A former U.S. Army private, Austin Blair Johnson, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for two counts of assault resulting in serious bodily injury and one count of sexual abuse. This federal sentence will be served consecutively to a separate 15-year sentence Johnson is currently serving under Montana law for assaulting an infant.
Court documents show that on June 24, 2012, while stationed at Fort Belvoir, Johnson was caring for his newborn daughter, referred to as Minor Victim 1 (MV1), who was only 15 days old and born prematurely. After the infant began crying, Johnson forcefully shook her several times and then released her, causing her to fall and land on her head.
Johnson took MV1 to wake her mother, Adult Victim 1 (AV1), falsely claiming he had accidentally dropped the child but managed to break her fall. The parents brought MV1 to Fort Belvoir Community Hospital where she was found with bruises and bleeding. A CT scan revealed a fractured skull. She was transferred first to Walter Reed Medical Center’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for further treatment and remained hospitalized for ten days.
Upon discharge from the hospital, MV1 was again left in Johnson’s care while AV1 was out. During this time, Johnson shook and dropped MV1 once more when she was just 26 days old. The next day at a pediatric appointment at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, MV1 began having seizures and was sent back to the emergency room before being transferred to Children’s National Medical Center PICU. Doctors there identified additional injuries including another skull fracture and extensive brain damage.
Following these incidents, MV1 spent about 14 months in Child Protective Services custody before returning home. In June 2015, shortly after turning three years old, she underwent surgery that removed the entire left side of her brain due to uncontrollable seizures. As a result of her injuries, MV1 is now legally blind, non-verbal, paralyzed on her right side, and functions cognitively as a mature infant. Johnson has been ordered by the court to pay over $1.1 million in restitution.
In addition to the assaults on his daughter, prosecutors said that in 2013 at their Fort Belvoir residence, Johnson sexually assaulted AV1 after she refused his advances.
Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Reid Davis of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Criminal Division; and Jake Cameron of the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division announced the sentencing after Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton delivered it.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander E. Blanchard prosecuted the case.
Additional information can be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Court records are available through PACER by searching Case No. 1:24-cr-151.
