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Man charged in Littleton trail attack faces new charges for Denver sex assault, bookstore attack

Posted at 4:51 PM, Jul 31, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-31 20:25:01-04

DENVER – The man formally charged Tuesday for the alleged sexual assault of a woman on the Mary Carter Greenway trail in Littleton now also faces charges in connection to another sexual assault and separate assault that happened in March in Denver.

Johnny Dewayne Harris, 48, was formally charged Tuesday in an Arapahoe County courtroom with multiple sexual assault counts, one count of second-degree kidnapping, two assault counts and two sentence enhancers in the trail attack, which happened July 25.

In that incident, Harris is accused of grabbing a woman off the trail, tying her up and sexually assaulting her before she was able to escape and get help from a nearby man, who held Harris down until police arrived. The woman suffered broken bones and other injuries in the attack.

Harris agreed to speak with police after his arrest last week, and according to a probable cause statement for his arrest, admitted to the attack.

But Harris now faces new charges in similar attacks that happened in Denver while he was apparently living out of his car near 20th Ave. and Arapahoe Road in March, according to court documents.

Harris now faces 10 additional charges out of Denver for the two incidents, including two counts of sexual assault, two counts of second-degree assault, kidnapping and menacing charges and one count of criminal attempt to commit sexual assault. He was formally charged Friday, according to Denver District Attorney’s Office spokesman Ken Lane.

According to an affidavit for Harris’s arrest in those incidents, Harris in the early-morning hours of March 26 offered to give a woman a ride near 20th and Arapahoe, but instead, he drove her behind a building near I-25 and Florida Ave. and demanded she take her clothes off while she was being held at knifepoint.

After the woman tried to run, Harris assaulted and then sexually assaulted her, according to the affidavit. He told the woman to get dressed then they drove away together. But after Harris stopped at a convenience store to buy cigarettes, she ran into the store and asked the clerk to call police.

Harris drove off, according to the affidavit, but police were able to get surveillance footage of him and his vehicle, which they eventually released in a Crime Stoppers bulletin in April.

But the next day, according to the affidavit, Harris went to a book store on Broadway and assaulted a store worker there at knifepoint. The affidavit says that he told the woman that he would kill her if she didn’t stop screaming or resisting.

But she was able to grab the knife, kick Harris and throw a stool at him, forcing him to flee the store, according to the affidavit. She told police afterward that she thought Harris was “trying to rape her, but he did not expect her to fight back,” the affidavit says. Harris also had written down several authors’ names he was apparently searching for before the attack, which police were able to use as evidence, along with surveillance video from the store.

Since Harris had left his name on the piece of paper at the bookstore, police were able to use that information to discover what car he owned, where he worked and where he was living at the time.

Photographic lineups were made for both victims in the Denver attacks, and both identified Harris as the man who attacked them, according to the affidavit.

Texas sex offender records additionally show that Harris had to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life after a 1999 conviction for assaulting a 15-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and registered as a sex offender in 2014 upon his release.

Colorado court records show that he was charged with several sex crimes in January 2016 in Denver as well, though many of the charges were dropped when he pleaded guilty to indecent exposure. But he failed to register as a sex offender and pleaded guilty in December 2016 for failing to do so. He received an 18-month jail sentence.

Court records show that Harris remains held at the Arapahoe County jail on a $1 million cash bond. He is next due in court in Denver on Aug. 13 for his second advisement on the charges relating to the March attacks, and his preliminary hearing in the Littleton case is set for Oct. 15.