Man Acquitted in Phylicia Barnes Case to Stand Trial in Baltimore County Rape, Strangulation Case

A man once charged in one of Baltimore’s most high-profile unsolved killings is set to stand trial this week in an unrelated sexual assault and strangulation case in Baltimore County.

In July 2024, a 19-year-old woman told Baltimore County investigators that Michael Maurice Johnson, 42, of York, Pennsylvania, raped and strangled her over several hours. Johnson is charged with first-degree rape, attempted first-degree murder and assault. He has pleaded not guilty.

Johnson and the woman were in a relationship at the time of the alleged assault, which police say occurred in an apartment on the 6100 block of Marquette Road in the Rosedale-Overlea area.

According to investigators, the woman said Johnson became angry after overhearing her phone conversation referencing other men. She told officers he assaulted her for hours and strangled her both with his hands and with a cord from an electric fan.

Police said the woman’s tongue was so swollen after the assault that she could not verbally respond to officers’ questions and instead communicated by typing on her phone.

Melissa Cross, R.N., a forensic nurse examiner who evaluated the woman at GBMC, testified at a preliminary hearing in March that the woman was unable to swallow and had difficulty controlling her saliva due to the swelling.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin today, and the trial is expected to last five days. The victim is expected to testify.

Johnson was previously the primary suspect in the 2010 killing of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes in Baltimore but was ultimately acquitted after years of multiple trials.

Barnes, of Monroe, North Carolina, disappeared in December 2010 while visiting family in Baltimore. She was last seen at the apartment of her half-sister, where Johnson—her sister’s boyfriend—was also present. Her body was later found in the Susquehanna River.

Investigators at the time said they believed Barnes likely died from strangulation following a sexual assault.

Johnson was convicted of second-degree murder at his first trial in 2013, but a judge later vacated the conviction and ordered a new trial before sentencing. The second trial ended in a mistrial, and a third trial—held as a bench trial—ended March 30, 2018, when a judge ruled the evidence was insufficient to convict.

No one has been legally held responsible for Barnes’ death.

Barnes’ mother attended a preliminary hearing in the new case on March 25 in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

At that hearing, Judge Jan Alexander ruled that jurors will be allowed to hear testimony from two medical professionals about the nature and severity of the alleged assault. Cross and Dr. Ellen Deibert, who reviewed the woman’s medical records, both testified.

The woman had pinpoint red and brown spots, known as petechial hemorrhages, around her neck—an indication of possible strangulation, the witnesses said. The spots are caused by broken capillaries leaking blood into the skin.

The woman also reported losing consciousness, as well as urinary and bowel control, while being strangled. Deibert testified that the woman had bruising on her neck and broken blood vessels in her eyes—symptoms she said were consistent with a prolonged strangulation event that could have been life-threatening.

If Johnson is convicted of all his pending charges, he could face up to life in prison.