Travonne Lamont Johnson
La Plata, MD – Travonne Lamont Johnson, 17, of Waldorf is being charged as an adult for second-degree rape.
His trial entered the third day of proceedings in Charles County Circuit Court Wednesday, May 25. Fireworks quickly ensued when Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Sarah K. Freeman brought to Judge Amy J. Bragunier’s attention that the defendant’s mother, a subpoenaed witness in the case, was being leaked information about the trial from Johnson’s brothers.
It was a tense moment in the trial, as the mother testified on the witness stand that she had not received any information about the trial.
Freeman had a recorded phone message between mother and son, who is incarcerated at the Charles County Detention Center, from the night before indicating otherwise.
Charles County Assistant Public Defenders Edie Cimino and Courtney Dixon objected to the recording being played before the jury.
It was the latest twist in the trial of Johnson, accused of raping a woman he had only met weeks prior.
The woman lived near the defendant and owed him $20 for marijuana, Freeman said.
On the date of the offense, Dec. 3, 2015, the victim was on her way to a 7-Eleven to get a pack of cigarettes when she received a text message from Johnson. Freeman said the text messages went back and forth with the defendant urging the victim to come to his house. Finally, she relented.
“She walked inside and he said he was going to get the marijuana,” Freeman said in opening arguments. “Ten minutes later he reappears. He doesn’t have his shirt on. His penis is out and exposed. She says, ‘This is not happening.’ The defendant forcibly grabbed her and threw her on the bed. She struggled, kicked and pushed him away. He grabbed her by the ankles and pinned her to the floor. She’s screaming, ‘No. Don’t.’ The defendant was trying to get her pants off. She was crying, tying to fight him. He has her pinned down by her neck. He penetrated her. Then he stopped, pulled up his pants and she ran home.”
Freeman said the victim told her sister and then her father, who called police.
Public Defender Dixon tried a little play acting in her opening arguments, at first playing the role of the victim, seeming confused, asking herself, ‘What should I do? All because I want to get high?’
Dixon told the jury that attitudes about sex have changed. She intimated that the two people had sex before and the victim didn’t want her boyfriend to find out.
“Women want sex as much as men if not more,” she said. “It’s not something anyone should regret.”
The victim testified Tuesday, May 24 that she told her boyfriend what had happened the day after the incident.
“I felt like he should know,” she said. “He was angry with me. He didn’t want me to talk to Travonne,” she admitted.
Freeman asked if she had interacted with Johnson before the incident.
She replied that they had smoked marijuana “a few days before.”
“Had he ever talked to you about sex?” Freeman asked.
“Yes,” she said. “He would ask me, ‘When are you going to have sex with me?’ I told him I didn’t want to.”
When Freeman got the victim to talk about the night she was allegedly raped, she said that she was trying to get up, but she couldn’t.
“He was stronger than me,” the woman replied. “He kept trying to put his penis inside of me. I kept closing my legs. I was crying, ‘Stop!’ Yelling, ‘No.’ “
It was uncertain at press time what the consequences of Wednesday’s revelations regarding the mother will have on the trial, which will enter its fourth day Thursday, May 26.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com