Jurors took less than two hours Wednesday to convict a Charleston man of sexually assaulting a girl for about three years beginning when she was 8 years old.
Henry Wayne Johnston, 54, faces up to 350 years in prison, assistant Kanawha prosecutor Fred Giggenbach said. Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom will sentence him on Dec. 30.
The girl, now 11, took the stand on Monday and testified against Johnston, who lived in the basement of the house she shared with her mother in South Charleston. She described how Johnston would force her to perform oral sex and other sexual acts on him when her mother wasn't home.
The abuse prompted the girl to look up "Why do guys hurt little girls?" on the Internet, she said.
"I'm going to ask for the maximum sentence," Giggenbach said after the trial. "He needs to serve a life sentence for what he did."
Johnston was convicted of two counts of first-degree sexual assault, which each carry a possible 25- to 100-year jail sentence; four counts of sexual abuse by a parent guardian, custodian or person in a position of trust that are each punishable by 10 to 25 years, and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, which carry possible five- to 25-year sentences, Giggenbach said.
Jurors found Johnston not guilty of one count of first-degree sexual assault and one count of sexual abuse by a parent or guardian, according to the prosecutor. The man had also faced four counts of possessing child pornography, but Bloom dismissed those charges on Tuesday. Giggenbach said the judge threw those out because a forensic laboratory in Huntington didn't produce a report on Johnston's computer where the pictures were allegedly found.
Richard Holicker, Johnston's attorney, argued that the girl falsely accused his client after she was caught by family members watching pornography. Johnston also testified that he was being falsely accused. Holicker said he plans to appeal the verdict.
The child told jurors that Johnston showed her pornography, told her how to look it up on the Internet and that it was OK to view it.
She told her family about the sexual abuse soon after she was caught looking at sexual images on her own computer. The prosecutor told jurors the girl didn't come forward about the abuse sooner because Johnston threatened to kill her if she told. Plus, he said, the girl was scared that if her parents found out, they would kill Johnston and have to go to prison for it.
Dr. Sharon Istfan, associate chief medical officer at Charleston Area Medical Center's Women and Children's Hospital, testified that an examination of the girl showed trauma to her hymen, Giggenbach said.
The case was one of the most difficult Giggenbach has ever tried during his 16 years as a prosecutor, he said after the verdict.
"I had an 11-year-old victim who told us in the beginning that she could not testify because it was too emotionally difficult," he said. "We went in with a hope and a prayer that she would have the strength and courage to testify."
Getting the child to take the stand was understandably no easy task.
The girl had heard about Bikers Against Child Abuse and requested that a victim's advocate contact them.
On Monday, the day the trial began, the bikers - mostly tough-looking men with bushy beards, wearing bandannas, leather boots and jackets, carried a large teddy bear into the courthouse and took turns comforting the girl.
When she was first asked to enter the courtroom, she took several steps inside and quickly backed out. She sobbed and pleaded not to take the stand.
When she did take the stand, a computer monitor shielded her from having to look at Johnston.
Maureen Runyon, with the hospital's child advocacy center, also worked with the girl to make her feel more comfortable testifying, Giggenbach said.
"The combination of our victim's advocate, Caroline Carte, and the bikers made all the difference. Without them and [the girl's] family, I don't think she would have testified" said Giggenbach. "I'm a middle-aged man with a beard talking with a little girl. I had met her several times with the victim's advocate and she never opened up to me and saw me as someone she could trust, really, until she got on the witness stand.
"That's why it was just so difficult, because of the age of the victim and the fact that she was just petrified, literally petrified, to come in and meet her monster."
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