True Crime Vault: The Confession?

"Very good?"

"This style is very good."

"That's a whole lot." "Cool, exactly."

“"Stiff-dumb, warm, test, computer-built, focus-manee-trip, finance-trip, soak-te-was-out."”

"Mega, but this is top-best-complet-fied." "Eil." "Eil." "Eil." "Eil's best-for-the-loin-steuer-be-shiny-goon-machem-hunt-fartig."

"Kling, very good." "It's very good." "Hold your dein Geld zurück." "With this style." Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault.

We're heart-stopping headlines, come to life. You think, "Oh, this is a movie, this is a TV show, this isn't real life." "I woke up in the middle of the night, I got up and opened the door." "And that's when I found her."

“"After that door opens, nothing will be the same."”

"She was cold." "There's nothing colder than a dein party." "I'm one of the detectives who's yelling in my face, calling me a murderer over and over again." "My face." "Orinal."

"Stuffed in the closet, folded up, was Andy Sincana, his life partner." "If did you place anything in that closet?" "Don't sit there and constantly deny things that are so obvious that what I am is not true." "If I admit to what happened, I would have to know what happened."

"He finally lapses into this sort of dream state."

"The all very hazy is just an image. I see me holding her. I see me holding her and she slips out of my hand." "She goes down to the floor." "You wrote, I keep saying, come back." "She's dead for the person out there who might be watching me and saying, "Why in the world would you write that down?" "I was broken. And that's when I realized."

"They've been lying to me all the time." "I went to 911, what is your emergency?" "I need an officer. What's going on?"

“"I thought my girlfriend was missing. I had an inciner. I think she's dead."”

"You think so?" "Yeah, you're right." "She's laying over her side. She's cold." The story begins in 1998 with a chilling 911 call. Made from inside a two-bedroom condominium in Allington, Virginia.

"What did you answer?" "I'll change the script to print out, sir." "What is her name?" "Andrea, think how to." Andres and Kada and Chris Johnson are a low-key quiet couple.

Certainly an unlikely pair to be at the center of this story. "Is with two people that were just going about their normal lives?" "And you wouldn't think that people like this would end up in a story as bizarre as this." "So, Andrea was a librarian. She worked at the Arlington County Library for years." "She really loved her job. And you could see that shine through in these photos of her taken at the library."

"She loved words. She loved books and he loved reading." "She was small woman, about 500 pounds, soaking wet." "She loved a swim. She went swimming most mornings at a high school pool. She had a lot of friends. She was very sweet and also funny." "When you talked to her and there was a kind of exuberance."

Chris was working at Home Depot. "Johnson had a background engineering, he had worked in construction and contracting."

"This was my brother. Chris was the first brainer in the family. He thrived on science and math."

"He's very unassuming. He's very sweet. He's the first person that offers to help you." "He is a normal dude. He's honest. He's decent. He's hardworking. Can be a little awkward." "To someone who doesn't know you, how would you describe yourself?" "I'm just me. Like building things and work on work construction, like fixing things." "Andre, but most friends call her Andy and Chris met on labor day 1988. They actually lived

in the same apartment complex." They met in an elevator. She was going to swim and he was going to work. "It was really just high, but there was one time she got her bike out. It took an

"When did your connection with Andrea turn into something more?"

“She came over and wanted to bar a cup of sugar. The relationship progressed from there.”

"So what point did you fall in love?" Definitely right after the she came over. I was pretty much sure that I wanted to spend my life with her." "She's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Smart and caring." When they met Andrea was 42, and Chris was 26.

"Now, there was about 16 years between the two of you, your ages. Were there any issues with that?"

"Not at all. Not at all. I thought she looked great. We looked similar in age. My gray hair started when I was 17. Everyone thought we were the same age. And it had no impact or difference to us." "Now, she had a son Kevin from a previous marriage. How old was he when you

“met him?" "15. How was your connection with Kevin early on?" "I think it was great. Kevin's great.”

I've got some interesting stories where I was teaching and how to drive." Chris got along well with Andrea's son Kevin. Chris and Andrea will seem to have a great

loving relationship. We got engaged July 1991.

They moved together to colonial village. It's a condominium complex in Arlington, Virginia. Arlington, Virginia, is right next to Washington DC. It's directly across the river. Very, very well-to-do suburb of DC. And while it's right near such a busy city, it has a bit of a small town field. "What? Convenient?" Chris and Andrea were building another home together a few hours away in Virginia.

“We were building our dream house. It was something we were doing together. We designed it together,”

built it together. She had her own set of tools. "So you guys were actually physically doing the work?" Yeah. Cutting the trees down, digging up the stumps. Sounds like you brought your closer together. It did. Absolutely. So I want to take you to August 21st, 1998, the day that everything changed. How did the day begin? As usual, I went out to work. And I said goodbye to work. She was

getting ready to go out to the pool. Andrea had the deaf work and made plans to meet a friend for lunch after swimming. What happens, though? I go to work. I ended up having to work late. She called her a few times. I called and left messages on the machine. She didn't pick up. Of course, there was no texting in those days, no instant answers. So people were used to leaving answering machine messages and waiting to hear back.

