Man who shot sleeping mom in the head as 7-year-old son lay in bed next to her learns his fate

Background: News coverage of the murder of Irah Sok (KCPQ). Inset: Irah Sok (Instagram).

A Washington state man who admitted to murdering a mother while she slept next to her husband and young son has learned his fate.

Christopher Johnson, 24, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Tuesday, months after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the death of 36-year-old Irah Sok. Johnson's 25-year sentence will run concurrently with a sentence handed down by a U.S. District Court judge in connection with RICO charges stemming from a string of armed robberies and other violent crimes that took place in Washington state. The guilty plea on the murder charge out of Washington's Snohomish County came as part of the federal plea agreement.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington said the judge recommended that Johnson serve his sentence in the Washington state prison system.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Sok was in bed sleeping alongside her husband and 7-year-old son during the early morning hours of Aug. 19, 2022. Johnson and two of his alleged cohorts entered the Sok home before 3 a.m. Johnson shot Sok in the head then forced Sok's husband to the ground and restrained him with zip ties.

After Johnson and the other suspects "ransacked the victim's belongings and stole thousands of dollars' worth of luxury possessions," they fled the scene. Sok's husband was then able to escape and run for help; the little boy was uninjured.

Sok was a well-known photographer in the Everett, Washington, area who specialized in maternity and newborn photography. She opened up her own studio just months before her death.

Federal prosecutors said Johnson, along with his co-defendants, would research targets on social media and case their homes before striking. A typical operation, according to the indictment, would take place between 2 and 5 a.m., and participants would falsely announce themselves as law enforcement as they made entry.

More from Law&Crime: Mom shot dead as she slept next to her 7-year-old and husband during home invasion

Prosecutors said, "They wore masks and used zip ties to restrain the victims — including children as young as [9 years old]. They would steal any valuables they could ransack from these homes."

Johnson's federal sentence for the RICO charges, to which he pleaded guilty in February, also includes five years of supervised release.