He admits rape, attempted murder

A 33-year-old East Frankford man pleaded guilty yesterday to rape and attempted murder charges in the abductions of two high-school girls a year apart.

Both teens had been on their way to school when they were kidnapped.

Jason Johnson yesterday pleaded guilty to attempted murder, rape, kidnapping and aggravated indecent assault, and is to be sentenced March 19 by Common Pleas Judge Albert J. Snite Jr.

In reading a summary of facts in the cases yesterday, Assistant District Attorney Bill Davis said that last Jan. 3, Johnson approached a 16-year-old girl who was crossing a park at Orthodox and Leiper streets in Frankford, on her way to catch a train to school.

Johnson told her that he had a gun and took her to his apartment about five blocks away on Orthodox Street near Lesher, where he choked and repeatedly raped her, Davis said.

At some point, so he could leave the room, he tied her hands with electrical cords and handcuffed her to the bed, Davis said. He bound her ankles with boot shoelaces.

In the late afternoon, Johnson forced her into his car and drove her to Wissinoming Park, in the area of Frankford and Cheltenham avenues. As she was sitting on a park bench, he took out a pocket knife and demanded that she not tell anyone what had happened. He then slit her throat from behind, Davis said.

He dragged the bleeding girl back into his car, where he forced her to give him oral sex, Davis said. After a struggle, the girl was able to run away and flag down passers-by in a car for help.

In the earlier case, Jan. 8, 2007, Johnson approached a 14-year-old girl waiting for a bus at Oxford Avenue and Penn Street, about 7 a.m., and showed her a gun, Davis said. He forced her to the playground at Orthodox and Leiper streets, where he demanded her panties, bra and school-uniform skirt. He touched her vagina with his hand.

After she screamed, the man fled, and the girl ran home.

When Johnson was arrested Jan. 4, police confiscated a black BB gun - which looked like a semiautomatic handgun - from his Chevy Malibu, Davis said.

Johnson yesterday pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery and corrupting the morals of a minor in the 2008 case.

He pleaded guilty to kidnapping, aggravated indecent assault, robbery and corruption of a minor in the 2007 abduction. He had stolen that girl's clothes and the older girl's cell phone.

Johnson is in federal custody after pleading guilty to five robberies, Davis said after the hearing.

According to the federal indictment, Johnson and a co-defendant robbed a PNC Bank in October, 2007; a Commerce Bank and a Washington Savings Bank in November, 2007; a GNC store last December; and an Allegiance Bank, in King of Prussia, early last January. In three of those cases, he allegedly threatened employees with a black BB gun.