Man gets 15-year sentence in Florida propane tank death

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. (WALA) - A man found guilty in March of killing another man by hitting him over the head with a propane tank was sentenced this week to 15 years in prison, Florida’s Office of the State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit announced.

On Thursday, Circuit Judge John F. Simon handed the maximum sentence to Timothy Lavon Johnson after the state argued that Johnson’s decision to leave the victim alone with his injuries was inhumane, prosecutors said.

On March 15, an Escambia County jury found Johnson guilty of manslaughter in the case stemming from 2021.

According to authorities, Johnson and the victim got into an altercation sometime during the night between July 17 and July 18, 2021. Johnson hit the victim over the head with a steel propane tank and left the scene. The victim was found several hours later crawling around where the altercation had taken place, unable to speak or stand, prosecutors said.

The victim was taken to the hospital and died of his injuries on July 28, 2021. The autopsy revealed he died from blunt force trauma to the head that caused severe hemorrhaging, according to the state attorney’s office.