Latest / NO FILTER / She Was Dead in The Closet. He Had No Idea. The Murder of Andrea Cincotta [True Crime Documentary]

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She Was Dead in The Closet. He Had No Idea. The Murder of Andrea Cincotta [True Crime Documentary] · NO FILTER

0:00
Speaker 1: Christopher Johnson was home alone in his two bedroom apartment
0:04
Speaker 1: for six and a half hours before he discovered his
0:07
Speaker 1: fiance Andrea, brutally murdered inside their bedroom closet. It was
0:12
Speaker 1: a story that for many was hard to fathom. There
0:15
Speaker 1: should have been red flags all over their home, signs
0:18
Speaker 1: that something had happened, voicemails from friends missing items, but
0:23
Speaker 1: Chris Johnson missed them all or did he? Hi there,
0:33
Speaker 1: I'm Kevin, and welcome to Just Thought Lounge. Today's case
0:36
Speaker 1: begins over twenty years ago under strange circumstances. Investigations and
0:41
Speaker 1: speculation continued throughout the following decades, with even more bizarre developments.
0:46
Speaker 1: There's a lot going on in this case, and quite
0:48
Speaker 1: a few details of this story that haven't been fully
0:51
Speaker 1: fleshed out. Let's take a look. Arlington, Virginia is a
1:10
Speaker 1: well off suburb of nearby Washington, d C. In the
1:13
Speaker 1: late nineteen nineties, it was much as it is now,
1:16
Speaker 1: a bustling and vibrant community, well connected to the city
1:20
Speaker 1: but with a small town feel. James Christopher Johnson, or
1:24
Speaker 1: just Chris, was twenty six years old when he met
1:27
Speaker 1: Andrea Sincatta on Labor Day, nineteen eighty eight, Andrea was
1:32
Speaker 1: sixteen years older than Chris, though even they admitted that
1:35
Speaker 1: the age difference was not very noticeable. At forty two
1:39
Speaker 1: years old, Andrea had divorced her first husband, Howard, five
1:43
Speaker 1: years earlier. They had one child, fifteen year old Kevin. Andy,
1:48
Speaker 1: as she was known to friends, was a small but
1:51
Speaker 1: strong woman. Friends described her as active, whip, smart, and funny.
1:57
Speaker 1: She swam nearly every morning before work. After years of
2:00
Speaker 1: part time study for her qualification, Andy became a librarian
2:04
Speaker 1: at the Arlington Public Library, where she shared her love
2:08
Speaker 1: of reading and learning with the community. Chris was a geologist.
2:13
Speaker 1: In this capacity, he was primarily employed by engineering firms,
2:17
Speaker 1: which led him to boastfully refer to himself as an engineer.
2:22
Speaker 1: Though not technically the case, it was a designation that
2:25
Speaker 1: appeared in many of his job roles at the time.
2:28
Speaker 1: After three years together, in the summer of nineteen ninety one,
2:32
Speaker 1: Chris and Andy became engaged to be married. They moved
2:35
Speaker 1: into a two bedroom condo in Colonial Village. They also
2:39
Speaker 1: began building their dream home together by the Rappahannock River
2:42
Speaker 1: in Lancaster. They called the half built structure the beach house.
2:46
Speaker 1: The couple were doing the work themselves, cutting logs and
2:50
Speaker 1: putting up walls. It was a labor of love and
2:53
Speaker 1: a manifestation of the future that Chris and Andy were
2:56
Speaker 1: building together. By August of nineteen ninety eight, Chris and
3:02
Speaker 1: Andrea had been living together for about seven years. They
3:06
Speaker 1: had never gotten around to planning a wedding. Andrea's son, Kevin,
3:10
Speaker 1: now twenty four years old, had moved out of the condo,
3:13
Speaker 1: though they still referred to the second bedroom as Kevin's room.
3:17
Speaker 1: It was just past one thirty am on August twenty
3:20
Speaker 1: second when Chris awoke in the main bedroom. He had
3:24
Speaker 1: been home alone since returning from work at about six pm.
3:28
Speaker 1: Chris reported going to sleep at around eleven thirty, believing
3:31
Speaker 1: that Andy would be arriving home later. At one point thirty,
3:35
Speaker 1: Chris stretched out and realized that Andy was not beside him.
3:39
Speaker 1: She had not returned home. A moment later, he spot
3:42
Speaker 1: at the closet door, which was always left wide open.
3:46
Speaker 1: It was sitting slightly ajar. The closet door had always malfunctioned,
3:51
Speaker 1: it never latched shut. The door position in this state
3:55
Speaker 1: was the closest to a fully closed position that Chris
3:58
Speaker 1: had ever seen it, which was quite odd. He got
4:02
Speaker 1: out of bed to take a look. Unable to see clearly,
4:05
Speaker 1: he turned on a light. When Chris did so, he
4:08
Speaker 1: discovered Andy. She was tucked into the back of the
4:12
Speaker 1: shallow closet, her feet pushed up to rest on a
4:15
Speaker 1: small crate that sat on the floor. She was cold
4:18
Speaker 1: to the touch, went one, what is your emergency?
4:24
Speaker 2: Uh, I need an offer? N what's going on?
4:30
Speaker 3: Uh?
4:30
Speaker 2: I thought my girlfriend was nothing I had about to
4:34
Speaker 2: go out to. Uh, but I figure I give her
4:39
Speaker 2: a no time. I think there do you think? Yeah,
4:46
Speaker 2: I didn't look in the closet. She's growing over her
4:48
Speaker 2: current cold. You were you were supposed to go out
4:52
Speaker 2: tonight and she didn't answer.
4:54
Speaker 1: She didn't call you.
4:55
Speaker 2: Well, I mean we've been living together for turban here, okay,
5:00
Speaker 2: and this is not It wasn't like her at all.
5:02
Speaker 1: What'd you do with her?
5:05
Speaker 2: James Christopher Downtown?
5:07
Speaker 3: Okay?
5:08
Speaker 4: Okay?
5:09
Speaker 2: So she is called to the touchdown? Yeah, all right?
5:12
Speaker 2: Are you are you living him away from her in
5:16
Speaker 2: a bedroom?
5:17
Speaker 5: Okay? You're in the bedroom.
5:18
Speaker 3: Did the same bedroom where she is though?
5:20
Speaker 5: Okay?
5:21
Speaker 4: So you were out there and you just came home
5:23
Speaker 4: and found her.
5:23
Speaker 2: Now, I got home at six, I did my laundry.
5:27
Speaker 2: She must have been in the place called her, and
5:29
Speaker 2: I just didn't look in the closet.
5:30
Speaker 1: Don't the door closed?
5:33
Speaker 2: What's weirdeness? That stuff looks like it was nothing? Okay?
5:38
Speaker 2: What do you mean?
5:38
Speaker 5: Didn't look like?
