Man cleared of 2010 murder of teenage girl now charged with unrelated rape and strangulation

BALTIMORE — Michael Maurice Johnson, who was acquitted after three trials in the high-profile murder of Baltimore City teenager Phylicia Barnes, is now charged with raping and assaulting a 19-year-old girl in Baltimore County.

Johnson, 40, has endured a legal battle that has lasted nearly a decade — first convicted by a jury and then acquitted by a judge in 2018 — of killing Barnes, a North Carolina high school senior who was visiting his half-sister in northwest Baltimore in 2010.

The case has attracted national attention.

Johnson spent about three years in prison after being convicted in his first trial in 2013, which was ultimately overturned.

Baltimore County Case

Johnson is now charged with first- and second-degree rape and assault following an alleged attack at a Baltimore County apartment complex on Monday.

According to charging documents obtained by WJZ, the victim was dating Johnson, called him a “sugar daddy,” and had been staying with him in Pennsylvania last year until his foster family reported him missing.

She told police he assaulted her for six hours after becoming angry when he heard her talking about a boy during a phone call with his sister.

She told them that Johnson “strangled her until at one point she lost consciousness” and added that he “hit her in the head with a fan and started strangling her again with both hands.”

She claimed he raped her and then called her social worker who contacted the police.

Charging documents say the victim was so badly injured that she could not speak and had to communicate by typing on her phone.

Barnes' father reacts

Russell Barnes, Phylicia Barnes' father, said the new charges against Johnson are a reminder of his daughter's death.

Barnes' body was found near the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River in 2011.

“It reminds me of how Phylica was murdered and what happened to her, her innocence and how she was killed. We believe she was asphyxiated and strangled to death after she was raped,” Russell Barnes told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren on Wednesday. “I was in deep shock when I got the phone call yesterday. I automatically started crying, you know, praying for the young lady, making sure she was okay, knowing she was alive. But the things she has to go through.”

Hellgren asked Russell Barnes what he hopes to see happen next.

“A justice system that will convict him in this case and reexamine Phylicia’s case, because we know there were other things that happened that day, December 28th, that nobody has talked about,” Russell Barnes said. “So we know there are things and people involved in Phylicia’s murder that haven’t said anything. Michael Johnson holds the key.”

Johnson's explanation to the police

In the Baltimore County case, Johnson told police the victim became angry while he was texting another woman and punched him in the face and right arm.

Police said he had scratches on his forearms and a knot on his head, which they said was consistent with the victim's attempt to defend himself.

“We want the justice system to not fail this young woman and her family the way it has failed us,” Russell Barnes said.

According to court documents, Johnson lives in York, Pennsylvania.

He was denied bail on Thursday.

Johnson has a preliminary hearing later this month and court records show he is being represented by the public defender's office.