Jury Convicts Johnson In Rape Of 2-Year-Old Girl
EVERETT - Before jurors convicted Chevez Johnson Jr. of raping a child, Johnson said he didn't know why the girl he had been watching was crying and hiding behind a door when her mother returned from a short errand last January.
The 2-year-old had an explanation. When she was taking a bath that night, she screamed as the water drained down her body and told her mother that ``Chevy'' had scratched her and put his finger in her vagina.
The jury apparently chose to believe the 2-year-old who, although too young to testify, consistently told her mother, a neighbor and several doctors that Johnson had hurt her. Jurors also heard doctors testify about the scratch they had seen that corroborated her story.
After 2 1/2 hours of deliberation, jurors yesterday found Johnson guilty of rape in the first degree.
The girl's mother, an Army communications supervisor who appeared unflappable during the trial, broke down as she thanked the jurors.
``Justice has been served,'' she told them, ``and he will not be able to hurt anybody else's child.''
The jury didn't hear that Johnson, 33, is a registered sex offender who wasn't supposed to have any contact with minors.
He had pleaded guilty to three felony sex offenses in King County in 1989 and avoided prison on several conditions, including that he receive counseling.
Before Jan. 16, the 2-year-old's mother also didn't know about Johnson's criminal past.
Johnson, who was a neighbor in an apartment complex, became acquainted with the mother and visited her about three times a week.
But the mother had never left Johnson alone with her daughter until Jan. 16, when she had to go to the manager's office. She asked Johnson if he would mind watching her daughter. She returned in about 20 minutes and found her daughter standing behind the door, face wet with tears. The girl wouldn't say what had happened.
Johnson testified that he also didn't know what was wrong, only just that the girl suddenly changed from being happy to sad.
A few minutes later, the girl, who had never asked to go to the store with Johnson before, asked to accompany him.
When they returned in 15 minutes, Johnson brought in some chocolate ice cream.
Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Douglas Fair suggested Johnson had promised the articulate youngster ice cream to keep quiet.
But Johnson's attorney asked jurors why Johnson would't have given the child the ice cream before they got home is he had intended to bribe her.
The mother said she'll be even more on guard now against sexual abuse and will continue the ``good touch, bad touch'' talks she had had with her daughter even before Jan. 16.
Her daughter, she said, still talks about how Johnson doesn't like her because he hurt her.
With yesterday's conviction, Fair said, Johnson is facing a standard sentence of 17 to 23 years. Fair said the conviction is almost certain to mean Johnson will have to serve time for his King County convictions.