the slaying, but he declined to say what it was. He said it was found in the home.