Saginaw Man Sentenced 30 Years Federal Prison for Domestic Violence

Michael Lee Johnson, a 45-year-old man from Saginaw, Michigan, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after being convicted of multiple violent crimes against his girlfriend, including unlawful imprisonment, strangulation, suffocation, interstate domestic violence, and witness tampering. The offenses occurred on the Isabella Reservation in Mt. Pleasant, the primary land base of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. Evidence revealed that after the victim ended their relationship, Johnson ignored parole orders to leave their home and sent her a Facebook message stating, "I wanna do something evil," before violently assaulting her by throwing her into a wall, strangling, and suffocating her. He also assaulted her in front of her children and held her captive in a bedroom the night before the assaults. The investigation was conducted jointly by the Saginaw Chippewa Police Department and the FBI, and the prosecution was led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Roy Kranz and Timothy Turkelson. These details were confirmed by U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. and were consistent across multiple federal court and Department of Justice announcements.