“That’s a slap in the face,’' Judge Shanta Craig Owens said after his statement. “I hope you will atone for your sickness and your sins."
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Serial Birmingham rapist Master Lockett forgives his victims as he gets 776 years in prison
- Updated: Nov. 13, 2023, 11:51 a.m.|
- Published: Nov. 13, 2023, 10:39 a.m.
Johnathan Fitzgerald Lockett, who goes by the name Master Lockett.
By
A Birmingham man convicted on rape, sodomy, robbery, sexual torture and theft was sentenced Monday after being
convicted last month on 12 felony charges.
Circuit Judge Shanta Craig Owens sentenced 42-year-old Johnathan Fitzgerald Lockett, who goes by the name of Master Lockett, to
776 years in prison, with those sentences to be served consecutively.
The crimes took place from October 2019 through November 2020.
Lockett spoke before Owens pronounced his sentence. He acknowledged no wrongdoing and said he forgives the victims.
“The Lord is on my side and I will not fear,’' Lockett said before a packed courtroom.
Prosecutors had previously offered Lockett a deal for 20 years if he pleaded guilty, but Lockett refused to take the plea.
Judge Owens on Monday spoke to Lockett about that decision, saying that she had previously told him that if the state could not convict him, they should be fired. Owens said the probability of his conviction was extremely high.
She said she encouraged him to speak to those who loved him and who would want to see him back home one day.
“All through the trial, that’s what I thought about - did he not speak to anyone who loved him?’' Owens said.
“As these victims came up and testified, one after the other, it was very clear to see that although the work they did was not a noble profession, it was clear to see that they were all very credible.”
“These were easy convictions,’' the judge said. “The jury believed every last one of them.”
“I will never forget how (one of the victims) took the stand and cried profusely, how we had to recess court because she couldn’t get it out,’' Owens said. “That was not a woman lying.”
“For you to say you forgive them, that’s a slap in the face,’' Owens said. “The evidence was overwhelming against you.”
“I hope you will atone for your sickness and your sins,’' she said.
Following Lockett’s conviction in September, District Attorney Danny Carr said Jefferson County would be a safer place with Lockett behind bars.
“I would describe Master Lockett as a narcissist, as a very violent guy,’’ Carr said. “Finally, he will be off the streets, and I thank God for that.”
“I hope today’s sentence sends a loud and resounding message to the criminal element that there are real consequences,’' Carr said today. “Thank you to the law enforcement agencies who helped with this case and special thank you to the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative team here at the District Attorney’s in conjunction with the assistant district attorneys who poured into this case.”
Jefferson County prosecutors Isabella Colombo and Julie McMakin said Lockett, a massage therapist operating under the business name Mr. Phalanges, preyed on women who were down on their luck and turned to prostitution to make ends meet.
He connected with the women through online escort websites and then violently sodomized them against their will.
Lockett and his attorney, Jason Wollitz, however, claimed the women weren’t victims, but sex workers and drug addicts who often sought out Lockett because they knew he could provide them with drugs and went to him on a regular basis. Wollitz said his client did things that most people wouldn’t do, but said that didn’t make him a serial rapist.
Lockett testified on his own behalf and said all of the sex acts with the women were consensual.
He said he had a fetish for what he called the Triple Threat - oral sex, vaginal sex, and then anal sex. He said he suffered from erectile dysfunction and the oral sex would prepare him for the rest.
Testimony throughout the September trial week showed Lockett stole a gun from one of his victims and used it to anally rape another victim.
Under questioning by prosecutors, Lockett said he videoed his sexual encounters with women to show it was consensual so he wouldn’t find himself in the position he is currently in – accused of rape.
“I record as proof I didn’t do nothing out of line, I didn’t force nobody to do anything,’’ he testified.
Colombo asked Lockett repeatedly if he would stop the sex act if a woman said no, and Lockett said he would.
However, prosecutors showed the jurors a video of Lockett anally raping a woman who repeatedly pleaded for him stop. She was in obvious pain, and yelling, “Please, please, please, no, no, no.”
Lockett’s attorney argued that the video should not be shown to the jury because the woman in the video has never been identified by investigators and did not file charges against him. Because it was not of any of the five victims for which Lockett was on trial, Wollitz said it was highly prejudicial.
Judge Owens allowed the video to be shown because it was being used to impeach Lockett’s testimony.
