Former Fort Belvoir soldier sentenced for permanently disabling baby, raping wife

InsideNoVa.com
September 12, 2025, 4:34 PM

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A former U.S. Army private stationed at Fort Belvoir was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for twice abusing his infant daughter, who is now permanently disabled, and raping the child’s mother. ... Austin Blair Johnson, 35, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of assault resulting in serious bodily injury and one count of sexual abuse in connection with the crimes in 2012 and 2013, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria said in a news release. ... The 15-year sentence handed down Friday is to be served consecutively to a 15-year sentence Johnson is serving for injuring his 6-week-old son with his new wife in Montana in 2017.

Fort Belvoir case
According to court documents, on June 24, 2012, Johnson, then an active duty soldier residing on Fort Belvoir, was watching his infant daughter, who was born prematurely 15 days earlier. ... The baby was crying, “so Johnson picked her up and carried her, but she continued to cry,” the release said. While holding the baby in front of him with one hand under each of her arms, Johnson “rapidly and forcefully shook” the victim multiple times before letting go of her, causing her to flip and land on her head, the release said.

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The day she was discharged, the baby was again left in Johnson’s care while his wife was out and he again “rapidly and forcefully shook” her before dropping her, the release said. The baby was 26 days old at the time. ... The next morning, the infant’s mother took her for a follow-up appointment with a pediatrician at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, where the baby began having seizures and was sent to the ER. ... She was later transferred later to the PICU at Children’s National Medical Center, where doctors discovered myriad injuries, including a second skull fracture, and identified extensive brain damage, the release said.

When she was discharged on July 20, 2012, the baby was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services, where she remained for approximately 14 months until she was returned to the custody of Johnson and her mother. ... Two days later, shortly after her third birthday, she underwent a hemispherectomy “during which the entire left side of her brain was removed in an effort to control her irrepressible seizures,” the release said. ... The victim is now legally blind, non-verbal and the entire right side of her body is paralyzed, prosecutors said. Cognitively, she functions at the level of a mature infant.

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