5:40
Speaker 2: I had a whole roll all rolls of uh Nichols,
5:45
Speaker 2: Thehan dimes, they're gone. And I had a green bag gone.
5:50
Speaker 2: But when you came home tonight, did anything work strange
5:53
Speaker 2: when you came in the apartment.
5:54
Speaker 4: I mean it looked like some of the lackers.
5:56
Speaker 2: Messed with or anything. Uh the door was not law
6:02
Speaker 2: law okay, so the dead boat was not. Okay, then,
6:08
Speaker 2: I mean I've been home.
6:08
Speaker 3: The whole time.
6:12
Speaker 1: Firefighters were the first to arrive to the home. Chris
6:15
Speaker 1: waited in the living room while responders checked on Andrea.
6:19
Speaker 1: They found that she had clearly been in the closet
6:21
Speaker 1: for several hours, likely well before Chris had returned home
6:25
Speaker 1: at six. It had taken nearly seven hours for him
6:28
Speaker 1: to discover her. While Chris waited on law enforcement, he
6:31
Speaker 1: noticed that Andrea's purse was also missing from inside the doorway.
6:36
Speaker 1: The keys to her car, a blue Honda Civic, were
6:39
Speaker 1: also missing. Of course, he had not seen her car
6:42
Speaker 1: in the law when he came home either, Andy's car
6:45
Speaker 1: was not there. In addition, he noted that rolls of
6:48
Speaker 1: coins appeared to be missing. Chris said a green gym bag,
6:52
Speaker 1: which had been next to the bed, was also gone.
6:55
Speaker 1: Had there been a robbery, however, it was a poorly
6:58
Speaker 1: executed one. Cash sat out in plain sight. Andrea still
7:03
Speaker 1: wore an expensive watch. Curiously, there were other items missing.
7:09
Speaker 1: Much later, Kevin would discover that his mother's will was
7:12
Speaker 1: not in the drawer alongside her other important papers. When
7:18
Speaker 1: law enforcement arrived, their first impression was of an apartment
7:21
Speaker 1: recently cleaned. The carpets had been freshly vacuumed. There were
7:26
Speaker 1: no signs of forced entry into the home, nor were
7:29
Speaker 1: there any indications of where the murder could have taken place.
7:33
Speaker 1: Each room was in order. If Andrea had struggled against
7:36
Speaker 1: her attacker, there were no signs of this occurring in
7:40
Speaker 1: the condo. A forensic team identified over six hundred finger
7:45
Speaker 1: or pomp print samples for testing across the apartment. Many
7:49
Speaker 1: of these were in areas where prints were expected to
7:52
Speaker 1: be found, such as the front door handles and frequently
7:55
Speaker 1: used items. However, just over a dozen of these were
7:59
Speaker 1: viable samples, of which six prints were matched, all to
8:03
Speaker 1: Chris Johnson. What was odd was that not a single
8:06
Speaker 1: match to Andrea was found anywhere in the unit, though
8:10
Speaker 1: she had lived there for seven years. There were no
8:13
Speaker 1: fingerprints found on the vacuum which had been recently used,
8:16
Speaker 1: nor were there any on the hallway closet door, its
8:19
Speaker 1: handle or frame. It seemed that the cleaning within the
8:23
Speaker 1: apartment had been extremely thorough. Chris was brought in to
8:28
Speaker 1: speak with Arlington County Police that night for several hours.
8:33
Speaker 1: This interview, as well as the one that took place
8:35
Speaker 1: the next day, were not recorded. On the third and
8:39
Speaker 1: final day that Chris was interviewed without an attorney, there
8:42
Speaker 1: was a camera in the room. At some points in
8:45
Speaker 1: the video, law enforcement inserted a square mask over a
8:49
Speaker 1: portion of the recording, censoring the computer screen. It's unclear why.
8:54
Speaker 1: Over the course of over twenty cumulative hours across three
8:57
Speaker 1: sessions in so many days, I outlined his movements from
9:01
Speaker 1: the day of the murder in great detail. He began
9:04
Speaker 1: with entering the condo around six pm and calling out
9:07
Speaker 1: to Andy, whom he assumed was already at home. When
9:11
Speaker 1: he had no response, he entered the bathroom and had
9:14
Speaker 1: a shower. Crucially, he reported not noticing anything out of
9:18
Speaker 1: the ordinary at that time, aside from the dead bolt
9:22
Speaker 1: not being locked on the front door. When he entered.
9:25
Speaker 4: Called out her name, but didn't hear anything. I went,
9:30
Speaker 4: I took a shower.
9:32
Speaker 1: Chris and Andy had made plans to see a movie
9:34
Speaker 1: that night, either at the theater or a rental at home.
9:38
Speaker 1: For this reason, he assumed she was coming home in
9:40
Speaker 1: good time. He said, that is until he listened to
9:44
Speaker 1: the five unplayed messages left on the answering machine. The
9:48
Speaker 1: machine sat next to a telephone directly to the left
9:51
Speaker 1: of the bedroom closet its door AJAR, with Andy inside.
9:57
Speaker 1: In Chris's written statement to police, he reported that it
10:00
Speaker 1: was while he stood listening to these phone messages that
10:03
Speaker 1: he glanced around and noticed that the carpets had been vacuumed.
10:07
Speaker 1: This was regularly done by Andy on the weekends, not
10:11
Speaker 1: throughout the week. The first message left by Andy's friend
10:14
Speaker 1: Sarah should have raised alarm bells. The librarian had taken
10:18
Speaker 1: a rare day off of work, yet she had missed
10:21
Speaker 1: her scheduled lunch date.
10:24
Speaker 4: Yes, it's checking to see that you're right.
10:28
Speaker 5: It's two o'clock on Friday. Bye bye.
10:33
Speaker 1: Three of the five messages were from Chris himself. Between
10:37
Speaker 1: professional work at engineering firms, he was taking shifts in
10:40
Speaker 1: the receiving department at home Depot. From there, he called
10:44
Speaker 1: mid afternoon to check in, then twice as he approached
10:47
Speaker 1: the end of his shift.
10:50
Speaker 4: Hi, it's me a fifteen looking to try to get
10:54
Speaker 4: home about five thirty. If you want, you can go
10:57
Speaker 4: ahead and give me a call.
10:58
Speaker 2: What you can confirm whether we're going.
11:00
Speaker 4: To the Riding of the dam otherwise, I'll see you tonight.
11:04
Speaker 2: Love you.
11:06
Speaker 1: The other message, which was received mid afternoon, was from
11:09
Speaker 1: another friend of Andy's. This friend had a family member
11:13
Speaker 1: hospitalized in critical condition. Andy had been helping out by
11:16
Speaker 1: taking care of her children during this time.
11:20
Speaker 5: Andy is Judy, I've at home. How we have some
11:26
Speaker 5: bad news? Give me a call.
