COLUMBUS, Ohio - Robert Jarrod Johnson, 33, most recently of Columbus, Ohio, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 50 months in prison and five years of supervised release for failure to comply with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Peter Tobin, U.S. Marshal, Southern District of Ohio, announced the sentence handed down yesterday by Senior U.S. District Judge Peter C. Economus.
According to court documents, Johnson was convicted of Second Degree Rape of a female juvenile in North Carolina in 2001. For at least the next 30 years, he was ordered to register as a sex offender in any state in which he lived or worked. Johnson moved to Columbus, Ohio and obtained employment and an Ohio state ID card, but never registered as a sex offender in Ohio. He was indicted in December 2014 on a federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act violation and pleaded guilty to that offense in February 2015.
During the course of the case, investigators discovered that between May 2013 and October 2013, Johnson allegedly committed multiple sex offenses against a girl between the ages of 12 and 13 in Columbus, Ohio, during the period in which he was not registering as a sex offender. Judge Economus ruled that it was appropriate to increase Johnson’s sentence based on that conduct.
In April 2015, Johnson was indicted in Franklin County on counts of Rape, Gross Sexual Imposition, and Unlawful Sexual Conduct with a Minor. That case remains pending. An indictment merely contains allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the investigation by Senior Inspector Nicole Ralston, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Brian Martinez, who represented the United States in this case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
