Deandre Foster Sentenced to 200 Years to Life for 2021 Double Homicide

Published on March 14, 2025

On March 14, 2025, Deandre Marquelez Foster (28, Fresno, CA) was sentenced to two hundred (200) years to life in state prison for the double murder of Michelle Johnson (50, Fresno, CA) and Charlotte Ethridge (21, Fresno, CA) at a residence in the City of Fresno on April 9, 2021. Foster’s sentence was handed down by Judge Gary Orozco of the Fresno County Superior Court following a plea agreement reached on September 10, 2024. Foster pled no contest to two counts of murder, admitting both personal gun enhancements causing great bodily injury and/or death, and acknowledging two prior strike convictions from 2013 and 2017.

On April 9, 2021, Michelle Johnson went to check on her goddaughter, Charlotte Ethridge, after hearing a disturbance inside Charlotte’s residence. Deandre Foster confronted Michelle in the doorway of the residence, and a verbal dispute ensued. Foster shot and killed Michelle in the breezeway of the complex, then turned the firearm toward Charlotte, shooting and killing her inside the residence. Foster fled the scene but was apprehended by the Fresno Police Department on April 11, 2021.

Foster has an extensive criminal history dating back to 2009. He has two prior strike convictions for robbery from 2013 and 2017. In addition to the strike convictions, he had also been convicted of multiple gun possession charges in 2016 and 2019. At the time of the double homicide, Foster was on Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS). While in custody at the Fresno County Jail, and awaiting trial for the homicide charges, Foster assaulted another inmate in 2023 and was charged with battery causing serious bodily injury (Penal Code §243(d)). He pled no contest to the charge on October 30, 2024 and was sentenced to three years in state prison on December 2, 2024.

The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office would like to thank the Fresno Police Department for their investigative work and dedication to this case.

This case was successfully prosecuted by Senior Deputy District Attorney David Olmos of the Homicide Unit, with assistance from Senior District Attorney Investigator Liz Cisneros from the office’s Bureau of Investigations.

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