A former U.S. Army private stationed at Fort Belvoir has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for two counts of assaulting his infant daughter in 2012, as well as one count of sexual abuse.
Austin Blair Johnson pleaded guilty in June to permanently injuring his child and raping his wife, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton also ordered that Johnson must pay $1.1 million in restitution. The former U.S. Army private was living on base with his family at the time of the incidents. The sentence will be served consecutively with a 15-year sentence for assault of an infant in violation of Montana law, according to the DOJ.
On June 24, 2012, Johnson was taking care of his daughter, who was born prematurely 15 days earlier, and then forcefully shook her and dropped her on her head, according to court documents. He then woke his wife and told her that he accidentally dropped her, but broke the child’s fall with his foot.
Johnson and his wife took the child to the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital emergency room, and she had a fever, bruising, and a bloody mouth, according to court records. Doctors determined that she had a fractured skull, and she was placed in the hospital’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Walter Reed Medical Center, where she stayed for 10 days.
The day that the child was discharged, Johnson again shook the child, who was less than a month old, and dropped her. At a follow-up appointment at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, the child went into seizures and was sent to the emergency room, where doctors found extensive brain damage and another skull fracture, according to DOJ. The child was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services in July 2012 and was then returned to her parents 14 months later.
In 2013, while still living on base, Johnson sexually assaulted his wife, according to the DOJ. In 2015, shortly after her third birthday, the child underwent a hemispherectomy and had the left side of her brain removed to control her seizures.
“(The victim) is now legally blind, non-verbal, and the entire right side of her body is paralyzed,” DOJ said. “Cognitively, (the victim) functions at the level of a mature infant.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander E. Blanchard prosecuted the case.
