Man accused of raping Orem girl sentenced to prison

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PROVO — After the hearing was over and the convicted defendant escorted from the room, Andrew Christensen stood up and tightly hugged his daughter for what seemed like minutes.

Last Friday, Jayson Quade Johnson, 27, who had already pleaded guilty in October to sexually assaulting Christensen's then 11-year-old daughter in 2014, filed a motion to withdraw his plea. Johnson stated in his motion that he was "fearful" of how he would be treated by other inmates in prison if he were convicted of a sex crime.

But on Monday before 4th District Court Judge Darold McDade, Johnson withdrew his motion and proceeded with the sentencing that will now put him in prison for most of the rest of his life.

On Feb. 5, 2014, Johnson grabbed the girl as she walked to school and pulled her behind a nearby church and into a Dumpster where he sexually assaulted her. When the girl cried out, Johnson told her to tell no one what had happened and left her in the trash bin.

The girl told a teacher upon arriving at Cherry Hill Elementary in Orem. Johnson, who lived just two blocks from the scene, was arrested in June 2014 thanks in part to DNA evidence. The girl, now 13, has since moved to Colorado.

Johnson pleaded guilty in October to sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony, as part of a deal with prosecutors. The charge carries a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges of child kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and witness tampering.

The only question at Monday's hearing was whether the judge would make Johnson's sentence run consecutively or concurrently with his current prison sentence of 1 to 15 years on burglary and theft convictions.

Johnson's attorney, Gregory Stewart, pleaded with the judge for a concurrent sentence to give his client incentive to do well while in prison and successfully complete treatment.

But Christensen, speaking on behalf of himself and his daughter and who sat in the front row of the courtroom, pleaded for a consecutive sentence, saying it was the "deepest level of evil that brings us here today."

"It's a shame that my daughter can't speak today because of this monster and what he did to her," he said. "My daughter is a remarkable woman. She's my hero. She's had to pay something that an 11-year-old should never go through. No human being should have to go through this.

"He murdered my daughter's innocence," Christensen said. "It was stolen from her by a coward."

The father called Johnson a coward for taking a plea deal and said mercy and justice could not be balanced in this case.

"No sentence can make up time for lost innocence," he said.

A emotional Christensen then turned to Johnson and addressed him directly as he sat expressionless just a few feet away with his head down.

"I promise you that I will be at every parole hearing. You will see my face and it will be the last thing you see when you think of freedom. Every time you hear that a parole hearing has been scheduled I want it to go through you mind, 'Oh no, I have to face Andrew Christensen,' because you will, every day for the rest of your life, I will be standing between you and every innocent person in the world," he said.

When Johnson addressed the court, he apologized to the family and to the court for delaying the process. He said he would "take it all back" if he could and that there won't be a day that he wouldn't think about what happened. Even though he has not visibly shown much emotion in court, he said he was truly remorseful.

"I just hope that I can move forward and I take responsiblity for my actions," he said. "There's no excuse for this at all. Nothing like this should ever happen."

Although the judge conceded that Johnson seemed more remorseful Monday than he had been in any of his prior hearings, it didn't outweigh what he had done.

McDade, calling it a "troubling case," sentenced Johnson to the mandatory 25-years to life, and for it to run consecutively with his other sentence.

Outside the courtroom, Christensen said he was "mostly pleased" with the outcome but admitted that he actually wanted Johnson to withdraw his plea.

"We welcomed that possibility with open arms," he said. "Because at the end of the day, he answered for one crime, not four. And he committed four.

"I feel there is still an injustice that has been done," Christensen said. "My family, my daughter, we were prepared for the long haul. We were ready to come to court and have him face every crime that he committed against my daughter and to serve them all consecutively."

Christensen said his daughter "was happy now. And that's what's important."