A Louisburg man was sentenced to over five years in prison for two counts of aggravated sexual battery. Twenty-three year-old Elijah Johnson had pled no contest on charges stemming from an incident that happened in July of 2022, with a victim being born in 2005 and a separate incident in October of 2022. He originally was charged with two counts of rape, one count of aggravated criminal sodomy and one count of aggravated battery. He pleaded not guilty to those charges, and a jury trial was scheduled to begin in late January in Miami County District Court. Just days before the trial, Johnson reached a deal in which he agreed to plead no contest to two modified counts of aggravated sexual battery instead of the rape charges.
A no contest plea allows a defendant to accept punishment without admitting guilt. The aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated battery charges were dismissed. District Judge Amy Harth sentenced Johnson to 32 months for each charge and ordered them to run consecutively for a total of 64 months, or five years and four months, in prison.
