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Former Cincinnati man sentenced to 28 years for rape, kidnapping
Judge orders time be served consecutively for separate crimes
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Kevin T. Johns, 24, of Cincinnati and Warren, was sentenced to the maximum prison term of 28 years Tuesday for raping one woman and kidnapping another April 13, 2013.
Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court noted that Johns was sentenced in Cincinnati in 2010 to two years in prison for an armed robbery and one year in a separate case for assault.
He came to Warren shortly after leaving prison in 2012 to spend time with a friend he had met in prison, Taemarr Walker, 24, of Warren, who died in a confrontation with a Warren police officer Oct. 19, 2013.
“You are obviously a career-type criminal,” Judge Logan said, adding that there is “a serious likelihood you will re-offend.”
The judge ordered that Johns serve consecutive sentences for the two crimes. For most defendants, sentences are merged into one, but Johns’ crimes were “heinous” and separate, the judge said.
The women testified at trial that Johns kidnapped them from a house on Woodbine Avenue Southeast, then raped one of them in the back of a car.
Johns, however, testified he and Walker knew both women and had sex with them at a motel, but he couldn’t give the name of the motel or the day it happened.
Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor, told jurors in closing arguments of the trial that Johns’ crimes against the women resulted from a “setup” committed by Walker, in which Walker told one of the women to meet him at the Woodbine address knowing he would not be there — but Johns would be.
The rape victim spoke at Johns’ sentencing, saying the actions of Johns and Walker, whom she dated, have left her feeling vulnerable.
“I feel like I can never get close to a male again,” she said.
“The person I thought was a close friend [Walker] ... turned his back on me and let his friend put me and my friend’s lives in danger that possibly could have ended in death.”
The other woman said the kidnapping she experienced and the rape of her friend “has affected every aspect of my life.”