Columbia County DA fights to keep serial rapist in prison

***WARNING: The following details are graphic, and may be considered disturbing for some readers.***

EVANS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The Columbia County District Attorney Bobby Christine is asking for the public’s help to keep convicted a serial rapist in prison.

In a press release issued on Friday, District Attorney Christine says he is hitting the “alert button” and has released an open letter to the public appealing for signatures to keep Willie Lee Johnson, 61, in prison.

In 1986, Johnson was 24-years-old when convicted of several crimes the sexual assaults of two women and the attempted rape of a third. He was sentenced to five consecutive life-in-prison with an additional 40 years stacked on top.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole has agreed to grant tentative clemency, which means that, after 37 years, he may walk free.

READ THE LETTER:

On May 6, 1986, Johnson pretended to sell cleaning supplies in order to get into homes. On May 27, he tried a different approach.

“This is the sort of predator that we build prisons to hold,” said Christine.

In 1986, a jury found that Johnson had obtained a military uniform disguised himself as a soldier at (then) Fort Gordon, and preyed on the wives of men stationed at the base.

“This predator bound, gagged, violated, brutalized, raped, sodomized, burglarized, and robbed of our community, one of them was four months pregnant,” Christine said in his letter.

This isn’t the first time the DA’s office has tried to prevent his release.

In 2022, they sent a letter to the parole board.

Christine says this time they need something more powerful — the community.

Christine says that justice demands truth in sentencing and that Johnson’s five life were issued as consecutive, meaning end-to-end, one after another. Christine adds that the Board of Pardons and Paroles has a responsibility to protect the public and not nullify a jury’s decision and a judge’s sentence.

“In nearly 30 years of practicing law, I have never read facts more disturbing, sickening, and terrifying than the facts adduced at trial. The three brave ladies resolved they wouldn’t let another be harmed by Johnson. Despite all the reasons not to do so, they each took the stand and detailed the horrors to which Johnson subjected them,” Christine says.

Christine says keeping him behind bars is for the safety of the community and the victims.

“Statistics indicate that the least likely people to be reformed are sex predators, and we have the opportunity to protect us ourselves from that potential,” said Christine.

“With regard to the brave three ladies that testified at trial, I don’t mention their name in my letter. They’ve suffered enough. We owe it to them,” he said.

Christine says ensuring that Johnson never returns to the Columbia County community will also be a lesson for potential perpetrators.

He says you can the Parole Board via letter, phone call or email and reference Johnson’s name and case number.

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