Lavar Johnson sentenced to five years in prison for assault on girlfriend
Former UFC, Bellator, and Strikeforce heavyweight competitor Lavar Johnson was sentenced to five years in prison for assaulting his girlfriend last summer.
Judge Glenda Allen-Hill issued the sentence after Johnson was admitted to and was found guilty of a domestic violence incident that occurred August 11, 2015 in which the intoxicated 6-foot-4, 260-pound Johnson brutally beat his girlfriend of seven years.
In an article published by ABC News Fresno, Johnson became irate because his then girlfriend was tracking him with GPS.
According to police reports, Johnson slammed his former girlfriend’s head against the wall and ground repeatedly before attacking her with a series of knees and fists.
In court yesterday Johnson said, “”I’m sorry,” he said. “I take full responsibility for my actions.”
“It does appear there were times when Mr. Johnson could have stopped this offense,” Judge Allen-Hill told the court. “That he could have not inflicted the amount of damage that he inflicted on his victim, but he did not.”
Not his first run-in with the law
This was not Johnson’s first domestic violence charge, as the 38-year old fighter spent 30 days in jail for an incident back in 2007.
In 2009, Johnson was shot at a family outing in Bakersfield, California. One other person was killed.
Johnson (18-10) fought a total of four times in the UFC octagon, splitting his record at 2-2. His last professional fight was at Bellator 123 in September 2014, a loss to Cheick Kongo.