11:31
Speaker 4: I'll talk to you later, okay.
11:32
Speaker 2: Bike.
11:34
Speaker 1: Chris told police that when he heard this message, he
11:37
Speaker 1: assumed that Andy had listened to it and had gone
11:40
Speaker 1: to Judy's. The only problem with this logic is that,
11:43
Speaker 1: by his own admission, all five messages were unplayed when
11:48
Speaker 1: he listened to them, Andy could not have heard any
11:51
Speaker 1: of them. He later rang Judy, who was not at home,
11:54
Speaker 1: to see if Andy was there. He never called Sarah,
11:58
Speaker 1: who had left the message concerned for annie He's welfare.
12:00
Speaker 1: At two pm, after checking messages and having a shower,
12:05
Speaker 1: Chris began cleaning up. He tidied the front cap of
12:08
Speaker 1: his truck, throwing out old papers, he said, as well
12:11
Speaker 1: as several soda cans. He took the trash directly out
12:15
Speaker 1: to the apartment dumpsters. Inside the unit, he began doing laundry.
12:19
Speaker 1: Chris told detectives that he watched some television and then
12:22
Speaker 1: went to bed.
12:23
Speaker 4: The last anw was beer. I eat approximately three only
12:28
Speaker 4: four crackers, and then I lay down on the bed.
12:32
Speaker 4: So I get up, open the door, look down, I
12:36
Speaker 4: look in the closet. I think I see something on
12:38
Speaker 4: the floor, and I look in and then I find
12:40
Speaker 4: her body in the closet.
12:42
Speaker 1: Crime scene photos show laundry baskets the same as those
12:45
Speaker 1: Chris stated that he was using. Sitting to the left
12:48
Speaker 1: of the closet door.
12:50
Speaker 4: All the baskets held it over to one side, dropped
12:53
Speaker 4: the bottom one, which is a Blue One.
12:55
Speaker 1: Detectives hammered Chris repeatedly over how he could have spent
12:59
Speaker 1: so many hours in the apartment without noticing that a
13:02
Speaker 1: door which was never closed had been.
13:05
Speaker 6: Of course, of the time that you were home, you
13:07
Speaker 6: must have gone past that closet at least five times,
13:11
Speaker 6: from your explanation to me, and you never noticed that
13:14
Speaker 6: the door was closed. But you woke up from basically asleep,
13:20
Speaker 6: but right away you noticed that the door was closed open.
13:25
Speaker 4: It's probably opened about that much, but usually it's open more.
13:31
Speaker 7: Usually. What does that mean?
13:34
Speaker 4: She kept keeps the door of her closet open?
13:38
Speaker 6: Okay, define open? You mean a jar or do you
13:41
Speaker 6: mean like halfway open? Completely open?
13:43
Speaker 4: Completely open?
13:45
Speaker 7: So this door would normally be back.
13:47
Speaker 4: Here, would be straight out.
13:49
Speaker 7: But if you can't.
13:50
Speaker 6: If this door was closed and you decided to open it,
13:54
Speaker 6: would this door go all the way back to that
13:55
Speaker 6: wall or it would.
13:57
Speaker 4: Open ninety degrees.
13:59
Speaker 1: That the door sets slightly open and the closet itself
14:02
Speaker 1: was shallow suggests it may have been possible earlier in
14:05
Speaker 1: the evening to see Andy inside. It raised the question
14:09
Speaker 1: of how he stood next to the answering machine the
14:12
Speaker 1: moment when he claimed to notice the carpets had been vacuumed,
14:15
Speaker 1: and not noticed the door. Chris appeared to struggle to
14:19
Speaker 1: recall where his gaze was focused at each point while
14:22
Speaker 1: in the room, at one stage explaining that he scanned
14:25
Speaker 1: the room carefully for his keys, but abruptly stopped as
14:29
Speaker 1: his eyes reached the closet.
14:32
Speaker 4: To backtrack a little bit sometime. I I brought my
14:44
Speaker 4: clothes up from the laundry room for backtracking to that,
14:49
Speaker 4: and I put my clothes away, and then I looked
14:52
Speaker 4: for my keys because the door was unlocked when I
14:55
Speaker 4: went in, and I don't find my keys, m hm.
15:01
Speaker 4: And I look around, well, I look where I had been,
15:09
Speaker 4: and I like when I look for something, I scanned
15:12
Speaker 4: the area like that, and I scanned across the dresser.
15:17
Speaker 4: I scanned. I sort of stopped at the dresser and
15:19
Speaker 4: then moved over past to the bed because I hadn't
15:22
Speaker 4: really been over there since I had a blast, since
15:27
Speaker 4: you had, since I had the keys last by which
15:30
Speaker 4: is by the window by the hamper.
15:33
Speaker 1: Chris was also asked to explain his decision not to
15:36
Speaker 1: use the phone directly next to the closet to dial
15:39
Speaker 1: nine to one one, opting instead to go through to
15:42
Speaker 1: the living room seeking another device which was not charged,
15:45
Speaker 1: then to Kevin's room to make the call.
15:49
Speaker 4: It's an old rowary one where you're used to click
15:52
Speaker 4: it nine over and then you let it go and
15:55
Speaker 4: it clicks click, clicks, clicks back, and so I've I
16:02
Speaker 4: like the technology pushbuton so I have very rarely used
16:05
Speaker 4: that one. Yeah, I went to the phone and outed
16:09
Speaker 4: nine one one actually picked up as it is an
16:13
Speaker 4: emergency nine one one. I hesitated maybe a second before
16:18
Speaker 4: calling because it's you know, she was already dead. And
16:25
Speaker 4: then I called nine one one and the lady answered,
16:28
Speaker 4: and I said, you.
16:28
Speaker 1: Know, a picture of what had happened to Andrea was
16:33
Speaker 1: only beginning to form. Many details remained Murky and Arlington
16:37
Speaker 1: detectives at this stage were proceeding primarily on their suspicions.
