By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County jury composed of seven men and five women deliberated for only two hours before acquitting a young man last week of raping his ex-girlfriend — whom he had dated briefly at Cushing High School — in a motel room in Stillwater on May 20, 2021, when he was 19.
Jurors also acquitted Keaton Blake Johnson, now 21, who moved from Cushing to Perkins a few months ago, of the lesser included offenses of sexual battery, a felony, and assault and battery, a misdemeanor. He had been free on $50,000 bail since his arrest on Jan. 24, 2022, court records show.
His ex-girlfriend, now 21, who was then 19 and weighed 100 pounds, testified Johnson sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious at a motel after drinking five or six beers, having two hits of marijuana on a vape, and taking bipolar medication prescribed six days earlier. She testified that when she woke up to being raped, she asked Johnson “what’s going on?” and he said, “nothing,” and quit.
At his trial last week, Johnson told jurors that he had never done anything sexually with his accuser that was not consensual — either when they were dating or when they were just friends hanging out with another young woman, who went with them to the Stillwater motel where they drank and took marijuana. Johnson testified he did not have sexual intercourse with his accuser that night but said that he had consensual digital sex with her.
The accuser’s female friend, who had the flu and was unable to come to the courthouse, testified by video that she was also unconscious after “I drank alcohol and then I took sleep medication,” which she had been prescribed. She said she didn’t remember using marijuana that night. She testified that when she was awakened by her friend, “She (the accuser) said it’s bad and told me a little bit what happened.”
“We went straight back to Cushing to drop him off. The car ride was silent. We decided to remove him from social media,” she testified. She told the jury she went back with her friend to the Stillwater Medical Center where the accuser had a rape test and then they went to Wings of Hope to get a protective order for the accuser on May 20, 2021.
Sexual assault examiner Kayla Pierce, a registered nurse who performed the rape test at SMC, testified that Johnson’s accuser “did have vaginal pain before the exam,” and documented her injuries as abrasions and lacerations or tears. On cross-examination, the nurse admitted she could not say if the injuries were from consensual or forcible sex.
In his closing argument, defense attorney Royce Hobbs told the jury, “These three kids would get together and drink their alcohol and experiment with drugs. He (Johnson) told you after the cocaine experiment (on a separate occasion), (the accuser) was having a problem. She went for treatment. She told us she had been put on bipolar medication six days earlier. On May 19 and 20 (of 2021), she’s back to doing what she had been doing — doing drugs and drinking alcohol.
“You saw him testify. They want you to think he’s some sexual predator…He testified he went to bed and didn’t wake up till the next morning when the girls woke him up. If you had just been raped as she claimed, why in the world would you wake him up and drive him home? Is that reasonable with what she claims happened?”
Assistant District Attorney Erica Garuccio told the jury, “Consent cannot be given by an individual who is asleep. Consent can’t be inferred because at one time they had sex.”
In the final closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent said, “If they were making it up, would you make up these things?”
Asking the jury to find Johnson guilty of first-degree rape, the prosecutor conceded she knew, “It’s hard to think about punishment for young people.”
