A convicted felon who switched identities with a fellow inmate to escape from the Clark County Jail in May was sentenced Wednesday to five additional years in prison.
Michael Diontae Johnson, 30, was already serving a 24-year prison sentence in Arizona. He was in Clark County to stand trial in a March 2014 domestic violence case when he escaped. Johnson was apprehended nearly a month later in Illinois by the U.S. Marshals Service.
On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court in both cases: domestic violence harassment-death threats, domestic violence fourth-degree assault, and bail jumping and second-degree escape.
Judge Gregory Gonzales agreed to follow the attorneys’ previously agreed-upon recommendation of five years in prison in each case, to run concurrently. However, that time will run consecutive to Johnson’s 24-year prison sentence.
Johnson’s court-appointed defense attorney, Clark Fridley, said that negotiations in the domestic violence case were underway when Johnson escaped from the jail. It was likely that before his escape any additional time he received would have run concurrent to his prison sentence, Fridley said.
Johnson escaped from the jail May 12 when he swapped identities with inmate LaQuon Carson Boggs, 19, of Portland, who was scheduled to be released, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Superior Court. Johnson wore Boggs’ clothes and ID bracelet, signed Boggs’ name on paperwork and recited Boggs’ birth date before walking out of the jail at about 8:30 that morning, the affidavit said. Jail staff noticed Johnson missing during a noon-hour head count.
The two inmates also had switched cells, according to court documents.
In the domestic violence case, Johnson assaulted and threatened a woman, court records show. He posted bail in that case but did not show up to court. Johnson was arrested later that year in Arizona for kidnapping and aggravated assault, for which he was convicted, court records said.
According to Columbian archives, Johnson has escaped from custody before. In 2008, he was imprisoned at the Olympic Corrections Center for less than a week on drug violations and firearms possession convictions when he was found to be missing from his living quarters. Two people had picked up Johnson and drove him to Vancouver. Police later received information that he had then taken a bus to Nevada, and he was arrested days later at a bus station in Reno.
During the Wednesday hearing, Johnson told the judge that he had nothing to say.
As part of his plea deal, some counts in the domestic violence case were dismissed and the escape charge was downgraded from the first-degree.
