BATAVIA, Ohio — Jacob Bumpass has been sentenced to four years in prison for charges connected to the disappearance and death of a 17-year-old girl over a decade ago.
The sentence is the maximum possible for the charges on which Bumpass was convicted.
"The court finds you show no genuine remorse for your conduct," Judge Kevin Miles said to Bumpass, who didn't seem to react to the strong words.
That unflinching demeanor displayed by Bumpass on Thursday as well as throughout the entirety of his trial played into Miles' decision, the common pleas court judge said. After he remained tight lipped during his trial, Miles gave Bumpass a final opportunity to address the Court before sentencing but he declined.
"No empathy for what happened to Paige, no empathy for what happened to the family, no concern for Paige's body or her remains," Miles said. "This would be, on a scale of 1-10, this would be a 10 the absolute worst form of tampering with evidence charge that I have seen through my experience. You've certainly escaped punishment for I think 13 years but what's clear now is that everyone sees you, knows the truth and knows what you did."
Miles handed down his sentence after listening to three impact statements fro members of Paige Johnson's family. The teen's older sister, Brittany Haywood, spoke first.
"Paige left behind a daughter who was 2 years old when this happened. She has little to no memories of her mom and she has to live the rest of her life without knowing a mother's true, unconditional love," Haywood said to Miles, fighting back tears.
Johnson's younger brother, Garrett, spoke second. It was the first time he'd spoken publicly on his sister's death.
"My sister was my best friend in the whole world," he said. "She protected me and made me smile and then one day that was all gone and taken from me."
Johnson's mother, Donna, spoke last. Her words were just as emotional as they were when she took the stand in Bumpass' trial.
"She was left in those woods with no dignity like he took that from her like he just left her for animals to eat," she told Miles.
Bumpass was found guilty of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse; The jury deliberated for over two days before delivering their verdict.
The judge gives Bumpass the MAXIMUM sentence of 4 years in the department of corrections. Tampering with evidence — 36 months Abuse of a corpse — 12 months. Those sentences will be served consecutively. @WCPO pic.twitter.com/LZNBO51oUV
— Valerie Lyons (@VLyonsTV) September 7, 2023
The trial took place 13 years after Johnson disappeared; her remains were found in 2020 by a hiker off of State Route 276 — just 2 miles from a spot in East Fork State Park where investigators originally searched for Johnson's body following her disappearance.
After three years of litigation outside of court, Bumpass' trial began on July 17.
Bumpass was never charged with Johnson's murder. That's because prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to file homicide charges, in part because coroners were unable to determine a cause of death for the 17-year-old mother.
Instead, he faced two charges: One count of tampering with evidence and one count of abuse of a corpse.
More than a dozen witnesses took the stand over three days of testimony including Johnson's family, investigators, the man who found her remains and a retired FBI cell phone data expert.
First to take the stand was Johnson's mother, Donna, who has been vocal since her daughter's disappearance.
The still-grieving mother was almost instantly in tears as prosecutor Clay Tharp began asking questions.
Tharp asked her to describe Paige, at one point asking if the teen was trusting.
"Clearly," Donna said. "I would say naive, young."
He then asked her to detail the night of September 22, 2010.
She said she was laying in her bed that night and Paige walked in around 10:30 p.m. to ask if she could go to her older sister, Brittany's, apartment, which was in Covington. She thought she said her friend Jason was going to give her a ride over there, she said.
Donna said Paige didn't have a car nor a license and that she knew and trusted Jason. But it was Bumpass who picked her up, not Jason.
He was the last person to see her alive, investigators said.
The defense argued that there were multiple searches around East Fork State Park that led to nothing. Bumpass's attorney, Louis Sirkin, asked several detectives throughout the trial if there was a possibility the remains simply were not there during the original searches.
But testimony from David Rader, director of EquuSearch Midwest, said the area where the remains were found never peaked law enforcement's radar. Rader worked with police during their searches, noting that her remains were found off a small path that was easy to miss off State Route 32.
Covington Det. Austin Ross, the last investigator on Johnson's case, told the jury the cell tower Bumpass's phone pinged off in 2010 was just over a mile away from East Fork State Park. AT&T only keeps records for seven years, but from 2014 to 2020, there were no other pings in that area from Bumpass's phone.
Kevin Horan, a retired FBI agent and current cell phone data expert who reviewed phone records in this case explained how cell towers work.
While they send and receive signals to cell phones within a 360-degree radius, typically extending a mile out, those signals are also pinpointed within certain zones of that radius.
Horan explained Bumpass' phone records put him on S. R. 32 heading east toward the location Johnson's remains were found in the early morning of September 23, or at least his phone was moving that way.
He said the phone pings suggested he was in the area between 4:13 and 4:18 a.m. and then heading west back to his home in Taylor Mill at 5 a.m.
"Until somebody convinces me that this was not a homicide, I will always be a little disappointed that there will not be more justice available for the Johnson family," said Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders in 2020.
Dental records helped identify Johnson and DNA evidence allowed prosecutors to file the charges against Bumpass.
Prior to the trial's start, Johnson's sister, Brittany Haywood, said she'd been looking forward to laying her sister to rest regardless of the trial's outcome.
Johnson's remains have been kept in evidence since they were recovered, and Haywood said she plans to finally bury her sister once they're released.
Bumpass' defense attorney said he plans on filing an appeal.
READ MORE:
Detective: Jacob Bumpass's phone pinged in radius where Paige Johnson's remains were found
'Hardest thing I ever had to': Emotional testimony continues in Jacob Bumpass trial
'Left to the animals, cold and alone': Opening statements pave way to family testimony in Bumpass trial
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