16:42
Speaker 1: Their focus on Chris Johnson appeared to be well founded
16:45
Speaker 1: when the thirty three year old happened to spot Andrea's
16:48
Speaker 1: blue Hounta Civic abandoned on the roadside while on his
16:51
Speaker 1: way home from the police station. Much like the apartment,
16:55
Speaker 1: forensic teams retrieved nothing of value in the car. It
16:58
Speaker 1: had been wiped clean. Prince aunt DNA. They did find
17:03
Speaker 1: that the clutch was burned out, hence why it had
17:05
Speaker 1: been abandoned. The other missing items from the condo were
17:09
Speaker 1: never recovered. By Monday, August twenty fourth, the autopsy report
17:14
Speaker 1: on Andrea Sincata had been completed. It concluded that Andy
17:18
Speaker 1: had died of strangulation. Bruises on her arms and elsewhere
17:22
Speaker 1: indicated that she had put up a struggle. She also
17:25
Speaker 1: had an abrasion on her forehead, though this was not
17:28
Speaker 1: what killed her. The report also found what was described
17:32
Speaker 1: in the investigative notes as an unusual pattern on the
17:35
Speaker 1: top of her right thigh. It was triangular in shape,
17:39
Speaker 1: with a curved line on one side. Expert analysis comparing
17:43
Speaker 1: a pair of Chris Johnson's nine and a half sized
17:46
Speaker 1: new Balanced sneakers the pair he had been wearing that day,
17:50
Speaker 1: concluded that they were a match. The lap report stated
17:54
Speaker 1: that the likelihood that any other item caused the pattern
17:57
Speaker 1: was remote. Indeed, the pathologist concluded that the pattern had
18:02
Speaker 1: taken to the skin because it was damp. Andy had
18:06
Speaker 1: likely just been for a swim or perhaps just out
18:09
Speaker 1: of the shower. The footprint aside, the autopsy concluded that
18:14
Speaker 1: Andrew's time of death was earlier that afternoon, That is,
18:18
Speaker 1: while Chris was at work. Aside from a short trip
18:21
Speaker 1: out for fried chicken on his lunch break, which was verified,
18:25
Speaker 1: his time that day was fully accounted for by coworkers.
18:29
Speaker 1: They also had not established a convincing motive. According to
18:33
Speaker 1: Chris and others, the relationship was unremarkable. There were no
18:37
Speaker 1: open issues, except Chris said there would be suspicious charges
18:42
Speaker 1: on his credit card. He eventually admitted to police to
18:45
Speaker 1: spending time on websites pornographic ones that Andy would not
18:50
Speaker 1: have approved of. This included paying two dollars per minute
18:54
Speaker 1: on certain live cam websites. He developed an email relationship
18:58
Speaker 1: with at least one of these Cairls. As far as
19:01
Speaker 1: he knew, Andy was not aware of any of this.
19:05
Speaker 4: Give me like a credit card, remember, and they do?
19:11
Speaker 5: Whatever?
19:12
Speaker 7: Did you meet somebody in the chat room and meet
19:14
Speaker 7: with them?
19:15
Speaker 4: Did I meet them?
19:16
Speaker 5: No?
19:16
Speaker 8: I've talked with a girl that I've met in the
19:22
Speaker 8: they call it the Intimate Friends Network, and I've sent
19:26
Speaker 8: maybe two to three emails to her.
19:29
Speaker 1: With few strings left to pull, detectives decided to lie
19:32
Speaker 1: to Chris about the evidence they had against him. Hopefully
19:36
Speaker 1: to elicit a confession. He was told that the autopsy
19:40
Speaker 1: placed Andrea's death after he returned home, and that they
19:43
Speaker 1: also had his fingerprints on her body. Based on these
19:47
Speaker 1: supposed facts, they said there was no other explanation. He
19:51
Speaker 1: must be her killer. They did not reveal to him
19:54
Speaker 1: her cause of death.
19:57
Speaker 7: Did you already know that Andy was in the ca.
20:02
Speaker 4: And you're sure about that from what I know?
20:06
Speaker 3: Yes?
20:07
Speaker 7: Now, why are you defining that? Why are you kind
20:11
Speaker 7: of qualifying from what.
20:12
Speaker 4: You because because what Detective Brennanan's partner said was that
20:17
Speaker 4: my fingerprints were on her body and that her time
20:22
Speaker 4: of death was after I got home. That does not
20:27
Speaker 4: jive with what I believe happened.
20:31
Speaker 7: Did you place Andy in that closet?
20:41
Speaker 4: I do not remember placing her in the closet. Based
20:46
Speaker 4: on what I've been told in this building, I can
20:50
Speaker 4: draw no other conclusion.
20:54
Speaker 2: That I.
20:57
Speaker 4: Must have placed her in the closet because they said
21:02
Speaker 4: my fingerprints were on her body and not just on
21:05
Speaker 4: her arm. They said her time at death was after
21:10
Speaker 4: I got home at six o'clock.
21:12
Speaker 3: Tell the truth.
21:13
Speaker 6: If what happened was an accident, tell me that was
21:16
Speaker 6: an accident.
21:17
Speaker 4: I have no idea what happened to her.
21:20
Speaker 1: After twenty five hours of interviewing with police spread out
21:24
Speaker 1: over a period of three days, Chris Johnson was prompted
21:27
Speaker 1: to imagine what could have happened to Andy. At this point,
21:31
Speaker 1: he began to describe an altercation between the two of them.
21:35
Speaker 1: The argument began over his spending habits. He said, Andy
21:38
Speaker 1: had found out about the charges he had made on
21:40
Speaker 1: his credit card. She discovered that he had spent excessive
21:44
Speaker 1: sums on live cam girls.
21:47
Speaker 5: You can begin by telling the truth, Chris, from the
21:50
Speaker 5: very beginning to the end, and no doubt it's painful.
21:55
Speaker 5: I believe it. You loved her, she loved you.
22:00
Speaker 4: Did I push her? Did I hit her? Gram Stone?
22:05
Speaker 4: Play with my names?
22:06
Speaker 5: I don't know what I did? You absolutely do And
22:15
Speaker 5: when you hit her, how do you show me how
22:17
Speaker 5: you so mark with your hand open like that? No?
22:29
Speaker 5: And when you hit her like that? What what does
22:33
Speaker 5: she do? She feels? And show me again how you
22:37
Speaker 5: did it?
22:41
Speaker 7: I try to reach for a pulse.
22:44
Speaker 5: Do you feel a pulse? Pulse?
22:51
Speaker 1: The altercation that Chris described may have resulted in the
22:54
Speaker 1: injury that Andy had to her forehead. Damage to her
22:58
Speaker 1: side could also be explained by her falling to the
23:00
Speaker 1: ground on her left side, as he described in his
23:03
Speaker 1: imaginative statement. What Chris's confession later deemed his vision dream
23:08
Speaker 1: statement got wrong was a key fact how Andrea had
23:13
Speaker 1: actually died. He never admitted or even hinted at strangulation.
23:20
Speaker 1: Investigators continued to speak to everyone in Chris Johnson's life.
23:24
Speaker 1: They found that while the self proclaimed engineer was happy
23:27
Speaker 1: to divulge his online behaviors, he was less forthcoming with
23:31
Speaker 1: his offline pursuits. Police recorded speaking with a neighbor in
23:36
Speaker 1: the Colonial Village building who received flowers on Valentine's Day
23:40
Speaker 1: from Chris in both nineteen ninety seven and nineteen ninety eight.
