BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A Brevard County teenager was spared a tough prison sentence Friday because of a confession he made in court.
Police said 17-year-old Tevin Johnson had a role in a scheme to get his girlfriend out of the juvenile detention center prematurely. Investigators said Johnson pretended to be the girl's father and got her out. That led to a fight with her real father and a standoff with police.
Johnson could have gone to prison for 30 years. The judge said it was a tough decision, because Florida law didn't allow any leeway in sentencing. Johnson may have gotten the lighter of two possible sentences, but if he screws up at all in the next six years the judge made it clear he will go to prison for a long time.
Johnson's defense attorney told the judge that teenage love is what got him into trouble and into court.
"This is a very bad situation, but love has made people blind," defense attorney Todd Deratany said.
Investigators believe the 17-year-old helped get his girlfriend out of the juvenile detention center last December. The girl's father was not happy about her improper release and, when she was rearrested, Johnson went over to confront her father.
An argument turned into a scuffle, Johnson pulled out a gun, ended up shooting himself in the hand and then fled into someone's home and wouldn't come out for four hours, despite being surrounded by police.
"Young man, you have engaged in one of the most serious crimes that we recognize in Florida law," Judge Maxwell said.
Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence him as an adult, a 20-year minimum sentence, in part because he never would tell anyone where he stashed the gun. The judge gave him one more chance and he took it, telling his lawyer it was in the woods near the location of the standoff.
"He stashed the gun there and it should still be there, unless someone picked it up," defense attorney Todd Deratany said.
The judge said he hoped Johnson could make a life for himself and sentenced him as a youthful offender to one year in jail, two years of house arrest and three years of probation. That might seem like a light sentence on the face, but the judge warned him that house arrest has its temptations and, if he violates any conditions of his house arrest or his probation, he could go to prison for the full 30 years.
Prosecutors said they could never prove that Johnson helped get his girlfriend out of the juvenile detention center and never charged him with a crime related to that part of the case. Johnson has now fathered a child with the girlfriend that he got in all the trouble over.