"I had to meet about 15. Look at the journey, get home, about 5.30. You want your head to be calm." They had plans for the night. We're going to go see a movie. "We're going to go on to the indoor running video. Otherwise, I'll be here tonight." Chris then gets deleted work, so he called and left another message. "If that's a car, I can pick up a couple of things. I'll be home. I'll be home. I'm 30. I can't bear." I thought I was going to be here this time. And then, back up to

the laser. It's like, "Okay, I'm going to be a little bit later." "I need 5.39. I must have the bill on my way home, but I'm going to get in. I'll be in a while." "So what happened when you came home?" I got home and she wasn't there. And I was like, "Okay, the day before she had told me that there was a good chance she wouldn't be home because one of her good friends had a son in law who had a brain tumor. And, you know, he was fading fast and her friend would

have needed Andy to babysit their two-year-old daughter. And, shit, that woman had left a message on the machine." "And he is pretty. I'm at home. We have to give me calm." So it's like, "Okay, well, Andy's babysitting the two-year-old." "Well, you were waiting. What were you doing at home?"

10 p.m. before he became worried enough to actually start making phone calls. And the first

“person he reached out to was that friend, Judy. "So I called and it's like just looking for”

Andy. Could you give me a call?" I actually called the hospital scene. If there was anyone admitted with the name, Andrea Sincana, and they said, "No." I called Kevin left a message. So it sounds like you were concerned but not alarmed. No. Not worried that something had happened. No. At 11.30 p.m. Chris says he started getting tired. So he lays down to go to sleep in the better. So Chris woke up and he noticed that the closet door was closed and it was often left open.

So he went in there. I got up and opened the door and that's when I found her.

After that door opens, nothing will be a sin. "He is cold to the touch and beer. Okay. All right. I want you to stay on the phone with me, okay?" Chris Johnson is asleep in the bedroom. He shares with his fiance, Andrea Sincana, waiting for her to come home. I woke up in the middle of the night and I looked over and I'm sort of looking at the wall. It's 137 a.m. and he realizes Andrea's not there. And he notices something different in the room. He realizes that the closet door is closed and

the closet door is not normally closed. Usually I see the white wall and the black for her closet and I didn't see that other black so it's just like. So he goes over to look in the closet.

“I got up and opened the door. And that's what I found her. I reached out. I touched her shoulder”

and she was cold. There's nothing colder than a dead body. Stuffed way back in the closet, folded up was Andy Sincana, his life partner. She's on the floor of the closet laying on her left side surrounded by clothing. My ran and called 911. I went to 911, what is your emergency? I need an officer. What's going on? I thought my girlfriend was missing. I hadn't seen her, she was supposed to go out tonight. I think I got to give her some time.

I think she's dead. You think so? Yeah, my closet. The door is closed. I didn't look in the closet. She's laying over her side. She's cold. Chris explains that he's been waiting for Andrea and he assumed that she would come home later. So you were supposed to go out tonight and she didn't answer. She didn't call you. Well, I mean we've been living together for seven years. Okay. And I mean this is not

“the one who liked her at all. So what you were out then and you just came home and found her?”

No, I got home at six. I did my laundry. She must have been in as a place to hold time. I just didn't look in the closet. Oh, man. The door is closed. He tells the dispatcher that they did not appear to be a force entry. When you came home tonight, did any of the works to strange when you came in the apartment? I mean, it looked like something locked, messed with anything? The door was not locked, the door knob was locked. Okay, so the dead bulb was not? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I've been

home at all part. The 911 operator kept me on the phone until I heard the sirens. You hear me, are you talking to me? I can hear me. They should be doing a minute, okay? As all this is happening, how are you processing it? I was in a state shock. I guess I really hadn't totally processed. She's gone, even though she was dead. I just, I guess, blocked that out or wasn't dealing with that. I was just trying to, what's the next thing I got to do? He tells police that he's noticed a hundred and seven

dollars of coins, a Jim bag, and two of Andrew's purses are missing. Also missing? Her car and car keys releases you will look out for the car to all the units. Within the hour after the police get there, they take him to police headquarters and start questioning him. Whenever you have a case where

somebody's part in the eyes, the partners are always going to be somebody who the police focus on.

There is no audio or video of that first night of questioning, but Chris says he remembers it vividly. But what do you recall most about that first night of questioning? One of the detectives was yelling

I didn't do it. What specifically were they yelling at you? He was calling me a

“**** murderer, over and over again in my face. A **** murderer, over and over, over and over.”

Hours on end. Were you angry at the police for subjecting you to questioning at that point? No, I was trying to help them. I wanted them to figure out what happened. I wanted to know what happened. They questioned him until eight nine in the morning. They didn't ask having anything to do with her death and they let him go. I went to Andrea's father's house to tell him his daughter was dead.

I'm driving up the road back from his house and I see a car that was like hers and then I was unpassing that's her license plate and I'm like, that's her car. I immediately slammed on the brakes pull over on the shoulder and I called the police. I said, you're not going to believe

“this I found a car. Were you concerned at how that might seem? A couple hours ago they're yelling”

at you as if you're a suspect to now you're saying, oh here's her car. Absolutely. But it was more important for them to process the car. I wanted to know what happened. More than anything, that's what I was trying to figure out. He happens to just be driving down the street and runs into the car. If they didn't think he was involved before, they definitely do now. After I found the car, they took me back in Saturday night. They want to talk to him again. I went to pick up

Chris at the police department. It wasn't till about six thirty p.m. Chris was finally came out.