23:44
Speaker 1: He would also bring her cookies. Chris brought over a
23:48
Speaker 1: movie for them to watch while Andrea was in England
23:51
Speaker 1: helping Kevin move out of a dorm. One neighbor reported
23:54
Speaker 1: that Chris would show up wherever she was, He knew
23:57
Speaker 1: where she worked out, and he knew she ran her
24:00
Speaker 1: own company. The notes also state that at one point
24:03
Speaker 1: Chris was looking in her apartment he was peeping in
24:06
Speaker 1: her windows. The police file also discussed at least one
24:10
Speaker 1: other date with yet another woman that Chris went on
24:13
Speaker 1: and never told Andrea about. With an airtight alibi and
24:19
Speaker 1: a largely uncorroborated confession, Chris was released and charges were
24:24
Speaker 1: not pursued. In the months and years that followed, Andrea's
24:29
Speaker 1: family and Kevin in particular, supported her fiance. They were
24:33
Speaker 1: unaware of any issues the couple had, and knew Chris
24:36
Speaker 1: to be a non confrontational and agreeable guy. Also, the
24:40
Speaker 1: family already had a prime suspect, a man they called
24:44
Speaker 1: the computer Guy. A few weeks prior to the murder,
24:47
Speaker 1: and he had spotted a workman from a company called
24:50
Speaker 1: Trash Masters doing work outside of the condo building. She
24:54
Speaker 1: was seeking to dispose of an old computer and approached
24:57
Speaker 1: the worker to inquire if he would take off her hands.
25:01
Speaker 1: This man told her that the company did not recycle computers,
25:05
Speaker 1: but if it still worked, he would take it for
25:07
Speaker 1: his personal use. Andy agreed. She let the man into
25:11
Speaker 1: the condo and led him straight into the bedroom to
25:14
Speaker 1: collect the computer. The computer Guy reportedly left his name
25:17
Speaker 1: and phone number. They were later in contact to discuss
25:21
Speaker 1: how it was working for him. Arlington investigators tracked down
25:26
Speaker 1: the computer Guy, a man named Bobby Joe Leonard. Bobby
25:31
Speaker 1: had a criminal record. Indeed, he was in custody for
25:34
Speaker 1: an alleged assault. When investigators found him, he denied any
25:38
Speaker 1: involvement in Andy's murder and gave a DNA sample. Andrea's
25:42
Speaker 1: family was told that he was then eliminated as a suspect.
25:47
Speaker 1: Over the next two decades, the case grew cold. The
25:51
Speaker 1: family hired a private investigator who also managed to track
25:54
Speaker 1: down Bobby Joe. In their view, he remained the prime suspect.
25:58
Speaker 9: Her son, Sankata, asked me to come in and look
26:02
Speaker 9: at this case because the case was going nowhere. At
26:06
Speaker 9: that point in time, the police had focused entirely on
26:11
Speaker 9: Andress and cottis fiancee Chris Johnson. They lived together, and
26:16
Speaker 9: they they believed he killed her, in spite of the
26:20
Speaker 9: fact he actually ended up having an alibi that was long,
26:23
Speaker 9: air tight, airtight alibi, and in spite of that, they
26:27
Speaker 9: still had their eyes on him. This is police misconduct.
26:30
Speaker 9: They did not properly investigate the crime at all. They
26:33
Speaker 9: were so intent on making him guilty. They forced a
26:38
Speaker 9: confession out of him, which is what this is all about.
26:40
Speaker 9: They forced a confession out of him, a false confession
26:43
Speaker 9: and then after he gave this false confession, they found
26:45
Speaker 9: out Anderson Cotta was murdered while he was at work,
26:49
Speaker 9: so they couldn't have even done it. And then the
26:51
Speaker 9: case just died right there.
26:55
Speaker 1: Shortly after Andrea's murder, Bobby Joe had returned to his
26:58
Speaker 1: home in Philadelphia, he was arrested following an assault on
27:02
Speaker 1: his ex wife. Upon his release for this conviction, he
27:06
Speaker 1: was swiftly arrested and convicted again, this time for attempted murder.
27:11
Speaker 1: Bobby Joe had strangled his victim and dragged her into
27:14
Speaker 1: a closet, eerily similar circumstances to Andy's murder. For this crime,
27:20
Speaker 1: he received a life sentence. In twenty eighteen, a cold
27:24
Speaker 1: case detective looking into Andrea's case visited Bobby Joe where
27:28
Speaker 1: he was serving time at wallen Ridge, a Level five
27:31
Speaker 1: state prison in Virginia. Now, however, serving a life sentence
27:35
Speaker 1: with no chance of release, Bobby had a story to tell.
27:40
Speaker 9: So I do appreciate giving to nay listen to my
27:46
Speaker 9: only requestion that please will.
27:49
Speaker 5: Be all right.
27:50
Speaker 10: Well, well it again has started, you know, because I
27:55
Speaker 10: was working through a tempt company.
27:57
Speaker 3: I don't even know the dates of that you know.
28:00
Speaker 1: Bobby explained how Andrea had called him over outside of
28:03
Speaker 1: her building and asked about recycling the computer. After he
28:07
Speaker 1: took the device from her, he left his information, including
28:10
Speaker 1: his phone number, on a piece of paper. She called
28:13
Speaker 1: to follow up a couple of days later. During that call,
28:16
Speaker 1: she handed the phone over to her boyfriend or husband,
28:19
Speaker 1: he said, because he knew more about the computer. It
28:22
Speaker 1: was this man that called him again a few days later,
28:25
Speaker 1: but that time the man was asking personal questions.
28:30
Speaker 10: I gave her my name and telephone number, you know.
28:33
Speaker 10: She eventually called maybe a day or two later. She called,
28:36
Speaker 10: I think and asked me was I able to hook
28:39
Speaker 10: it up and everything? We had to talk for a
28:40
Speaker 10: little while. After that, a gentleman called me. When he called,
28:45
Speaker 10: he asked me a whole lot of wem just strange questions.
28:50
Speaker 10: It wasn't about the computer at all. It was, you know,
28:52
Speaker 10: That's how it started off. It was like a pretense
28:55
Speaker 10: on a computer. But after that, he just asked me
28:57
Speaker 10: kind of like you know, family, you know, work and
29:02
Speaker 10: stuff like that. You know, more personal questions, you know,
29:05
Speaker 10: And I answered them, you know, as.
29:08
Speaker 3: Much as I can remember, I answered, But I did it.
29:11
Speaker 10: I thought at the time that it was weird, and
29:13
Speaker 10: he said that he would be back in touch.
29:16
Speaker 3: All of this.
29:16
Speaker 10: Happened, I got a telephone call from the same general
29:20
Speaker 10: and when I talked to him, he said kind of
29:24
Speaker 10: like there was more along the lines of he knows
29:29
Speaker 10: me pretty well, and you know, he said that he
29:33
Speaker 10: knew that I had been locked up from nineteen ninety
29:36
Speaker 10: three until earlier that year, in nineteen ninety eight, and.
