23-Year-Old Former College Wrestler Found Guilty Of Transferring HIV to Gay Partners
A 23-year-old former college wrestler known as ‘Tiger Mandingo’ in online circle was found guilty of infecting one gay sex partner with HIV, and attempting to expose four others to the virus.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Michael L. Johnson faces life in prison after a St. Charles Country, Mo. Jury found him guilty on five to six counts on Thursday.
Assistant Prosecutor Phil Groenweghe told jurors during close arguments that Johnson continued to have sex with multiple men in his Lindenwood University dorm room, even after testing HIV positive in December 2011.
Johnson told two of his sex partners that he was disease-free when asked, according to Groenweghe.
It was found that police officials confiscated his laptop and found 32 videos of him having unprotected sex, often in his dorm room at the Presbyterian college, the Post-Dispatch reported.
Johnson was a state wrestling champion from Indianapolis before capturing the 2012 National Junior College championship at Lincoln College in Illinois. Then he transferred to NCAA Division II Lindenwood.
Testifying himself Johnson said he was scared and confused and didn’t have any knowledge of HIV. He said he only knew that it was STD, that’s all.
Johnson was also diagnosed with other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea.
But the prosecution showed evidence that Johnson tested positive for HIV two years earlier in Indiana, the Post-Dispatch reported.
Johnson in a taped interview that was played in court said that it was completely known to him and he didn’t know how to tell people about it.
It was found that the former Lindenwood University wrestler allegedly met sex partners through social media and reportedly had sex in his dorm room.
Johnson was expelled from the university and has remained in jail since his arrest in October 2013.