ST. LOUIS (AP) – A Lindenwood University wrestler has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for infecting another man with HIV and endangering four other sexual partners.
Twenty-five-year-old Michael Johnson was sentenced Thursday after reaching a plea deal.
He initially was ordered to serve 30 years after a 2015 conviction for recklessly infecting another with HIV and four other counts. But an appeals court tossed the guilty verdict, finding that a trial court erred in admitting jail recordings that weren’t disclosed to Johnson’s attorneys until the trial’s first day.
Johnson was a student-athlete at Lindenwood University in St. Charles until his 2013 arrest. Prosecutors argued that Johnson lied to sexual partners. The case drew the attention of legal reform groups and gay rights activists.