BARTOW, Fla. (WTXL) - A Florida teen has been sentenced to 75 years in prison for helping his older brothers brutally beat and sodomize a man their mother accused of raping her.
According to a press release from the office of the State Attorney of the 10th Judicial Circuit, Nathan Johnson was 16 when the incident happened.
Associated Press reports 31-year-old Robert Banks was lured to his home in Lakeland after their mother, who was dating Banks, accused him of raping her.
“They were lying in wait inside the house,” said Assistant State Attorney Mark Levine. “When confronted about the baseless accusation of the sexual battery of their mother, Banks said he absolutely did not touch her.”
However, Johnson and his brothers continued to beat Banks up.
According to Levine, Johnson and his friends would run across the room to kick him as hard as they could in the face and in the head, shattering his face in the process. A co-defendant then grabbed a pipe and split his head open.
Prosecutors said Johnson, his older brothers and their friend then sexually assaulted Banks with a flashlight, before strangling him with an electrical cord. They, along with Johnson's father, took the body into the woods and set it on fire in January 2016.
Johnson was also sentenced to 40 years for sexual battery, 15 years for corpse abuse, and five years for tampering with evidence, all to run concurrent with the 75 year sentence. He was also labeled a sexual predator.
Two co-defendants in the case, Anthony Johnson and Michael Allen Gunn, got life sentences, while Brian Johnson Jr. could be facing life in prison during his sentencing on September 6.
Brian Johnson Sr., the Johnson brother's father, got eight years in prison for being an accessory and corpse abuse.
