Former Fort Belvoir soldier sentenced to 15 years in prison for assaulting and permanently injuring a newborn child and raping an adult

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A former U.S. Army private was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for two counts of assault resulting in serious bodily injury and one count of sexual abuse. This sentence is to be served consecutively to a 15-year sentence he is currently serving for assault on an infant in violation of Montana law.

According to court documents, on June 24, 2012, Austin Blair Johnson, an active duty soldier residing on Fort Belvoir, was watching his infant daughter, identified as Minor Victim 1 (MV1), who was born prematurely only 15 days earlier. MV1 was crying, so Johnson picked her up and carried her, but she continued to cry. While holding MV1 in front of him with one hand under each of her arms, Johnson rapidly and forcefully shook MV1 multiple times before letting go of her, causing her to flip and land on her head.

Johnson then picked up MV1 and ran with her upstairs to a bedroom where he woke MV1's mother, identified as Adult Victim 1 (AV1). Johnson falsely told AV1 that he had accidentally dropped MV1 and that he had successfully broken her fall with his foot. AV1 and Johnson took MV1 to the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital emergency room where she presented with a fever, bruising on her head and shoulder, and blood coming out of her mouth. A CT scan conducted there revealed that MV1's skull had been fractured. MV1 was transferred later to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Walter Reed Medical Center. MV1 was diagnosed with extensive injuries and remained hospitalized at Walter Reed for the next 10 days.

The day she was discharged, MV1 was left in Johnson's care while AV1 was out. Johnson again rapidly and forcefully shook MV1 and dropped her. MV1 was 26 days old. The following morning, AV1 took MV1 to a previously scheduled follow-up appointment with a pediatrician at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital. At the appointment, MV1 began having seizures and was sent directly to the emergency room. MV1 was transferred later to the PICU at Children's National Medical Center, where doctors discovered myriad injuries, including a second skull fracture, and identified extensive brain damage.

When she was finally discharged on July 20, 2012, MV1 was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services, where she remained for approximately 14 months until she was returned to the custody of Johnson and AV1. On June 22, 2015, shortly after her third birthday, MV1 was forced to undergo a hemispherectomy during which the entire left side of her brain was removed in an effort to control her irrepressible seizures.

MV1 is now legally blind, non-verbal, and the entire right side of her body is paralyzed. Cognitively, MV1 functions at the level of a mature infant. As part of his sentence, Johnson was ordered to pay over $1.1 million in restitution.

In addition to his assaults on MV1, in 2013, at their residence on Fort Belvoir, after AV1 had rebuffed Johnson's requests to be intimate with her, Johnson proceeded without her consent. AV1 protested and tried to hit Johnson to get him to stop, which he eventually did.

Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Reid Davis, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Criminal Division; and Jake Cameron, Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office, Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander E. Blanchard prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:24-cr-151.