He just looked like someone who'd been through the mill. He was very tired, very tired, just totally exhausted, mentally exhausted. I think I went into some sort of

“state where I shut down my emotions. Because you have to, I remember when my dad died,”

we had to hold everything together and it wasn't until they were putting his body on the case on Arlington that I broke down. So I was like that was like two weeks later, but you have to hold it together to function. And you were trying to do the same thing, but yeah. In the days to come, Chris Johnson will be put on the hot seat and his story will be put to the test. Did I push your? Did I hit her? I still play as my hands. I don't know what I did. Did I choke her? Tell me.

In the days after Anderson caught his death, Chris Johnson is repeatedly brought back into the

police department for questioning. The interrogation of Chris was pretty brutal. In those first three

days after Andrea died, he was interrogated intensively. He comes back in voluntarily without a lawyer. Saturday morning, eight hours. After I found the car, they took me back in, Saturday night. Sunday morning, I had to go back in and go through it all again. That's 21 hours of interviews with Chris Johnson. I've already said at least some, if not all of those interviews were recorded, but to this day, nobody can find any audio or video.

Those 21 hours gone. The first video tip that we have is from Monday, August 24th, which is three days after the murder. In some of the clips, there's a video effect that looks like a black box covering the computer. She's laying on her left, left side, in a fetal position. Touch her shoulder like right here and she's cold. One of the very first questions they asked, Chris Johnson, was, have you guys had any recent fights? No big fights in the arguments between

it for you for any reason at all? I don't get into fights. Arguably, it's only the time you visit a cool contest. I mean, not even verbal. Detective homes questions Chris about not noticing that the closet door was closed until the middle of the night. On the course of the time that you were hung, you've best have gone past that closet at least five times from your explanation to me.

Can you never notice that that door was closed? No. But you woke up from basically asleep,

but right away, you noticed that the door was closed? Why is that? Sure you do. Think about it. Did you feel like a suspect? I felt like they thought I was a suspect, but I knew I had nothing

He was asked the same questions over and over and over again. Did you place anything that closet

and that are you already know that Andy had replaced the closet? You place Andy in the closet? He keeps giving largely the same responses. I did not know that she was in the closet until I found her in the closet of Monday. Detective Cindy Brennan, who had interviewed Chris earlier, then walks into the room. Quite often things will happen between friends, lovers, whatever, and things may get out of hand. You may not mean a heart dead person, but you do.

“Accidently. And if that's what really happened, then also if you don't go through all of this,”

Cindy wasn't actually. Tell the truth. If what happened was an accident, tell me that was an accident. I have no idea what happened to her. You kept saying over and over again. I don't know what happened. Right. I wanted to get that you across to them that I had nothing to do with it. And I wanted to help them try to find out what happened. It sounds like you want me to say that I want you to say the truth. I want you to hear no cause of it, and it was an accident,

or I'm the cause of it, but it was delivered. If you're the cause of it, what happened? I really don't know what happened. Did they ever tell you, hey, you can get a lawyer? No. Did you ever feel like you were free to leave? When they were questioning you? No. It was a

“small room, and there was like handcuffs bolted to the table, and there was someone”

always guarding the door. I wanted to use the bathroom once, so I was escorted to the bathroom.

It's clear that these officers don't believe the Chris's version of the story. Sit there and constantly deny things that are so obvious that if my hand is not true, if I admit to what happened, I would have to know what happened. A critical part of the interrogation is that in the previous days, one of the detectives told Chris about what evidence he said was found at the scene. Early on, they kept saying things like, "Well, she was alive after six

o'clock." That my fingerprints were on her. And I'm just like, "What? No." But they just kept repeating it and repeating it and repeating it. What was your immediate thought when you heard that? No. That wasn't the case, but they kept ingraining it and pushing it and pushing it for hours. When you got home, did you already know that Andy was in the closet? No. And that's a truth. Yes. And you're sure about that. From what I know, yes. Now, why are you defining that? Why are you

kind of qualifying from what you have? Because what detective Brennan's partner said was that my fingerprints were on her body. And that her time of death was after I got home.

“That does not jive. That's right. I believe happened.”

Then detective Brennan takes her turn in questioning Chris. Because I know that you know the truth. You know the truth. You know what happened. More than I do. What actually happened? You tell me? Did I push her? Did I hit her? Chris, don't play with my hands. I don't know what I did. Did I choke her? Chris's story was consistent and he says consistent.

But it's about to change. And finally after 24, 25 hours with the police,

he collapses into this sort of dream state. This definitely is a point where the detectives are like, okay, this guy's ready to confess. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. Summaries here and with it can come a whole lot of pressure. Travel, long days on the beach, and more time with kids who are out of school can all sound like a blessing. But it's a lot to juggle too. You might find yourself overwhelmed and

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He got very tired and he sort of deteriorated into a problem pulled up mass. And then there is a turning point in the interrogation. It's around 715pm and this is the 25th hour of talking to the police over the past several days. I don't have a direct memory of it. Direct memory of it. It's all very hazy. It's just an image. I see me holding her. I see me holding

“her and she slips out of my hand. And what happens when she slips out of your hand?”

She goes down to the floor. He started saying, well, I imagine that I was holding her and that she

felt and I have a vision basically. And he proceeds to tell a story about he's arguing and he brings

his hand down and he hits into her. She hits her head and goes down to the ground. And he says, then I knelt over her. She wasn't breathing. Can you get her breathing again? No. At this point, Chris Johnson is incredibly subdued and almost inaudible. You can barely hear her. This definitely is a point where the detectives are like, okay, this guy's ready to confess. He's ready to give it up and let us know exactly what happened.

