Pike County District Attorney Tom Anderson announced the sentencing of Mitchell Bernard Johnson of Troy for the forcible rape and sodomy of a 15-year-old female in the Springhill Community on Oct. 14, 2010.
A Pike County jury returned guilty verdicts for one count of rape in the first degree and one count of sodomy in the first degree against Johnson at the conclusion of his trial last December.
Last week, Circuit Judge Jeff W. Kelley sentenced Johnson to life without the possibility of parole in each conviction.
Assistant District Attorney Chris Kaminski said the sentences were the stiffest ones possible for the crimes and exactly what he’d asked for during the sentencing process.
“I’m very pleased,” he said.
District Attorney Anderson lauded the sentence handed down by the Court, saying that the strong sentence “gives this victim a sense of justice and further serves as a message to would-be offenders that this will not be tolerated in Pike County. Anyone who perpetrates such a crime in the Twelfth Circuit is going to spend many years behind bars and away from the public.”
The victim testified during the trial, but was not called upon during sentencing. Kaminski said the defense had questioned her extensively during the trial.
“We didn’t see the need to put her through it again,” he said.
Anderson further commended Investigator Troy Johnson of the Pike County Sheriff’s Office for his efforts in solving the case and Assistant District Attorneys Chris Kaminski and Jeff Moore for their prosecution of the case at trial and sentencing.