Main: Darriynn Brown in a Dallas court in October 2025 (Court TV). Inset: Cash Ganon (Magnolia Funeral Home).
A 22-year-old man in Texas may spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing a 4-year-old boy shortly after kidnapping him as he slept next to his twin brother.
Darriynn Brown on Monday admitted to fatally stabbing the child, just minutes before jurors were to be selected to decide whether he was guilty of murdering young Cash Ganon in 2021, court records show.
Brown, who was facing a charge of capital murder, reached a deal with prosecutors and agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of first-degree murder in the boy”s slaying. Following his formal plea, Dallas County District Judge Stephanie N. Huff immediately ordered Brown to serve a sentence of life in a state correctional facility, though the convicted killer will have the opportunity for parole.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Cash’s body was found in the 7500 block of Saddleridge Drive, about a half-mile from his family’s home in Dallas on May 15, 2021. Authorities said they obtained surveillance footage showing Brown grabbing Cash as he slept in a crib next to his twin brother.
Brown carried Cash for about eight blocks then repeatedly stabbed the boy, ultimately killing him before dropping his body in the middle of the street.
The jogger who came across the boy’s body said she initially thought it was the body of an animal before realizing it was a child.
“I remember looking at his poor body and I remember seeing ants on the bottom of his feet,” she reportedly told local CBS affiliate KTVT, adding that she “can’t unsee what she saw.”
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
“The closer I get to it I can tell it’s a human because I see a hand and I see legs. Very traumatizing. I have three kids. To see a child covered in blood in the middle of the street, it’s truly traumatizing,” she said.
An additional video obtained by authorities reportedly showed Brown returning to boys’ room after Cash was already dead, hovering over the crib, and presumably contemplating stealing Cash’s twin brother, but ultimately deciding against it.
Brown was arrested hours after the boy’s body was found. In addition to the incriminating surveillance footage, authorities said that three items recovered from Brown’s room all tested positive for the victim’s blood. Those items were a pair of black sunglasses, a black Adidas hoodie like the one worn by the kidnapper in the surveillance footage, and a pair of black tennis shoes.
Brown was also accused of attempting to “take” another child several months earlier, in February 2021, but the alleged victim declined to press charges.
According to the affidavit obtained by KTVT, Brown made his way into a man’s home and began to rifle through various rooms and closets. The man claimed that he picked up a kitchen knife and brandished it in Brown’s direction while demanding that the suspect leave the premises. The defendant allegedly left after that but only briefly. According to the affidavit, Brown returned and began kicking at an interior door between the house and the garage on the property — prompting the homeowner to open the door to see what was going on. After that, the man claimed Brown punched him in the forehead.
The homeowner, a grandfather, claimed that Brown then walked into the living room where his 2-year-old granddaughter was sleeping. Brown allegedly grabbed the girl and tried to take her away towards the laundry room. The man said he at first pleaded with Brown to let the girl go but was ignored. The girl was then ripped from Brown’s grasp by the grandfather, the affidavit claimed.
In a statement to police, the man said his granddaughter was “startled and began crying when she awoke to Brown holding her.”
The grandfather initially declined to press charges after Brown apologized, police said.
“[H]e was sorry for breaking into his house and trying to take his grandchild,”a police report said, describing Brown’s apology that reportedly occurred two weeks after the alleged attempted kidnapping.
After Cash Gernon was killed, however, the grandfather of the 2-year-old girl decided to press charges.
