(WSB Radio)  It's been almost four years since seven-year-old Timothy Johnson, Jr. was shot and killed in a home invasion.  A suspect was arrested a few weeks later.  Today, that suspect was formally arraigned.

"This thing is dragging on," says LaMonica Johnson, the boy's mother.  "It hurts.  Emotionally.  Mentally.  It's going to be four years and I'm still having to deal with this.  I'm ready to put it behind me.  I'm ready to put it behind me and deal with it."

Willie Kelsey was arrested in December of 2007 and charged in the crime, which took place in September of that year.

According to DeKalb County police, Kelsey entered the Johnson home and shot the boy, execution-style, while he slept.  Kelsey then, according to police, shot Timothy's 15-year-old sister in the back of the head while she slept.  The girl survived.

The delays in the case stem from Kelsey's changing his attorneys several times, along with the District Attorneys office seeking the death penalty.

But the long delays are too much for the Johnsons.

"We're just seeking justice and it seems like it's never going to come," Timothy Johnson, Sr., said outside the DeKalb County courthouse following today's arraignment.  "I don't know what to do at this point."

LaMonica Johnson says she'd accept a plea deal from Kelsey if it meant getting the legal process over with.

"It's taken too long," she says.  "Four years, to me, is too long.  Four years is a long time to deal with the death of my child.  Four years is a long time to grieve.  It's a long time."

More motions hearings are expected throughout this year and then, perhaps sometime in 2012, the case will finally go to trial.

For the Johnsons, it can't come soon enough.

"We're suffering for what he did," says LaMonica Johnson.  "I lost my child."