A man who as a teenager fired on his middle school classmates has been sentenced to an extra six years in prison for using a stolen debit card, this time to pay for a $7.99 Burger King breakfast.
Mitchell Johnson, 24, pleaded guilty and was sentenced Thursday for theft by receiving and financial identity fraud. It was his third sentencing since he was released from prison three years ago for his role in the school shooting.
"You continue to run afoul of the law. I am hopeful this is the last time," Circuit Judge William Storey said. The judge's sentence adds six more years to the total time Johnson faces in prison.
Johnson was 13 when he and an 11-year-old schoolmate, Andrew Golden, killed four students and a teacher at Jonesboro Westside Middle School in March 1998. Ten other people were injured.
Johnson was sentenced in November to 12 years in prison for the January 2008 theft of the debit card and a purchase he made with the card in Benton County. Thursday's 18-year sentence, to run concurrently, was for using the card to buy the Burger King breakfast in Washington County.
Johnson already is serving a four-year prison sentence for a federal conviction for gun and drug possession, stemming from an arrest in 2007. He is to serve the debit card-related state sentences after completing the federal sentence.
As for Golden, he was released from prison in 2007 and tried to start a new life, changing his name and enrolling at a Batesville community college. But he was back in the news last month when police revealed that he had applied for a state concealed weapons permit and was turned down.
