Related Content
Press Release
WASHINGTON – Marquette E. Johnson, 42, of the District of Columbia, pleaded guilty today to first degree sexual abuse while armed and first degree child sexual abuse while armed, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Interim Chief Ashan Benedict of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
According to the government’s evidence, on or about November 28, 2005, at approximately 8:30 a.m., within the District of Columbia, Johnson abducted a 12-year-old female child, at gunpoint, as she walked to school. He drove up to the victim, pointed a semiautomatic pistol or imitation pistol at her, and told her to get in the minivan or he would kill her. Once the child complied, the defendant drove her to an alley behind the 1300 block of Morris Road, SE, where he forced her to get in the back seat and sexually assaulted her. When the defendant finished raping her, he drove the victim back to the location where he had picked her up and told her something to the effect of, “See, I told you, you wouldn’t miss school.” The child promptly reported what had occurred to a teacher and an MPD officer stationed at the school.
DNA obtained from the physical evidence in the investigation matched the DNA profile of the defendant, who is a convicted offender. Additional DNA testing determined it was at least 87 quadrillion times more likely if the evidence originated from the defendant and the victim, than if from the victim and an unknown, unrelated individual. The defendant was a stranger to the victim and her family.
The Honorable Judge Maribeth Raffinan scheduled a sentencing hearing for September 29, 2023. Under the plea agreement, if accepted by the Court, Johnson faces a sentence of 23-27 years in prison, followed by at least five years of supervised release. He will also have to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.
This case was investigated by detectives of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Sexual Assault Unit and Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit, Youth Investigations Division, and detectives and officers from the Seventh District. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amy Zubrensky and Robert Platt, with support from Paralegal Specialist Cynthia Muhammad and Victim/Witness Advocate Tracey Hawkins.
This case was brought as part of the Cold Case Initiative launched in February 2018, by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, to reinvestigate previously unsolved cases of sexual assault as well as sexual assault-related homicides. The U.S. Attorney’s Office works on this initiative in partnership with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals Service, and local law enforcement partners in the DMV area to achieve its mission.