29:40
Speaker 3: I was asking him, how do you how do you
29:42
Speaker 3: know all of it?
29:43
Speaker 10: And if I'm not mistaken to I think he told
29:46
Speaker 10: me that he was like an engineer of some kind.
29:49
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not too sure, but I think he said.
29:51
Speaker 10: That he was an engineer. But I asked him, you know,
29:53
Speaker 10: how do you know that I had been locked up
29:56
Speaker 10: with stuff?
29:56
Speaker 5: You know?
29:57
Speaker 3: And he was telling me he knew that I'd been
29:58
Speaker 3: locked up.
29:59
Speaker 4: He knew, but.
30:00
Speaker 3: Locked up for you know, so on and software, and
30:03
Speaker 3: he told me that that's what makes him interested in me.
30:05
Speaker 10: And we started to have a conversation of like, you know,
30:08
Speaker 10: he's got something that he wants done, and at some
30:11
Speaker 10: point I just had to keep on pushing him as
30:14
Speaker 10: to what is it that you want done?
30:16
Speaker 5: You know?
30:16
Speaker 10: And he was started to tell me about the woman
30:20
Speaker 10: that gave you the computer, you know, that she was.
30:24
Speaker 3: What he wanted done. And so I had to ask
30:27
Speaker 3: him a game, what do you want done?
30:28
Speaker 5: You know?
30:29
Speaker 3: And he was just telling me, I mean you you.
30:32
Speaker 10: Have to know what I mean by all of this,
30:34
Speaker 10: you know and stuff. So we went through this kind
30:36
Speaker 10: of like riddle and for a long time. So it
30:39
Speaker 10: was a long conversation.
30:40
Speaker 1: But eventually it was made clear that if Bobby Joe
30:44
Speaker 1: took care of Andrea quietly, without the use of a gun,
30:48
Speaker 1: there would be five thousand dollars in cash left for
30:51
Speaker 1: him inside a shoe in the bedroom closet.
30:54
Speaker 4: You know.
30:55
Speaker 10: He told me that she would be home after one
30:59
Speaker 10: think it was either after twelve or after one pm
31:03
Speaker 10: that following day. Yeah, I took care of what he
31:06
Speaker 10: wanted to be to take care of. I could have
31:09
Speaker 10: the money.
31:11
Speaker 1: It was unusual for Andy to take days off of
31:13
Speaker 1: work for no particular reason, as she had chosen to
31:16
Speaker 1: do on the day she died. Most Fridays, she would
31:19
Speaker 1: be at work all afternoon. Indeed, her plans that morning
31:23
Speaker 1: to go for a swim, stop at the library briefly,
31:26
Speaker 1: and then return to the condo by one pm would
31:28
Speaker 1: have been known only to a select few individuals, including Chris.
31:33
Speaker 1: Bobby told detectives that he went to the condo building
31:36
Speaker 1: that day for one pm, as instructed. He knocked on
31:39
Speaker 1: the front door and Andy answered. They chatted at the
31:42
Speaker 1: doorway for a few minutes.
31:45
Speaker 10: I have to go, you know, but would you mind
31:47
Speaker 10: if I get something to drink before I leave? And
31:50
Speaker 10: she said, oh sure. She went into the kitchen. She
31:54
Speaker 10: came back with like a routier.
31:56
Speaker 1: I think it was when Andy returned with a root ear.
31:58
Speaker 1: Bobby recounted, usually and without emotion, how he attacked her.
32:03
Speaker 1: He claimed that she did not fight back.
32:06
Speaker 10: As soon as I rest alan Tussa, she just laid
32:09
Speaker 10: down on the ground.
32:11
Speaker 1: He dragged her from the front door to the bathroom.
32:14
Speaker 1: Bobby claimed to have run water into the tub and
32:16
Speaker 1: dunked Andy in it. He said he did this to
32:19
Speaker 1: verify that she was no longer breathing. It would account
32:22
Speaker 1: for the pathologist determination that her skin had been damped.
32:26
Speaker 1: His next move was towards the bedroom and then the closet.
32:31
Speaker 10: Into the bedroom and sorry looking around closet for the
32:35
Speaker 10: money that was supposed to have been there.
32:37
Speaker 3: And I looked like everywhere I looked in shoes, I
32:41
Speaker 3: looked in.
32:44
Speaker 10: Jacket pockets and stuff like that, and that was just
32:47
Speaker 10: absolutely nothing.
32:49
Speaker 1: Bobby Joe described tearing apart the closets in both bedrooms
32:52
Speaker 1: looking for the five thousand dollars. When he couldn't locate it,
32:56
Speaker 1: he decided to steal a large water jug full of coins.
33:00
Speaker 1: Due to its size, he needed to also steal Andy's car.
33:04
Speaker 10: So I was driving down to ninety five and the
33:08
Speaker 10: car broke down. The something was like really wrong with
33:11
Speaker 10: the clutch. It wasn't working too good, and it broke down.
33:15
Speaker 10: I plowed it over to the side.
33:17
Speaker 1: He wiped down the car to remove his prints. When
33:20
Speaker 1: he later rolled to the coins from the jug, it
33:22
Speaker 1: totaled roughly six hundred and fifty dollars. When asked if
33:26
Speaker 1: he was angry over not receiving the payment he was offered,
33:29
Speaker 1: Bobby explained that his intention was to kill the boyfriend
33:33
Speaker 1: who had lied to him about the five thousand dollars,
33:36
Speaker 1: but he was arrested for the assault of his ex
33:39
Speaker 1: wife before he was able to do so.
33:42
Speaker 10: I got arrested too, as because if not for the
33:45
Speaker 10: fact that I had gotten arrested. I definitely was going
33:48
Speaker 10: to find that person, you know, no doubt about it.
33:51
Speaker 10: But I want to Philadelphia Donareth.
33:54
Speaker 1: Bobby stated that he never got the man's name and
33:56
Speaker 1: they never met in person.
33:59
Speaker 10: When I first talked to the person that was her boyfriend,
34:02
Speaker 10: you know, because he said that he was the one
34:03
Speaker 10: that was getting the computer. You know, he was an
34:06
Speaker 10: engineer or something like that, you know.
34:10
Speaker 3: And the.
34:13
Speaker 10: Next time, right in the end, I just said, you know,
34:16
Speaker 10: I really don't think that I am being set up.
34:18
Speaker 10: I really do think this is a chance to make
34:20
Speaker 10: five thousand dollars, you know, and it was a chance
34:24
Speaker 10: that I.
34:24
Speaker 3: Was willing to take.
