A jury in Oklahoma County has convicted 53-year-old Merle Johnson on every charge stemming from the rape and sexual abuse of a 15-year-old girl in Choctaw, and jurors have recommended he spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole. Johnson was the former boyfriend of the victim's mother and had lived with the family for years before the assault.
Police were called to a home in Choctaw in August 2025 after the girl reported that Johnson had entered her bedroom without permission and sexually assaulted her, according to KOKH. The attack reportedly continued for several hours, and the station reports the victim said it was the first time Johnson had assaulted her. He was charged with first-degree rape, first-degree rape by instrumentation, three counts of sexual abuse of a child, and child sexual exploitation.
During the trial, jurors heard the victim's own testimony and were shown videos Johnson made during the attack, the station's report notes. Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna, who took office after 25 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and a stint as Executive Director of the Oklahoma Innocence Project, said the courage the young woman showed throughout the case was remarkable. Behenna said the victim's testimony was what ultimately held Johnson accountable.
A Past Conviction and a Failure to Register
Johnson was not a stranger to the justice system. He had a previous rape conviction out of Tulsa County in 2000, which legally required him to register as a sex offender — an obligation he failed to meet, per the same account. A first-degree rape conviction automatically makes an offender a Level Three sex offender, the highest risk tier, requiring lifetime registration and in-person address verification with law enforcement every three months, according to the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Law Guide.
Failing to register or keep address records current as a convicted sex offender is itself a standalone felony in Oklahoma, carrying up to five years in prison under the state's Sex Offenders Registration Act, according to the Oklahoma Legal Group.
What Life Without Parole Actually Means
The jury's recommendation of life without the possibility of parole carries enormous legal weight in Oklahoma, one of the few states where criminal juries directly recommend prison sentences during a trial's penalty phase. Judges retain final sentencing authority but almost always apply the jury's recommendation, according to the Kania Law Office. That distinction matters significantly: a standard Oklahoma life sentence is statutorily calculated as 45 years, with parole eligibility after an offender serves 85 percent of that term, while life without parole guarantees Johnson will die in prison with no opportunity for release.
Johnson's formal sentencing is scheduled for November 10, per KOKH's reporting. Given how rarely Oklahoma judges deviate from jury recommendations, that hearing is expected to formalize the life-without-parole sentence jurors have already handed down.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Oklahoma County
Behenna's office has pursued a string of similar prosecutions in recent years. In April 2025, her office secured a multi-count conviction against a former stepfather charged with child sexual abuse and first-degree rape in an Oklahoma County jury trial, a case in which jurors recommended 25 years in prison following disclosures from a victim's counselor, according to the Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office.
Women accounted for 88 percent of the state's 2,112 reported rape victims tracked between 2024 and 2025. Lawmakers have responded with tougher statutes in recent years: in April 2025, the Oklahoma House passed its version of Senate Bill 599, and the Legislature fully passed the bill in May. It expanded potential penalties for certain severe child sexual abuse crimes to include life without parole or the death penalty on a first conviction, according to the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
The state has also moved to standardize how sexual assault evidence is handled. In November 2024, Oklahoma codified a 17-member Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Board into law to establish uniform policies for processing, testing, and tracking rape kits across law enforcement agencies and crime labs statewide, according to the State of Oklahoma.
