Decades After Sexual Battery Of Girl, Man Convicted: FL State Attorney

MANATEE COUNTY, FL — More than two decades after the crime was committed, a man was convicted and sentenced for the sexual battery of a 13-year-old girl in Manatee County.

Gregory Milton Laverne Johnson was convicted of sexual battery on a victim 12 or older and sentenced to 14 years, three months and 15 days in the Florida Department of Corrections, according to a news release from State Attorney Ed Brodsky’s office.

The crime carried a maximum possible sentence of 15 years. Johnson will also have to register as a sex offender.

On May 10, 1998, the girl was home alone while her babysitter and others went to Ybor City. Johnson entered her bedroom and sexually battered her while she was sleeping, Brodsky’s office said.

He fled from the area and the victim was taken by her babysitter to Manatee Memorial Hospital, where a sexual assault kit was completed.

On Sept. 13, 2019, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement made a matched DNA found on the victim with Johnson, a qualifying offender. He was arrested in Georgia and extradited to Florida to face charges.

“The state commends the victim in this case for her strength and composure,” Assistant State Attorney Casey Cahall, the lead prosecutor in the case, said. “We are glad that justice was served and hope that this will bring closure and healing to the victim, who has waited 24 years for her attacker to be punished for the crime that he committed against her as a child. Thanks to scientific evidence and law enforcement efforts, our community is now safer.”