34:27
Speaker 1: Crucially, Bobby Joe told the detective that he did not
34:31
Speaker 1: clean up the apartment before leaving. The floors from the
34:34
Speaker 1: bathroom into the bedroom would have been wet, the blinds
34:37
Speaker 1: left open, his root beer can left out. Bobby also
34:41
Speaker 1: stated that he simply closed the door behind him when
34:44
Speaker 1: he left. Although he had taken Andy's keys, he did
34:47
Speaker 1: not recall locking the front door, though Chris had stated
34:51
Speaker 1: that he had unlocked it. The piece of paper containing
34:54
Speaker 1: Bobby's name and phone number was never located in the
34:56
Speaker 1: condo that Andy at least had this paper for reference
35:00
Speaker 1: is undisputed. Bobby Joe has not shown crime scene photos
35:04
Speaker 1: until months after his initial statements. When he was presented
35:08
Speaker 1: with the images of how the condo appeared when emergency
35:11
Speaker 1: responders arrived, he insisted it was not as he left it.
35:15
Speaker 1: In his written statement, he stated, beginning at the front
35:18
Speaker 1: door of the apartment, there was and should have been
35:21
Speaker 1: an unopened sodacan lying on the floor not far from
35:24
Speaker 1: the front door. I walked into the living room area
35:28
Speaker 1: after the initial attack, and I pulled the blind shut.
35:32
Speaker 1: The bathroom should have been the messiest place in the apartment.
35:35
Speaker 1: There should have been water all over the floor. I
35:38
Speaker 1: didn't do anything to try to clean it up. The
35:40
Speaker 1: shower curtain was open. I just dragged the wet body
35:44
Speaker 1: from the bathroom into the master bedroom. And then there's
35:47
Speaker 1: the closet in the master bedroom. No way was it
35:51
Speaker 1: as organized, clean, or neat as it appears in this picture.
35:55
Speaker 1: I searched that closet pretty good in search of the
35:58
Speaker 1: money that I was promised. I picked up shoes, moved
36:01
Speaker 1: them around. I was moving everything that was in my
36:04
Speaker 1: way out of my way to find the money. Bobby
36:07
Speaker 1: also stated that he left Andy on the floor of
36:09
Speaker 1: the closet without resting her feet on the crate. Based
36:13
Speaker 1: on the photos, he asserted that she too had been moved.
36:18
Speaker 1: Seeking to verify Bobby Joe Leonard's allegations, under cover officers
36:23
Speaker 1: posed as his family members and approached Chris Johnson on
36:26
Speaker 1: the street outside of his home. They asked him to
36:29
Speaker 1: pay up for the money owed to Bobby Joe.
36:32
Speaker 2: I'm skin of Bobby Manner. He said that you would
36:36
Speaker 2: be able to help us out.
36:37
Speaker 5: Did you owe money from before?
36:39
Speaker 4: I don't know him any money?
36:41
Speaker 2: Okay, he just said that you did.
36:43
Speaker 10: It doesn't have to be ready a second, but if
36:45
Speaker 10: you can help us, that will be it.
36:47
Speaker 4: Absolutely. This is very, very strange.
36:52
Speaker 1: When the first undercover officer failed to elicit any directly
36:56
Speaker 1: incriminating statements from Chris, they tried again. Indeed, Chris was
37:00
Speaker 1: approached on three separate occasions by officers claiming to be
37:04
Speaker 1: related to Bobby.
37:07
Speaker 3: Think you know I'm here, I'll be off with my
37:08
Speaker 3: brother Bobby.
37:10
Speaker 4: Actually no, I don't know why you're here.
37:12
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, are you gonna pay my brother the money?
37:20
Speaker 4: First of all, I need my lawyer, Okay, in case
37:25
Speaker 4: you're Parling Cagange Police Okay.
37:29
Speaker 1: Chris did not contact the police after these encounters. He
37:33
Speaker 1: did reportedly call a phone number which was provided to
37:36
Speaker 1: him to arrange the payment. No money was ever exchanged.
37:40
Speaker 1: His intention in dialing the number is unclear. Desperate to
37:45
Speaker 1: move the case forward, the next attempt to catch Chris
37:48
Speaker 1: Johnson in a lie was made by Andrea's son, Kevin.
37:52
Speaker 1: In the many years following her death, Kevin and other
37:55
Speaker 1: family members began to suspect that Chris had in fact
37:58
Speaker 1: played some role in the murder her. After Bobby Joe's confession,
38:02
Speaker 1: this sentiment seemed well supported. Kevin asked Chris to lunch
38:07
Speaker 1: on the twentieth anniversary of his mother's death. The two
38:10
Speaker 1: had grown apart over these years, Chris had married and
38:14
Speaker 1: moved on with his life. Kevin asked the man that
38:17
Speaker 1: had previously been like a father to him why he
38:19
Speaker 1: had confessed to police back in nineteen ninety eight.
38:24
Speaker 4: I was socked up by their caregation, the black asleep,
38:28
Speaker 4: three days without sleeves.
38:32
Speaker 7: If they had any believe that.
38:33
Speaker 3: I had then so the things they introduced, it didn't
38:36
Speaker 3: happen that way, not at all. How did it happen.
38:41
Speaker 5: I came home, didn't even find her until one thirty.
38:45
Speaker 8: In the morning, Chross, Do you think my mom would
38:49
Speaker 8: be proud of that?
38:51
Speaker 5: Yes?
38:51
Speaker 4: Actually she's probably not gotten me for out how I
38:54
Speaker 4: paved in Forting again flee.
38:57
Speaker 1: Chris repeatedly denied any involvement, though he did make two
39:01
Speaker 1: statements that were inconsistent with the story he swore to
39:04
Speaker 1: twenty years earlier. Namely, he now claimed that he had
39:09
Speaker 1: vacuumed the condo that night.
39:12
Speaker 4: Did there come a point that evening that there was
39:14
Speaker 4: a that she did laundry?
39:18
Speaker 3: Did want?
39:19
Speaker 4: Did there come a point that she vacuumed? Yes.
39:25
Speaker 1: Chris's second inconsistency related to the only potential motive that
39:29
Speaker 1: he could have had to want Andy gone the beach house.
39:34
Speaker 1: She paid roughly two hundred and fifty dollars per month
39:36
Speaker 1: towards it, a larger sum back in nineteen ninety eight
39:39
Speaker 1: than it would be now. Kevin had surmised that if
39:43
Speaker 1: his mother had discovered Chris's online activities, she would have
39:46
Speaker 1: considered it a betrayal tantamount to cheating. If this was
39:50
Speaker 1: the case and they had a blow up argument, Andy
39:53
Speaker 1: was in a position to kick Chris out of the
39:55
Speaker 1: condo that she owned and then also make a claim
39:58
Speaker 1: on half of the beach house. Indeed, Andy had stated
40:02
Speaker 1: in an email to her cousin only a few weeks
40:05
Speaker 1: prior to her death that if they ever split, she
40:08
Speaker 1: would hope that Chris would buy her out of her
40:11
Speaker 1: half of the beach house. Twenty years on, Chris claimed
40:15
Speaker 1: that Andy was not paying any money towards the house
40:18
Speaker 1: at all.
