OLYMPIA, Washington (AP) - Washington’s Supreme Court has reinstated an imprisonment conviction for a man who beat his wife and terrorized her with his Rottweiler.
J.C. Johnson is serving life without parole. He has a long history of assaulting women, and he was arrested for assaulting his wife of two years with a rock, repeatedly strangling her and letting the 130-pound dog bite her while he kept her trapped in their Shoreline apartment for three days in 2009.
The wife eventually escaped in her underwear.
The state appeals court upheld an assault conviction, but overturned Johnson’s conviction for unlawful imprisonment after finding fault with the language of the charge against him. The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the appeals court’s decision on the imprisonment charge, saying its wording was sufficient.
Two justices said they would have vacated the assault conviction.
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