You talk about having a hazy image. They were saying she was alive after I got home.

“So the only way that something could have happened was maybe it was an accident.”

At this point, the detectives won him to solidify his version of events so they told him to write it down. You write down number one right here that you came into the house, put it in your own word. Chris writes down a three-page summarized statement explaining his story. You wrote my hand hit her on the neck. She falls down as she fell her head hit edge of desk. I am crying. I keep saying, come back. She's dead. I put her in the closet.

Well, they kept saying, your hand prints are on her neck. Your hand prints are on her neck.

I never would have hurt her.

For today's date on there, you've already got the home to get some sleep. I was broken. I was a broken man by then. He's free to leave, but he definitely is in loads of trouble. Chris Johnson just essentially signed a confession. I'm sure when they let him go that day, they were under the belief that he would be back

in the future and he would be in custody for murder. Was there ever a point where you were like, "Do I need to get a lawyer?" That happened when I finally was able to talk to a former boss of mine and he said,

Did you think you'd be arrested? They had me pretty much thinking. I have something must have happened. I just didn't remember it because I had no memory of actually anything happening to her. So, probably, yeah.

But at that point, Chris Johnson discovered something crucial.

He learned that the police had lied to him about piece of evidence that they say they discovered at the crime scene. To begin, Andrea had not, in fact, been killed after Chris got home. Rigger Mortis had already started to really establish itself in her folded body, meaning a minimum 10 to 12 hours after death. She had also missed a planned lunch date she had with a friend.

She didn't show up at a lunch. She didn't call the friend, both of these very unusual, the friend calls, and leaves a message on the answering machine. And that's when I realized they'd been lying to me all the time. When they said that she was alive at 6 o'clock, they were lying. The light bulb went off for you.

Yes.

And what did you think once you realized that?

“I was in shock. How can they get away with it? How can they do that?”

Police had told him other things that were also not true. His fingerprints were, in fact, not found on Andrea's body. And the autopsy does not match the details in his confession. He gives a version of events that doesn't match what happened to Andrea's in contact. She didn't die from a blow to the head. Andy's in contact was obviously strangled. That was clear from the very beginning. So as he imagines it, he gets the details wrong.

And it's not a small detail. It's the actual method of death. So for the person out there who might be watching this and saying, "Well, if you didn't do these things, why in the world would you write that down? Why would you write these things? What would you say to them?" If you had gone through what I went through, for as long as I went through it,

and you had just found the woman you love, dead. You're not in a good place. You're not. You watched all seven hours of the interrogation video. Many times.

What was your impression of it? That interrogation is shocking. You see how, the police, using the tactics and methods that they did, they convinced Chris that he had actually done this. Please, Badger and Badger and Badger lied to him, lied to him,

“the only way out for Chris was by saying, "I must have stuffed her in the closet."”

Eventually, Chris is a broken man at the end. He would have written down that the Easter Bunny was involved. You trust the police, the police don't lie. It was growing up. Be respectful and everything like that.

So, I literally had no reason to believe that they were lying to me. We're allowed to lie to suspects in this country during interrogations. How impactful were the lies here? Well, what he's being told is, is scientific evidence that you cannot disprove.

And that's pretty powerful stuff.

I do not remember placing her in the closet based on what I've been told in this building. I can draw no other conclusion that I must have placed during the closet. What do you make of this? What I saw on the video was a lot of things that they were doing that went over the line of what we now know shouldn't be done in order to get a reliable confession.

He's tired. He's under stress. He's been through trauma. He's been lied to. He's vulnerable. I see me holding her and she slips out of my hand. I go down to the floor with her. So, do you find Chris a story believable or no?

No. He's not making a confession. He's not even making an admission. He's saying that this is possible. This is something I maybe have a vision of or whatever along that line. Confessions don't need anything if they're not corroborated. The confession alone is not enough to charge someone with any crime, especially a murder.

They have no probable cause to arrest Chris at this point.

“Which leads to the big question. If Chris Johnson did not kill Anderson Cotta, then who did?”

He talked his way into her home. Hello? In the aftermath of Anderson Cotta's death, her friends and family are left reeling and confused. Last thing I expected in the world was that Andy was gone.

It was a punch in the gut. What do you mean she's dead?

“That makes no sense. It made no sense. It was devastating.”

Well, police are interrogating Chris. They're also processing the crime scene looking for any forensic evidence that can point them to Andrea's killer. They're going to be looking to obtain fingerprints and DNA wherever possible. But they don't find any physical evidence that points to a particular culprit. They do, however, have what seems to be a promising lead.

Chris tells police that about four weeks before Anderson Cotta was killed, she was trying to get rid of an old computer. Andy was asking other staff members, "Hey, I have this old computer. I don't want to just throw it away.

Do you think someone could use it or work an idea on it?"

She sees this man outside who's working for a company called Trash Masters. He was at the Department Complex installing mailboxes there. It's probable that she saw one of the Trash Masters trucks assumed it was like recycling or trash company and she asked him whether they take abuse computers. And he says, "I'll take the computer."

“And then I remember her coming to me one day and saying, "Oh, hey, don't worry about the computer.”

I found someone to give it to." Andrews and Cotta, at that point, actually let the man into her apartment all the way back into the bedroom to take this computer. She later tells Kevin, her son and her fiance, Chris Johnson, that she's given the computer to some unknown man. They didn't know who it was. They called him the computer guy.

