A Texas lawyer pleaded guilty this week to setting his ex-girlfriend鈥檚 Baton Rouge home ablaze last year, even after being court-ordered to stay 100 feet from the woman鈥檚 residence.
But a Baton Rouge judge who sentenced Christian Lee King to three years in prison and probation later rescinded the decision because state law called for more time behind bars, according the District Attorney's office.
King, 31, pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated arson, a felony punishable by six to 20 years in prison 鈥 two years of which must be served without the possibility of parole. It is classified as a violent crime, and state law only allows judges to suspend prison time for such offenses if the maximum sentence is 10 years or less in cases where the victim isn't related to the convicted offender.
District Judge Eboni Johnson Rose imposed a 20-year sentence, but suspended all but 17 years of the prison stint and ordered King to serve five years of probation, according to 19th Judicial District Court records. The judge later vacated both the sentence and King鈥檚 guilty plea, court records showed Wednesday.
East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore said that after reviewing the judge's order, prosecutors from his office notified Johnson Rose that the sentence didn't comply with Louisiana statutes. After conferring with prosecutors and King's attorney during a telephone conference Monday, the judge invalidated the court proceedings from her chambers, Moore said.
This is at least the third mishap that has thrown into limbo the final outcome of cases over which Johnson Rose has presided.
In April, the judge admitted that she erred when she convicted former Baton Rouge police officer Donald Steele Jr. of 鈥渕isdemeanor grade鈥 malfeasance in office after presiding over a two-day bench trial. State law does not include a misdemeanor variant of the felony charge, which is punishable by up to five years behind bars. After mulling over her original verdict for 23 days, Johnson Rose cleared the ex-cop of official misconduct and set him free during an April 18 hearing. The District Attorney鈥檚 office has filed writ notices asking the First Circuit Court of Appeal to review the reversal.
On April 30, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that Johnson Rose bungled the jury鈥檚 verdict in a February 2023 trial for former Baton Rouge teacher Bridgette Digerolamo. The panel originally found Digerolamo not guilty of felony aggravated assault after she was tried for attacking three motorists who drove down her flooded street in July 2021. But Johnson Rose met with the jurors after the verdict and realized they meant to convict the ex-gym teacher of misdemeanor assault. The judge re-summonsed Digerolamo and her attorneys back to the courtroom and rendered a guilty verdict to the less severe charges.
The state Supreme Court reinstated the jury鈥檚 original not-guilty verdict and one of the justices, in a concurring opinion, questioned Johnson Rose鈥檚 鈥減rofessional competency.鈥
Johnson Rose, through her staff, declined to comment on King鈥檚 case when 乱伦社区 reached out to her office Wednesday.
Rules of judicial ethics bar judges from commenting publicly on cases that are still active before them.
Court records show that as part of her in-chambers order, Johnson Rose scheduled a June 10 hearing for attorneys to argue pending motions in the case and set an Aug. 5 trial date.
King, according to evidence in his case, had a GPS monitor strapped to his ankle when he walked up to his ex-girlfriend鈥檚 Baton Rouge home the morning of Jan. 14, 2023.
Authorities note the woman, who shares a child with King, filed for a protective order against him about a month before the alleged arson. In her restraining order petition, the victim said King abused her while she was pregnant with their daughter and later sent her and her mother threatening text messages. GPS records showed King violated that protective order multiple times in the weeks leading up to the alleged incident. Authorities said he doused the woman鈥檚 front door with gasoline and lit it on fire.
The victim and her infant daughter were not home at the time, but watched the incident unfold in real time on surveillance cameras. They reported King to law enforcement, and police quickly apprehended him with assistance from ASAP Release, a New Orleans-based GPS monitoring company that tracked King, records show.
Investigators later found three open-flame lighters in King鈥檚 vehicle along with a gas can filled with about a gallon of gasoline, according to prosecutors鈥 motions in the case. The fire caused an estimated $10,000 in property damages.
If the matter proceeds to trial, prosecutors plan to show evidence from King鈥檚 past crimes of stalking and abuse and also introduce violent acts they allege he committed against his ex-girlfriend, case files indicate.
The ankle monitor King wore during the fiery Baton Rouge incident was the byproduct of a domestic battery case involving a different woman. That victim said he showed up to her New Orleans doorstep unannounced in June 2022, more than a year after she cut ties with him, and pulled a gun on her when she refused to entertain his demands to rekindle their romance. New Orleans cops showed up and found a knife on King and recovered a 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol loaded with 11 bullets on his driver's-seat floorboard, records show. He was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a firearm and ordered to wear a GPS tracking device.
Orleans Parish court records indicate that case is still ongoing.
In her now-vacated ruling, Judge Johnson Rose ordered King to wear an ankle monitor, undergo a mental health evaluation and complete a 26-week domestic violence workshop as part of his probation. Also among the conditions, the judge banned King from entering the state of Louisiana after appearing in court for an Oct. 9 probation review. She planned to transfer his probation supervision to Georgia after the hearing. Court records show Johnson Rose also issued a lifetime protective order barring King from contacting the victim in the case.