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Mom finds naked man in bed with 10-year-old son

A woman who woke up to check on her child discovered a naked man in bed with her 10-year-old son.
Ernest Johnson, 25, of Tampa, is accused of breaking into a home and lying naked in a 10-year-old's bed.

TAMPA — A woman who woke up to check on her child discovered a naked man in bed with her 10-year-old son.

The house was locked, said the woman, whose name was not released because her family is the victim of a crime. Yet the suspect, Ernest Johnson, 25, of Tampa, still got in.

"I wake up and check my kid in his room," she said. "Saw him in the bed all naked and started screaming."

She believes the man came though the front door while her family slept but first attempted to enter through a window. The home does not have an alarm system.

"He tried to open it — broke the window to try to go in — couldn't do it," she said.

He was charged Sunday with lewd or lascivious molestation, burglary of an occupied dwelling and possession of burglary tools and remained Monday in Hillsborough County's jail without bond.

After the woman found the naked man, he made a quick exit through another window. Police were able to retrieve his fingerprints.

Johnson was charged previously with exposing himself but is not listed on the state's sex offenders registry, police said.

Johnson lives not far from the family he is accused of victimizing. And the man who owns the place where Johnson was living said the charges don't surprise him.

"We knew he had a problem," Harold Mack said. "I am angry, mad, shocked that he would do something like this but really not surprised.

"A similar situation happened with my nephew, caught in a compromising situation," Mack said. "But we just tried to help him."

Mack said he and his family gave Johnson a place to live when no one else would.

"I don't believe there are more victims, but I wouldn't put it past him," said Jerold Mack, Harold Mack's brother.

The boy, who faced a real-life version of many a child's fears, is recovering, his mom said.

"He was so scared, just a little boy," she said. "He didn't know what to do, He was sleeping the whole time, didn't know he was in the bed."

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