She said the Chris and Kevin were upset that she had left a stranger into the house while she was there by herself. So this guy with the computer? Tell me about that. Kevin was the one who really pieced it together. That there was this computer guy that probably they need to look at. This is a huge lead. This is a man who they don't know who has been inside the house,

who has had contact with Andyson Cotta.

“This is somebody that needs to be thoroughly checked out.”

The police tracked him down and fairly quickly. They figured out that this is a man named Bobby Joe Leonard. Four days after Andrea's murder, he landed in a jail in Philadelphia, accused of assaulting his wife. Charges that were later dropped.

Arlington County Police, they went out and talked to Bobby Joe Leonard in the Philadelphia jail. Bobby Joe Leonard said, "I don't have anything to do with that murder in Arlington. I didn't do anything to that lady." They did take his blood. They did take his fingerprints and match anything at the scene. The police didn't take his clothes and didn't get a search warrant for his place.

So this person that was once the suspect, they tell the family members that no he is actually the only person that's been cleared right now. The Bobby Joe Leonard lead doesn't go anywhere. Meanwhile, Andrea's death has received a surprising lack of attention from the media. The Arlington Police did not put out any kind of press releases

when the death occurred. They never put any kind of public notice out that there had been a homicide

in Arlington. At the time I thought, I wonder if Andy the like had a cerebral hemorrhage or fell in hit or head. I wanted what happened. My assumption was that it was a break-in. Someone broke in and you know the robbery gone wrong, that sort of thing. Well, authorities said that they had treated it like a homicide since the start. It wasn't until six months after her death that they finally officially ruled it a homicide. Police reassured the community saying,

"We do not have a serial killer on our hands." Police also said there was a finite possibility of suspects out there. It means they have a very strong suspect in mind and in this case, it's obviously Chris Johnson that they're focused on. But then a year after Andrea's death, Bobby Joe Leonard, that computer guy commits a heinous crime that brings him back into focus. In 1999, Bobby Joe Leonard kidnapped, raped, and left for dead, a 13-year-old girl.

He takes his teenage girl and chokes her into unconsciousness and puts her in a closet and leaves. And he thought that he had killed her. What's interesting here and what brings us back to Andrea's case is the fact that she was also placed in a closet to die. Kevinson caught a actually a 10-to-trial and so does Tom Jackman, who's reporting on it for the Washington Post. During the Bobby Joe Leonard trial, a man came up to me and said, "I believe this man killed my mother."

Kevin was determined to get answers to find out who killed his mother. It's really not an unreasonable

“demand. Bobby Joe Leonard was convicted of abduction, rape, and attempted murder of a 13-year-old girl”

and he was sentenced to life in prison. The investigation goes cold. Ice cold.

Chris Johnson tries to move on with his life. I've always wanted to know what happened to her,

but he's under a cloud of suspicion. I mean, it's always in the back of your mind that the police still think that I must have done it 20 years past. Two decades later, suddenly it's a huge break in the case. It's shocking. He's been arrested for once.

You think, "Oh, this is a movie, this is a TV show, this isn't real life." That was in the fight for my life. These other criminal genius boys innocent, and it's one of those two things. She was cold. There's nothing colder than a dead body. Kevin was determined to get answers to find out who killed his mother.

The police still think that I must have done it. You know the truth. More than I do. You tell me. Did I push her? Did I hit her? I don't know what I did.

“If Chris Johnson did not kill Anderson Kata, then who did?”

Here is a convicted career felon, stepping up and saying, "I committed this murder." Somebody said they were paying me $5,000 to do it. The claim is that you paid him $5,000 to kill Andrea. Oh my god! Chris had nothing to do with it. When they said that, my jaw dropped.

And it was in the jury's hands, and you don't know what the jury's going to do. Back in 1988, after Chris Johnson found his fiancé, Anfias and Kata's body in their bedroom closet, he called 911. He was immediately the prime suspect, grow by police for 28 hours, over three days. They accused him of being the killer.

And you know, you know, we're just waiting for you to say, just be a man in a Mediterranean.

Chris says he was exhausted and finally broke down onto the pressure.

“And based on the evidence, police told him they had, saying he must have had something to do with it.”

Just go ahead for me and how you took it to the closet. You don't really find me. Tell us what's happened. He said I dropped him on the floor and then on the other side. He asked to hit him on the other side.

But Chris says he was under the rest so he gave a false confession. He told police he dropped Andrea and she hit her head. But the autopsy showed that she died by strangulation. He wasn't charging, but his suspicions remained.

I mean, it's always in the back of your mind.

Well, first of all, the police still think that I must have done it. Chris Johnson was left reeling. Andrew's mysterious death in the closet goes unsolved and the dream house they were building is put on hold. What are your most vivid memories of her? Building the house.

She was amazing, powerful woman. Sorry. There's one time we were lifting a 12 foot tall wall. And I realized I did not have a good grip. I loved it her.

I knew that she could hold it while I changed my grip. I let go, re-gripped it, and we got that wall up. She was there for you. We were a team. Partners.

Chris talks about how, at the time, he came to lean on a song that had special significance for him. You're gone. It came out right at the time that she was killed. It talks about the times that you share and then, you know, she's gone. He says he still listens to it today.

But Chris did slowly begin to rebuild his life.

I did a hundred more bike rides, and I went straight to the cinema.