Johnathan Fitzgerald Lockett, who goes by the name Master Lockett.
Birmingham police in November 2020 first announced the arrest of Lockett. More women came forward and Lockett was eventually indicted on roughly 30 charges involving 12 sexual assault victims.
He has only gone to trial in five of the of those 12 cases. All five of those victims testified against him.
In an Oct. 28, 2019, attack, a victim who worked as a dancer at a gentleman’s club in Birmingham said she was struggling financially, and a friend pointed her to an escort website where she could make extra money as a sex worker.
Prosecutors say Lockett responded to her ad and eventually they agreed to meet in the 7800 block of First Avenue South in East Lake.
The victim thought they would go into the house there for their “date,” but instead Lockett took her to the back of the house. The victim told him she had a gun and that angered him, Colombo said.
He shoved her, grabbed her by the hair, and then rummaged through her purse, taking out her purple and black handgun.
The suspect then raped her both vaginally and anally, prosecutors said. The victim could be heard on a video saying, “Oh God, please no.”
In December 2019, another woman began communicating with someone who authorities said was Lockett on the Skip the Games Escort App. She was struggling with addiction and desperate for cash.
They agreed to meet on Dec. 6 in the 7800 block of First Avenue South.
When the victim arrived, the suspect told her they had to have their “date” in the garage because his family was inside the residence. She performed oral sex on him, and they engaged in consensual vaginal and anal sex.
However, a dispute arose when Lockett supposedly went over his time allotment. Prosecutors said they had previously agreed on $100 for 15 minutes.
Prosecutors said he raped her vaginally and anally, at gunpoint. He is accused of pistol whipping her and stealing her purse.
That victim was taken to the hospital where she underwent emergency eye surgery. She was left with permanent eye damage.
On April 3, another woman posted an ad about Skip the Games app at the suggestion of a friend.
Prosecutors say Lockett responded and provided her with his TextApp number. They agreed to meet, again $100 for 15 minutes, she picked him up where he directed her to an alley in East Lake.
Authorities say Lockett raped the woman vaginally and anally at gunpoint in the backseat, filming her and taking pictures of her.
When he was done, he took her cellphone and her ID and threw it. The victim was able to find her cellphone and call 911.
The fourth attack happened in July 2020.
Prosecutors say that victim, who was living out of her car, was at the Sunoco gas station on Birmingham’s east side needing parts for her car.
A man in a black Nissan Versa - Lockett - approached her and they talked. He told her he was an Uber drive and would take her to Auto Zone to get parts for her car.
While driving, allegedly Lockett told her his wife gave him money to have sex with other women, and he told the victim he likes anal sex, Colombo said.
He got into the back seat with her and raped her. They with to a second location, the prosecutor said, where Lockett sodomized the woman with the purple and black gun he stole from the earlier victim.
He left her there, taking with him her purse which contained her car keys, wallet, and cellphone.
In the fifth assault, on Nov. 2, 2020, a nail technician whose business had suffered because of COVID-19, posted an ad on Skip the Games.
Lockett responded and they agreed to vaginal sex. He picked her up and she got into the back seat, where the suspect drove her to an apartment building.
Instead of going inside, Colombo said, Lockett told her they’re going to have their “date” on the steps.
The suspect then is accused of raping her anally. Colombo said the victim was “humiliated, embarrassed, and violated,’’ and begged him to take her home.
But the suspect said he needed his car washed and took her with him.
She begged to go home and allegedly Lockett dragged her out of the car and choked her. Three people witnessed the assault and came to her aid after Lockett left.
They were able to get Lockett’s license plate number, which led investigators to the registered owner, which was Lockett’s girlfriend at the time.
A search warrant on the car turned up 10 different cellphones. A second search warrant at the apartment of Lockett and his girlfriend turned up more than 30 other cellphones, including one of the sexual assault victims.
The girlfriend, Colombo said, later gave police more evidence, which included the cellphone of another victim.
The prosecutor said analysis of Lockett’s cellphone by Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office Investigator Ben Short put Lockett’s cellphone at all five locations of the sexual assaults.
Ultimately, Jefferson County’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, also known as SAKI, helped link Lockett to all of the sex crime victims.
SAKI takes in-depth and comprehensive looks at sexual assault across the county – which includes 27 jurisdictions and two district attorney’s offices.
