KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar BluffDNA test frees one man, puts another behind bars

DNA test frees one man, puts another behind bars

By CJ Cassidy - bio | email

BOLLINGER COUNTY, MO (KFVS) - A Marble Hill man says it took a DNA test to clear his name and get back his freedom.

Brandon Johnson spent close to eight months behind bars at the Cape Girardeau County Jail on statutory rape and child molestation charges out of Bollinger County.

He says his stay there taught him to be strong and have faith that the truth would set him free.

"People were trying to label me as a child molester before they even knew the story," Johnson said. 

He says eight months behind bars gave him a lot of time to think.

"Just sitting in there thinking why me... Knowing I didn't do it," he said.

Johnson always claimed his innocence, and according to court documents, he told prosecutors he felt the 13-year-old victim was trying to protect one of her mother's friends.

Still, Bollinger County Prosecutor Stephen Gray says it would take more than that to dismiss charges.

He says DNA tests conducted after the victim gave birth showed Johnson was not the child's father.

Court documents also show 41-year-old James Primer to be the baby's father, within a 99.99 percent probability.

Turns out, Primer was the same man Brandon Johnson claimed the 13-year-old was trying to protect.

Prosecutors have since charged Primer with the same charges Johnson faced.

As he works on finding a job, and getting his life back on track, Johnson says he never had any doubt he would walk out of jail someday.

"I knew it was all going to come out good at the end when the DNA tests come back," he said.

Johnson's mother is not so calm.

"It's been months and months of tears, heartache, stomach aches and sleepless nights," Sandra Reeves said, adding that she feels her son deserves a public apology.

"A lot of the time you have a dismissal of charges but you don't have physical evidence which in this case, amounted to an exoneration," Johnson's attorney Jason Tilley said.

Brandon Johnson says all he wanted was to clear his name.

"You can't look back. You have to look forward. I had my family behind me. I couldn't have got through without them and God."

Johnson says he does not carry a grudge against the 13 year old whose word put him in jail in the first place, but his mother say they may consider civil action down the road.

Prosecutor Stephen Gray says he was simply trying to do his job and find the truth himself.

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