I didn't bother to go home and get shout or anything. And I was sounding in line, and this person was in front of me, and he said, "What? Feel me you're going to say." So I said, "Noting heel." And I said, "Well, feel me you're going to say."

And he said, "Star Wars." And he said, "All I'm going to say is not doing heel then. Do you want to sit together?" I said, "Okay."

And the thing is, I felt it was okay to talk to her because she's tall and blonde and not my usual style.

“So I think it's not that's ever going to happen.”

But something did happen. Jenny and Chris started dating. What was it like when Chris first told you, Jenny that his fiance had been married? This was pretty much our first date, and I thought to myself, "This is more traumatic than anything that I've ever heard before."

Chris, why did you bring up the fact that your fiance was murdered on the first date? It seems like it's not something that you want to hide or whatever, totally up front. This is who I am, this is what happened to me.

I accepted it, 100% it never occurred to me ever that, you know, he might have had anything to do with it whatsoever.

Jenny had no qualms about continuing the relationship,

“and that chance meeting on the movie line, let's marriage.”

Meanwhile, Andrews and Katta's case goes cold, despite initial suspicions about Chris and another man named Bobby Joe Leonard. Now a few weeks before she was murdered, Andrews and Katta gave her computer to Leonard who was doing maintenance work at her condo. He had a criminal history, but police didn't find any evidence to link him to the murder,

and he was cleared. For years, the case seemed to be stalled. The victim's son, Kevin, was pushing and pushing for them to come to some sort of solution in the case. Andrew is only child, her son, Kevin, was 24 when she was killed. Kevin and I met, and he wants me to write a story about this case and the fact that no one has been

“charged in his mother's murder. Kevin's in Katta fell the petition to see his mother's autopsy report.”

The court denied his request saying that the investigation was still active. In around 2000, Kevin thought Chris was a great guy, and he felt that Chris was, you know, wrongly suspected of this by the police. Kevin, he was very supportive. He asked, "Did I have anything to do with it?" I don't know. Absolutely not. And I was it.

But over the years, Chris and Kevin had drifted apart. And then, in 2018, 20 years after the murder, Kevin calls Chris asking me to get together. "It's going to be a pretty chicken salad, dressing on the side please." "I wrote salad, notes to me. I don't know why." The subject came up as he presented it. It was, you know, the 20th anniversary of her death is coming up.

And that's how it started out. What Chris doesn't know is that Kevin is wearing a wire, because he now thinks that Chris is responsible for his mother's death. Kevin tells Chris he's seen the police file, and now has a different take on the case. "What would you think if you were here? I wouldn't be at least the world's suspicious. I could understand where you're coming from. I imagine this was your

mother, but you know me, but where you knew me." Chris adamantly denied Kevin's assertion. But Kevin keeps that Chris. He confronts him about what he said in the interrogation. "Yes, Chris there's no doubt the police found out this case introduced false correlation and that false information. Yeah. But that doesn't mean that you didn't do it because you did do." How did that conversation leave you feeling? It was really hurt. I was like, "I wonder if he was

wearing a wire, because of the way he was asking the questions and everything like that." "So when you found out it sounds like you were that surprised." "No, I feel sorry for Kevin." The case did sort of lose steam, but in Arlington, the police are still trying to figure out a way to try to solve it, and a new cold case detective comes onto the case.

Andrews and Katta's death. The detective goes to see Leonard at Walons Ridge State Prison.

“It is a supermax prison on a mountaintop, in Virginia. After years of denying any role in”

Andrews and Katta's murder, Bobby Joe Leonard has a shocking news story to him. Apparently Bobby Joe Leonard had found out and he decided he was going to come clean with respect to Andrews and Katta. Here is a convicted career felon stepping up and saying, "I committed this murder." "Somebody said they would pay me $5,000 to do it." "So who did Bobby Joe Leonard say, hired him?"

Bobby Joe Leonard is ready to talk with detectives. Apparently Bobby Joe Leonard had found God, and he decided he was going to come clean with respect to Andrews and Katta.

But first, he wants to make a deal. He says, "I want you to promise me that you won't seek

“the death penalty if I tell you what happened to Andrews and Katta." Leonard is serving a life”

sentence for the rape and attempted murder of a 13-year-old. At the next meeting, Detective Hortese came back with a prosecutor and met with Bobby Joe Leonard and said, "Oh, you've got the death penalty off the table." With the death penalty off the table, Bobby Joe Leonard confessed to the murder of Andrews and Katta. But then, he said something nobody saw coming. He said he was hired to do it. Leonard said, "Yeah, I did it. I killed Andy because somebody said they

would pay me $5,000 to do it." Bobby Joe Leonard tells the police. He had gotten the computer from Andrews and Katta, taken it home, and that he then got in a phone call from her, checking on the computer. And Bobby Joe Leonard said, "I'm having some problems with the computer, so Andrea, according to Bobby Joe Leonard, hands the phone to Chris because he built the computer." And then, Mr. Leonard tells Detective Hortese, "That same person with that same phone number

on our caller ID called me a day or two later." Leonard said to call her identified himself, "That's like the boyfriend of Andrews and Katta." The voice sounded like an older white man. Chris was 36 at the time. And this white guy says, "I want you to come, I want you to to get rid of her." And Leonard says, "I finally said to the white guy, "Are you saying you want me to kill her?" And that the man says, "Yes." And he promised me $5,000 would be left

in the closet of their bedroom." Leonard says that he said, "Of course, I'll do that."

