A 66-year-old Houston man was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison without parole for molesting children, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.

“This man repeatedly abused and victimized children without a second thought to the pain and damage he was inflicting,” Ogg said. “It seems clear that justice demands that he spend the rest of his life in prison.”

Sherman Lee Johnson, 66, pleaded guilty to continuous sexual abuse of a child for assaulting a young girl beginning in 2009 and continuing to 2020 when the girl alerted authorities. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office investigated and arrested Johnson.

Johnson was known to the girl’s family and manipulated his position as an older man who could be trusted to take advantage of the girl and other victims.

Johnson was a long-time repeat offender who was first convicted of rape in 1977.

Assistant District Attorneys Tim Goodwin and Jarell Gibson, who are assigned to the DA’s Crimes Against Children Division, prosecuted Johnson.

“Parents and families have to stay ever vigilant about who they can trust because there are predators like this who hide among us in plain sight,” Goodwin said. “This is a just result because the defendant will have to serve every day of the 25-year sentence with no chance at parole.”

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