40:20
Speaker 4: Part of the money she was giving you toward the
40:22
Speaker 4: beach house was going to that.
40:25
Speaker 5: Money.
40:26
Speaker 4: In my understanding from the time as she was giving
40:29
Speaker 4: you between this is rough three to four hundred dollars
40:34
Speaker 4: a month toward the beach house.
40:37
Speaker 7: Not a bit, not a penny.
40:43
Speaker 1: In November twenty twenty one, fifty nine year old James
40:46
Speaker 1: Christopher Johnson was arrested and charged with his former fiances murder.
40:51
Speaker 1: He went to trial in twenty twenty three. The case
40:55
Speaker 1: against Chris was relatively weak. It largely rested upon the
40:58
Speaker 1: testimony and trustworthiness of Bobby Joe Leonard, a man so
41:03
Speaker 1: comfortable with lying that he believed polygraphs did not work
41:07
Speaker 1: if the person taking it, such as himself, simply didn't
41:10
Speaker 1: care much about admitting to killing people. With the evidence available,
41:15
Speaker 1: it seemed that one of two scenarios were likely to
41:18
Speaker 1: be true. The first that Chris Johnson was a criminal
41:22
Speaker 1: mastermind or an incredibly lucky killer. He had successfully hired
41:27
Speaker 1: a hitman without divulging his identity or paying him. He
41:31
Speaker 1: thoroughly cleaned the crime scene, leaving no direct evidence of
41:34
Speaker 1: who committed the act or his own culpability. Perhaps most
41:38
Speaker 1: unbelievable would be his ability to provide a confession to
41:42
Speaker 1: the murder in such a way that multiple experts would
41:44
Speaker 1: later deem it a textbook example of a coerced and
41:48
Speaker 1: false admission of guilt, therefore spoiling the case that was
41:51
Speaker 1: being built against him. The second option was that Chris
41:55
Speaker 1: was an unwitting accomplice. After the fact, if Bobby's statements
42:00
Speaker 1: of how he committed the murder and left the apartment
42:02
Speaker 1: are even partially true, Chris's actions when he came home
42:06
Speaker 1: that night helped to cover up the crime. At trial,
42:11
Speaker 1: the defense argued that the Arlington police bungled the investigation.
42:15
Speaker 1: They proceeded with blinders on focused only on Chris Johnson.
42:20
Speaker 1: It is unclear if the trash was searched for the
42:22
Speaker 1: items Chris threw away that night, such as the rupier can,
42:26
Speaker 1: Andrea's will, and the paper with Bobby's name and phone
42:29
Speaker 1: number on it. The vacuum bag was not opened until trial.
42:33
Speaker 1: When it was it proved to be uninformative. The defense
42:37
Speaker 1: further argued that Bobby Joe was motivated to claim that
42:40
Speaker 1: the killing was a murder for hire by promises of
42:43
Speaker 1: a lighter sentence and transfer to another prison. Ultimately, he
42:47
Speaker 1: did not benefit from his testimony. He was already serving
42:51
Speaker 1: a life sentence without parole, and the death penalty in
42:54
Speaker 1: Virginia had been abolished by the time he took the stand.
42:58
Speaker 1: He had a transfer to a more desirable institution approved
43:01
Speaker 1: at the time of his testimony, but due to his
43:03
Speaker 1: guilty please in Andrea's murder, he no longer fit the
43:07
Speaker 1: criteria and the transfer approval was revoked. This actually left
43:11
Speaker 1: him worse off than if he had stayed quiet. Regardless,
43:15
Speaker 1: Chris's defense team successfully argued that Bobby believed he would
43:19
Speaker 1: benefit from his testimony. The cold case detective had told
43:23
Speaker 1: Bobby before his confession that she had helped out murder
43:27
Speaker 1: for higher defendants before should he have anything to say.
43:31
Speaker 1: In addition, Chris's defense argued Bobby didn't need the promise
43:35
Speaker 1: of a payment to commit murder. He had established a
43:38
Speaker 1: pattern of similar assaults independently in the years that followed.
43:42
Speaker 1: Though these crimes all included a sexual element in Andrew's case,
43:47
Speaker 1: nothing of this nature occurred, so it was questionable whether
43:50
Speaker 1: this could have been his motive. It seems the Commonwealth
43:54
Speaker 1: of Virginia also failed to argue that Chris had a
43:57
Speaker 1: convincing motive. It was revealed at trial that he independently
44:01
Speaker 1: owned the land where the beach house was being built.
44:05
Speaker 1: Perhaps the least helpful to the prosecution's case was their
44:09
Speaker 1: decision to play Chris's third and final, seven hour long
44:12
Speaker 1: interrogation session to the jury. In its entirety, jurors watched
44:17
Speaker 1: while the police repeatedly lied to Chris about the facts
44:20
Speaker 1: surrounding Andrea's death leading up to his bizarre dream vision.
44:27
Speaker 1: The jury did not believe Bobby Joe Leonard, and they
44:30
Speaker 1: were appalled by the interrogation tactics used on Chris Johnson.
44:34
Speaker 1: Their deliberation was shockingly brief, taking less than an hour.
44:40
Speaker 1: When they returned, they found Christopher Johnson not guilty of
44:44
Speaker 1: the murder the jury. Foreman later told the media that
44:48
Speaker 1: the short discussion in the jury room centered around how
44:51
Speaker 1: the case had even been brought against him to begin with.
44:57
Speaker 1: Shortly after the verdict, Chris filed a law suit against
45:00
Speaker 1: the cold case detective for malicious prosecution, claiming that she
45:05
Speaker 1: lied to a grand jury in order to obtain an indictment.
45:09
Speaker 1: The lawsuit claimed that she told jurors that Bobby Joe
45:12
Speaker 1: Leonard identified him by name, which he did not. The
45:16
Speaker 1: convict did, however, clearly state that it was Andrea's boyfriend
45:20
Speaker 1: who he believed he was speaking with. The lawsuit was
45:24
Speaker 1: eventually dismissed with prejudice.
45:29
Speaker 4: I don't need a guilty verdict to know the truth
45:31
Speaker 4: about what happened to my mother.
45:33
Speaker 5: I'm obviously saddened and disappointed, but I accept the result.
45:41
Speaker 1: That was the strange and tragic case of Andrea Sincata.
45:45
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me. I'm Kevin. This is just thought lounge,
45:49
Speaker 1: and I'll see in the next one.
46:00
Speaker 11: He's telling me who the screen saves. I can hear
46:01
Speaker 11: the crimes repeat.
46:02
Speaker 3: Gotta take my.
46:03
Speaker 11: Time because these crimes get deep, but these stories can't hide.
46:06
Speaker 11: Let me find my seat, Hevin, go ahead, and settle in,
46:08
Speaker 11: Gotta be selected and doing all the research