Johnson v. State

A jury found Antone Andrea Johnson guilty of rape, and the trial court denied his motion for new trial.1 Johnson appeals, contending that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial and that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm. “On appeal from a criminal conviction, the evidence must be construed in a light most favorable to the verdict and Johnson no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence.” Citation, punctuation and footnote omitted. Boring v. State , 303 Ga. App. 576, 577 1 694 SE2d 157 2010. Construed in this manner, the evidence showed that Johnson telephoned the female victim, who was sixteen years old, and asked her if she wanted “to get out of the house.” She said yes. This was not an unusual occurrence, given that Johnson had previously been engaged to the victim’s mother, had long served as a “father figure” to the victim, and would occasionally come over to visit and take her places.

Johnson picked up the victim from her home and drove her to the hotel room where he was staying. Once inside the hotel room, they played some video games, talked, and watched television while sitting on the bed. Johnson then started wrestling with the victim until he was able to get on top of her and hold her down, despite her repeated requests for him to get off of her. While on top of the victim, Johnson began kissing her neck and rubbing her breasts and thighs as she protested. The victim continued to tell Johnson to stop, but he held her down on the bed, pulled down her pants, and forced her to have sexual intercourse with him against her will.