Convicted sex offender faces 25 year prison term

A convicted sex offender who has twice failed to register with the state while residing in Stillwater County is facing a 25 year prison sentence.
Johan Albert Smith, 48, appeared in district court late last month and entered into a plea agreement in which the Stillwater County Attorney's Office will recommend a 25 year prison sentence with a parole restriction dependent on the completion of Phase 1 and Phase 2 sexual offender treatment.
Smith, who has been in custody since his March 26 arrest, pleaded guilty to failing to register as a sex offender. Prosecutors have also designated him a Persistent Felony Offender, which adds a mandatory minimum five years on his sentence.
His arrest came following a citizen’s tip that Smith was living in Stillwater County again but had not registered with the state, as is required by law. At that time, Smith was supposed to have been living in Billings but had not been there for six weeks.
The state’s Sexual Violent Offender Registry lists Smith as a “non-compliant registrant” and “address verification overdue.” His last known address was in Billings.
Smith’s criminal history includes a third degree assault conviction in King County, Wash., in 1996 and attempted rape in Virginia in 1988 and failing to register as a sex offender in Stillwater County in 2009 and 2015, according to the Sexual Violent Offender Registry and court documents.

Disturbing history
Smith came to the attention of local law enforcement in 2008 when he was arrested for DUI by Columbus police. It was then discovered he was a convicted sex offender who had never registered with the state.
At that time Smith claimed he was unaware of the requirement but that defense drew no sympathy from 22nd Judicial District Judge Blair Jones, who imposed a 5 year sentence with the Department of Corrections, with two years suspended.
Smith served three years in a detention facility. Less than two weeks after being released, he was arrested for violating his probation by being in contact with a 4-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl in Billings. Contact with children had been prohibited and Smith’s sentence was revoked. Jones then sent him to the Montanan State Prison for the remaining two years of his sentence.
After he was released, the last time he made contact with state authorities was in 2013. Local law enforcement learned he was in Stillwater County again through a citizen’s tip.