Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter from Brooksville Sentenced to Life for Child Molestation

Andrew Paul Johnson, 45, a Brooksville handyman and a participant in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol breach who was included in President Donald Trump’s mass pardons of more than 1,500 defendants, was sentenced to life in prison by County Circuit Judge Stephen Toner on March 5, 2026 following a February conviction on five state child-sex charges.

Prosecutors from the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Bill Gladson’s office said the convictions included molestation, lewd and lascivious exhibition and electronically transmitting material harmful to a minor, with some accounts listing two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation along with transmission charges. Authorities described two juvenile victims; outlets variously reported the victims as middle-school-aged, as a child under 12 and another under 16, or as between 12 and 16, reflecting differences in charging and reporting.

Investigators in Hernando County located sexually explicit messages between Johnson and one victim on the Discord messaging app, and the state attorney’s office said, “In the messages, Johnson attempted to have the victim download another application for a more private conversation and encouraged the victim to delete their messages afterwards.” The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office reported that Johnson told a victim he expected a government windfall after his pardon and that he would put the victim in his will, a tactic the sheriff’s office said “was believed to be used to keep (the child) from exposing what Andrew had done.”

Local timelines show deputies began investigating in July 2025 after the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office received a report that two juveniles had been victims of lewd and lascivious acts over many months; accounts conflict on the exact arrest month, with some reports saying he was arrested in July 2025 and others saying August 2025. Court filings and the Sheriff’s Office arrest log are the definitive records to reconcile that discrepancy.

Courtroom reporting said Johnson broke down crying during the sentencing hearing and said, “I’m sorry, man.” The Fifth Judicial Circuit prosecuted the case, and the life sentence was imposed after jurors or a court found him guilty in February 2026 of the five counts that underlie the sentence.

The case has drawn national attention because Johnson had been among those pardoned as part of the January 2025 clemency actions, and it comes amid other incidents involving pardoned Jan. 6 defendants, including a March 2, 2026 arrest of Bryan Betancur by Metro Transit Police and related reports of other post-pardon arrests. The Justice Department’s payout of just under $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt has figured in broader debates about the consequences of the pardons.

For survivors in Hernando County and beyond, resources remain available; the National Sexual Assault Hotline offers free, confidential, 24/7 support in English and Spanish at 800.656.HOPE (4673). The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office and the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s office handled the investigation and prosecution, and court records and the state attorney’s press release contain the detailed evidentiary and charging information.