KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — A suspect in two Kalamazoo County sexual assaults had pled guilty following Kalamazoo Sexual Assault Kit Initiative investigations.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office announced on Thursday, February 23 that 30-year-old Michael Vincenzo Johnson of Casper Wyoming pled guilty to two counts of Third Degree Sexual Conduct for sexual assaults he committed against two Kalamazoo County women in 2013 when he was a student at Western Michigan University.
The first assault was committed in a WMU dormitory room on January of 2013 where the victim, an 18-year-old freshman, was physically helpless and in a state of extreme intoxication. Johnson went onto committing the second assault in Augusta in February 2013 at a private home, where he forced himself on a 16-year-old high school student.
The WMU Police Department referred the case to the Kalamazoo Sexual Assault Kit Initiative project in 2017, which re-opened the case in June 2020.
Investigators learned that Johnson had moved to Wyoming in January 2016 and had immediately began pursuing sexual relationships with female high school students and athletes. Johnson was arrested in April 2016 on charges of accosting minors for immoral purposes, manufacturing child pornography, and providing marijuana to minors. He was ultimately convicted by plea and served time in a Wyoming prison. Once paroled, Johnson was arrested on the SAKI charges and extradited to Kalamazoo in May 2022.
Both Kalamazoo County victims, who watched the defendant’s guilty plea via Zoom, voiced their gratitude for the opportunity to work with the SAKI team and have their cases re-investigated and prosecuted.
One victim told SAKI investigators, “You helped me in the process of re-opening a wound and allowing it to heal the right way.” The other victim called the guilty plea, “validation and justice.” She added, “I gave up completely on anything being done. I truly appreciate the work and effort you all have put in for me.”
“It took a lot of courage for the survivors of these assaults to come forward and help the Kalamazoo SAKI team identify this offender,” Nessel said. “He had already moved to another state to continue his pattern of assaulting young women and girls. I’m grateful for the hard work of the Kalamazoo SAKI investigators and participating law enforcement agencies in Michigan and Wyoming for their help in taking a sexual predator off the streets.”
Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said, “These convictions are evidence of the excellent work continuing to be done to investigate untested sexual assault kits and hold accountable the people who committed the assaults.” Getting went on to say, “Even though it is a decade after the assault, the victims are continuing to suffer the trauma of their attack. The guilty should be suffering as well.”
Johnson is scheduled for sentencing on March 20th.