Site on scene, no down payment, never met the person, this caller. Leonard never mentioned

Chris by name he didn't know, isn't it? The police are intrigued by Leonard's story. Remember they had initially suspected Chris Johnson, so they set up a sting. They're basically trying to corroborate Bobby Joe Leonard's story of what occurred, so they sent a undercover officer a female to say that she is a family member of Bobby Joe Leonard. And she tells Chris that he always Bobby Joe Leonard's a money.

"The more him, the gentleman, the better you, the better you, the more you, the better you,

“I can't have Bobby Leonard, I think I'm going to need a money in a bad way." Bobby Leonard says, "You're here money from a something from a long time ago." "Yeah?" Bobby Leonard said, "This promise to Johnson,”

that Mr Johnson would be able to help us out that you owe money from before." I don't know any of my. "As you're hearing this, what do you think?" Well, I'm scared, this is as I'm walking out the door, what's 630 in the morning, dark out, and I'm being confronted at my gate." But Chris did wonder, since he had once been considered a suspect, if maybe the police were behind it. "I was trying to figure out how they came up with this." Two weeks later, Chris is approached again.

This time, Chris says, by a tall intimidating man, who said he was Bobby Joe Leonard's brother. "They don't listen to Donald Trump." "Not because of that. How are you? You're good. You're tone, think you know I'm here. I'll be out to my brother, Bobby." "Actually, no, I don't know that you're here." "Okay." "Well, we're here to pay my brother, the money." "Person, I need my lawyer." "Okay." "Hey, sir. I don't think any police. There's not enough evidence for you to prove to me who you are."

"Okay. Well, I'm definitely not the police, so I'll say you don't sound that one home with my brother." "Yeah, I'm done." After dealing with the girl, and you know, we were all on it.

going to be handing us, and Chris had nothing to do with it.

“"After those two things proved unsuccessful, I would definitely go back and re-interviewed”

Bobby Joe Leonard and let him know that we've got no proof of this and ask him again if he has any proof." Leonard had nothing but his own words to corroborate that he'd been hired by an older white man. That didn't stop law enforcement from moving ahead with the case. Still a few years go by, and they convene a grand jury. And in November of 2021, there is a stunning development. Chris Johnson is indicted for murder for hire. Chris has arrested outside his front door

as he's heading for work. "I wasn't shocked, I mean, what is this? The arrest made the local nightly news." And Arlington County Police say two men have been charged in connection to the 1998 homicide of a woman in a colonial village neighborhood, 59-year-old James Christopher Johnson, and 53-year-old Bobby Joe Leonard, "I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't believe it. I could not believe it, they would arrest him." "For what?" "They tell you that your charged

was murder for hire. That the claim is that Bobby Joe Leonard, you paid him $5,000

“to kill Andrea." "It's ridiculous. I was rackin' my brain. How did the world that they come”

up with this?" "I certainly expected that Bobby Joe Leonard would be responsible for it. It fits his MO, but it was certainly a shocking development to see that Chris Johnson was being accused of orchestrating." After hearing about the indictment, Kevin St. Kottis said

"It was the happiest day of his adult life." "Kevin finally felt like now some justices

being done for my mother, someone is being held responsible." "But it makes no sense to Chris Johnson and his attorneys." Chris with the only person, police ever had an interest in prosecuting. "Did mistakes made it the crime scene? A faculty investigation." "They put the Bobby into a superglue cabinet." "The police lost any ability to get the touch DNA. It was likely all over her. And why is Bobby Joe Leonard telling people he expects to be pardoned?"

"Bobby Joe Leonard called his girlfriend." "You're going to cut me a deal, and I'm going to be home soon." "Caffeins are a best form. With Cuba, we'll take a coffee at Knopfdruck for a genus moment."

“Then with the new Cuba-Wan capsule machine from Cuba,”

genies-to-feinsten-spits-in-caffe-as-be-sondering-an-bouge-bieten, full-mondic-arroman-dank-innovative-press-brut-technologie and over-sip-sinsort-in-caffe-for-e-e-e-dengeschmack. Elépe premium-caffe is already at the 1920 Euro. And decades now, the Cuba-Capsill-machine in Deiner-Tibofiale and of Chibode-e. "No, no, no." "Welcome to Get Real."

"I got something to say." "Oh, weekly talk show for the reality TV obsessed." "Oh, my God!" "It's going to be deliciously desperate." "The final news broadcast for Get Real." "She has a saucepot for trouble, man."

"Boo, platinum." "This is your show." "Find Get Real wherever you get your podcasts." "Love runs deeper than we know." And stream new episodes Thursdays on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus.

After he was arrested, Chris spent nine days in jail, and then was released on-bomb. He was confined to home detention. This is where I spent 11 months of my life. "Wow, you know, I stretched my arms across.

There's not a lot of room here." "You had to spend 11 months really a year of your life within this room within this house." "What was that like?" "Couldn't even walk around the neighborhood or anything like that?"

"That my barrier was that gate right out of the front." "I met with Chris right after he was charged. I became personally convinced that Chris was absolutely innocent of this charge." "Why?"

"The first thing you look at in any type of situation like this is motive.

Like why could this have happened?" " Has there been any domestic violence between Andy and Chris?" "There was none." "Did Chris have anything to gain in any of this?" "There was no financial benefit to Chris whatsoever because of Andy's death."

