Left: Johnathan Lockett (Birmingham Police Department); Right: Judge Shanta Owens (10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama)
A serial rapist about to be sentenced forgave his victims during comments to the court on Monday. In response, the Alabama judge overseeing his case harshly criticized him – and offered some criticism of the victims as well.
In September, Johnathan Fitzgerald Lockett, 42, who goes by the name “Master Lockett,” was convicted on 12 felony charges for sexually assaulting five women over the course of several years.
Lockett was originally arrested in November 2020, according to a press release issued by the Birmingham Police Department. He was initially charged with counts of attempted rape, sodomy, and kidnapping – all in the first degree – for attacking two women in separate incidents that same month and December 2019.
Over time, investigators connected the condemned man to numerous other sexual assaults and he was indicted on over 30 offenses.
While the state claimed Lockett sexually assaulted, raped, kidnapped, and tortured over a dozen women, he was only tried on 12 separate offenses. He was found guilty on all counts – including five counts of sodomy, four counts of robbery, and one count each of rape, sexual torture, and theft. One charge was dropped during trial after prosecutors determined an alleged victim’s testimony did not support an earlier claim of rape, according to a courtroom report by AL.com.
Content warning: graphic descriptions of sexual assault.
Prosecutors during the trial, which began in late August, proved that Lockett targeted women online – through escort websites and social media dating apps – and promised them money before viciously sexually assaulting them.
In one instance, the defendant repeatedly raped a woman who worked as a dancer before she started doing sex work to keep up with the cost of living. After he raped her, Lockett stole her handgun and then used the gun to rape a different woman, AL.com reported.
Lockett took the stand in his own defense. He testified that he did nothing wrong, that all the sex he had with each of the women was consensual, and said he filmed the encounters to prove it.
Jefferson County prosecutor Isabella Colombo asked Lockett if he would stop if a woman asked him. The defendant replied in the affirmative.
Prosecutors then showed a video where the defendant raped a woman while she cried out in pain and said: “Please, please, please, no, no, no.”
After seven hours of deliberations, he was convicted on Sept. 5. Sentencing was originally slated for October but was pushed back.
On Monday, before the judge handed down the sentence, Lockett declined to admit fault and said he forgave his victim, AL.com reported.
“The Lord is on my side and I will not fear,” the convicted rapist said.
In response, Circuit Judge Shanta Craig Owens mused on the shocking statement with various observations and criticisms.
“For you to say you forgive them, that’s a slap in the face,” the judge reportedly said. “The evidence was overwhelming against you.”
Owens also had some critical words for the women as well.
“As these victims came up and testified, one after the other, it was very clear to see that although the work they did was not a noble profession, it was clear to see that they were all very credible,” the judge reportedly said, AL.com reported. “These were easy convictions. The jury believed every last one of them.”
The judge also offered the women praise for testifying.
“I am so happy that each victim came forward because I think it could have been very easy for them to say, ‘I was engaged in sex work and so I don’t want to move forward,”” Owens reportedly said.
Law&Crime reached out to the court for comment on, or clarification of, these comments but no response was immediately forthcoming.
Owens went on to further criticize the defendant and said: “I hope you will atone for your sickness and your sins.”
Lockett was sentenced to 776 years behind bars. The sentence was assessed to run consecutively.
The sentence, which means he will likely die in prison, was also a topic ripe for the judge’s spoken thoughts.
Owens reportedly reminded the defendant that the state had offered him a 20-year sentence if he took a plea deal. She reportedly recalled her own words how, since the case was so clearly stacked against him, the prosecutors should be fired if the state lost. Owens then reportedly offered Lockett one last piece of memory: how she told him he should talk to people he loves before trying to win an impossible case at trial.
“All through the trial, that’s what I thought about – did he not speak to anyone who loved him?” Owens asked out loud.
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