Jail inmate charged with illegally calling victim 70 times in 7 days

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Lorenzo Joshua Johnson Jr., 22, who was arrested on January 4 for domestic battery and carjacking, has now been charged with 40 counts of violating his pre-trial release conditions by calling his victim approximately 70 times in seven days from the jail in an effort to get her to drop the charges.

Johnson was arrested on January 4 and charged with domestic battery and carjacking after he allegedly forcibly took a woman’s car, hit her, and choked her. He appeared before Judge Meshon Rawls on January 5 and was ordered to have no contact with the victim.

According to a report from an Alachua County Sheriff’s Detective, as soon as Johnson left his First Appearance hearing, he contacted a family member to obtain a secondary number for the victim because he knew the victim’s phone number would be blocked on the jail’s phone system. He allegedly contacted the victim at 10:50 a.m. on January 5 and eventually called her a total of 70 times in a seven-day period.

Inmates in the Alachua County Jail are permitted to make unlimited free phone calls.

According to the detective’s report, Johnson was allegedly hostile to the victim on these calls and told her to drop the charges because he did not want to go back to prison; he reportedly said, “I just got out of prison for the same type charges.” Johnson was released from prison on November 15, 2025.

Johnson has been charged with 40 counts of violating pre-trial release conditions. (Defendants are typically prohibited from contacting their victims until the case is resolved, whether they are in jail or out on bail; regardless of where the inmate is located, these prohibitions are referred to as “pre-trial release conditions.”) The detective asked the judge to limit phone and video visits to attorney use only, and Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered the jail to suspend all computer/telephone use and access except for attorney calls.

Johnson is a designated Violent Felony Offender of Special Concern who has six felony convictions (two violent) and one misdemeanor conviction (violent); he has served one four-year state prison sentence and was released in November 2025. He is on probation until November 2027 for two Alachua County cases.

Judge Susan Miller-Jones added $40,000 in bail ($1,000 per count) to his previous bail of $400,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.