Staff Report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Lorenzo Joshua Johnson Jr., 22, initially detained on January 4 for charges of domestic battery and carjacking, now faces additional legal troubles. He has been accused of breaching his pre-trial release terms with 40 counts of misconduct after allegedly making about 70 phone calls in a week to the victim, urging her to drop the charges.

Johnson’s troubles began on January 4 when he was apprehended for allegedly assaulting a woman, seizing her vehicle, and physically attacking her. Following his arrest, he appeared before Judge Meshon Rawls on January 5, where he was explicitly instructed to refrain from contacting the victim.

However, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Detective reported that immediately after leaving the initial hearing, Johnson reached out to a relative to secure an alternate phone number for the victim, aware that his calls from jail would be blocked on her primary phone. Allegedly, he initiated contact with the victim at 10:50 a.m. on January 5 and continued to call her approximately 70 times over the subsequent seven days.

The Alachua County Jail allows inmates to make unlimited free phone calls, a privilege that Johnson is accused of abusing.

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.