Judge sentences Joanthony Johnson to 100 years
UPDATE 4:28 P.M.: Johnson was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
Judge Jeff Harris delivered the sentence around 3:30 p.m., after more than three hours of consideration. He sentenced Johnson to 25 years on the four counts of rape and sodomy to run consecutively. He handed down a four-year sentence for attempted sexual assault to run at the same time.
Prosecutor Dan Knight told reporters he was pleased with the decision. The sentence assures that Johnson will remain in prison for the foreseeable future.
Johnson’s mother, Norma Chapman, declined to comment after the hearing on Thursday. She had previously told ABC 17 News that they plan to appeal his conviction.
Johnson told Harris before the end of the hearing that he had problems with the way his defense attorney, Sarah Aplin, handled the case. Aplin went on maternity leave four months before the start of the trial. Johnson said he only spoke with her once between then and the April jury trial, and said she did not bring up evidence or call witnesses he felt would have helped his case.
Aplin declined to comment after the hearing because of the potential for appeal in the case.
While Chapman questioned the validity of the four victims’ stories, Knight said he felt justice was done by them with the 100-year sentence. Each of the women had met Johnson at a bar, then went back to his apartment to do drugs. Chapman said she did not condone her son recording the sex on his phone, but said some scrutiny should be put on the women.
“Nobody takes into consideration the other half of the drugs and the alcohol,” Chapman said. “If there’s fault, there’s both ways.”
“They have a right to go out to a bar and to feel safe,” Knight said in response to that argument. “They have a right to not be duped. They have a right to not be drugged.”
ORIGINAL STORY: A Boone County judge will soon hand down a sentence for a man convicted of five sex crimes.
A jury found Joanthony Johnson guilty on two counts of rape, two counts of sodomy and one count of attempted rape in April. Prosecutor Dan Knight accused Johnson of giving at least four women drugs before having sex with them while they were incapacitated. Johnson and his defense attorney said the sex was consensual.
Knight recommended Judge Jeff Harris to sentence Johnson to life in prison for one of the rapes, along with 154 years for the four other crimes. Knight said Johnson’s assaults were calculated due to his knowledge of how drugs, like highly-concentrated THC, would affect the women that came back to his downtown apartment.
Defense attorney Sarah Aplin asked the judge for 20 years in prison. State law mandates the rape and sodomy sentences run consecutive to one another, and Aplin asked for the minimum sentence allowed on each count.
Johnson’s mother, Norma Chapman, spoke to the court Thursday morning. She denied that her son would ever hurt a woman, saying she raised her son to respect people and authority. Several other family members testified after her about Johnson’s upbringing, and the importance they put on education.
Harris said at 12:30 p.m. he would take time to consider the evidence both Knight and Aplin presented in the two-day hearing before making a decision.
This is a developing story. ABC 17 News will bring you the sentence decision on this page when it is made.
