Florida teen sentenced to life in prison for raping toddler

BARTOW, Fla. — A 19-year-old Florida man received a life sentence Friday after he was convicted or raping a toddler, officials said.

According to The Associated Press, Thomas James Johnson, of Bartow, pleaded guilty to a charge of child sexual battery in the April 2018 rape of a 2-year-old girl. He was 17 at the time of the incident, authorities said.

Johnson, who had been watching three children in a Polk County home, initially claimed that a masked man broke in and assaulted the girl, the AP reported. But a police dog later found a bloody sheet that indicated Johnson was the perpetrator, according to the news agency.

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