Driver In Fatal Chattanooga Bus Crash Arrested For Nashville Rape

NASHVILLLE, TN -- Metro Nashville Police arrested the former Chattanooga school bus driver convicted of six counts of criminally negligent homicide after a deadly 2016 crash Thursday, charging him with aggravated statutory rape.

According to investigators, Johnthony Walker, 25, admitted he had sex with a 14-year-old at the Nashville home where he's been staying in recent weeks. He's being held on a $350,000 bond.

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In March, a Hamilton County jury convicted Walker of six counts of criminally negligent homicide, 11 counts of reckless aggravated assault and seven counts of assault in the November 2016 school bus crash on a windy road near Chattanooga that killed six elementary school students and injured dozens more. He was sentenced to four years in prison and was out on bond pending an appeal of the sentence, which was denied Monday. Hamilton County’s DA is now asking for that bond to be revoked. A spokesman for the office told The Tennessean the judge had encouraged Walker to leave Chattanooga during his appeals process because he’d been receiving death threats.

Detectives in Nashville began investigating Walker following a complaint from the teen girl's parents. He reportedly admitted he'd had sex with her five times and that the relationship had developed over the course of a few months.

He is due in court in Nashville June 18.

Image via Metro Nashville Police