Decade-old Minneapolis rape kit turns into charges, prison sentence
Minneapolis rape case charged 12 years later after DNA evidence went untested for years
Hennepin County prosecutors have filed rape charges against a Minneapolis man more than a decade after an armed attack on two women. The case file shows critical DNA evidence sat untested for years. Now, one of those alleged victims is speaking out, sharing her story of torment and frustration with the criminal justice system.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - After a rape in 2008 led to charges 15 years later following clearance of backlogged rape test kits, the perpetrator has finally been sentenced for his actions.
Terry Wayne Johnson was sentenced in Hennepin County District Court on Monday to more than a decade in prison. He was charged in October 2023 with second-degree criminal sexual conduct and third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection to the Feb. 16, 2008, rape of a woman.
According to the criminal complaint, at about 12:57 a.m. on Feb. 16, 2008, Minneapolis Police Officers were on patrol near 9th Street East and Park Avenue South when a motorist witness flashing his headlights flagged them down – the victim was also in the vehicle.
At the time, the witness told police he saw the victim near Park Avenue South and 36th Street East, that she was bleeding and needed help, when he offered to bring her to the hospital. Charges said the victim told him she was attacked by a man, later identified as Johnson.
At the hospital, charges say the victim reported she was assaulted and raped, and although she didn't know his name, she was able to provide a description.
The victim said Johnson followed her out of the apartment and dragged her outside to the alley by her hair. She tried to get away, but he said, "Keep yelling, and I will kill you," charges said. He dragged her to the side of the garage. He told her, "You owe me" and ended up punching her in the face, telling her "I'm gonna kill you" as it rendered her unconscious.
The case was later reviewed in 2020 as part of the Minneapolis Police Department and Hennepin County Attorney's Office program to test previously untested sexual assault kits.
The samples in the victim's kit were taken to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for DNA testing, and a DNA profile matched Johnson.
Johnson is already in prison in Washington State on charges of commercial sex abuse of a minor – a crime that occurred after the Minneapolis rape.
He will be processed in the Minnesota prison system, and then be transferred back to Washington to finish serving his sentence there, before returning to Minnesota to serve the remainder of his time connected to the rape charges.