"All the hard life insurance and any money that there was went directly to the sun as it should." "Even the condominium that they lived in actually went to Kevin."

educated former federal prosecutor. "What did you think when you started looking into the case?" "How did this case get charged?"

“"You know I think sometimes it's lawyers.”

We look at cases like these and we say like, "I don't get it. Is there something more here that I'm not seeing?" "Yes. I was like Frank Man, you're something you're not telling me, right? I didn't believe him. I didn't believe him. I looked at every page of the discovery myself." "So why did you want to get involved?"

"I didn't want to get involved. I was doing a lot of other things. And Frank said, Libby, this is an opportunity to help save a man's life." Also recruited for the defense team is former FBI agent Daniel Riley, who is used to working for the prosecution. "I worked for the FBI for almost 30 years.

I've never worked for a defense attorney during my life.

You know, if anything, they were not real happy with me most of the time. But this time will be different.

“Riley believes there were real problems without the crime scene was processed.”

What stood out to me first of all, more than anything else, was a lack of concern about trace evidence. They didn't do any collection of hair and fiber balance. Dead clothing was recovered. Seas put into an evidence bag. But nothing was ever done with it.

Unfortunately, the police decided in this case to superglue injuries in Todd's body. Superglue was typically used to find fingerprints on non-porous surfaces like glass and not on a human body.

In my 22 years of law enforcement experience, I've never done superglue on a victim's body.

In this case, you're contaminating the crime scene with a glue that's going to layer over microscopic items of forensic evidence. The police lost any ability to get the touch DNA. They was likely all over her throat. The police would have had that right away. They would have had Bobby Joe Leonard. I would grade this particular crime scene at a D.

Private investigator Philip Becknell was hired by the defense. He spoke to 10 of Leonard's leg victims and looked into his criminal history. We know he strangled and sexually assaulted 13-year-old girl on letter in the closet. Becknell found a pattern in the way that Leonard committed his crimes. Bobby Joe Leonard went for the throat.

He did that again and again and again. The most impactful victims' story for me was the person who Bobby Joe raped and prisoned. He was convicted of Sodomizing on multiple occasions. He saw me.

Like any inmate who's doing hard time, Bobby Joe Leonard is looking for a way out.

“So why would he admit to murdering Andres and Cotta?”

A lot of people have asked me what Bobby Joe had to game,

but I think the better question is what he had to lose and the answer is nothing.

Bobby Joe is locked down 23 hours a day. That's his life, his those four walls. This cold murder that he did in fact commit was the only chip that he had to play to better his circumstances. The day after the cold case detective left, Bobby Joe Leonard made a really interesting call to his girlfriend. And it is made at the Virginia Department of Correction,

Warren Thridge, State Prison. Leonard makes up a dramatic story about his conversations with the Texas. I'm paraphrasing. Baby, I've got great news. The governor of Virginia and some other people came down to see me and they're going to cut me a deal.

Leonard continues to lie and says the deal is so good he's going to be given a full party. I try out I was worried. Chris Johnson is normal dude as it's been a lifetime manipulating people. And then you have Bobby Joe Leonard, who is charming, who can talk his way in and out of things.

Who in the jury going to believe? I was just so scared. The big unknown, I was in the fight of my life. It was Wednesday morning about 10 a.m. when Leslie Jenning Priors' colleagues became concerned, she hadn't come to work.

when on a spring morning, the unthinkable happened.

“There were signs of a struggle, but no force denturing.”

This woman was strangled and she was beaten. She was found in the shower with the water running. For the next two decades, Leslie Prior's case remained unsolved, and the shocking truth about the real killer stayed hidden until very recently when new technology allowed investigators to do would had once been impossible.

I'm Stephanie Ramos, and this is Blood and Water, a new series from ABC Audio in 2020. And he almost got away with it. He almost got away with it. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. This is what everyone's talking about.

Every day is on the table. This is what champions come to take. This is what everyone came to see.

No dual, no second chance, no more Mr. Night sky.

This is winner-take ball, and it's all happening now on the home of the NBA Finals. Don't miss it, June 3rd on ABC and the ESPN app. In September 2022, the trial comes. You find yourself at an orange and courthouse facing trial.

Scary, that was in the fight for my life. There were a number of folks that were there to support Chris Johnson. His family, his wife, and then there were a number of folks there to support Kevin. Our main focus at trial was two things, showing the jury that there was no evidence in this case number one. And number two, that the prosecutor's theory of this case made no sense.

Libby Vampal did a very engaging opening statement,

basically saying that Chris could not possibly have arranged for the murder of this fiance

that he loves so much. When they brought Kevin to Cata to the stand, that part was super heartbreaking, because you could see that there was love there, and you could see that Kevin had been terribly, terribly hurt by the murder of his mother. Remember, Kevin had been pushing for years to move the case forward and get just as

for his mother. Kevin testified that when he was at the funeral home, he overheard Chris standing at Andrew's casket saying, "I am so sorry, I'm so sorry."

“Kevin is wondering what is he sorry for. What did you do, why are you sorry?”

I think that it would be entirely natural for an innocent man under those circumstances, who's bereaved to be sorry that he wasn't there in the detector. They also brought Kevin in to talk about a sting operation that he had done with Chris. Did there come a point that evening that there wasn't that you did laundry? Did there come a point that you'd back in?

But initially Chris said he didn't vacuum, so the fact that Chris said in 2018 he actually did vacuum, well that was a glaring inconsistency. Kevin felt that that was an incriminating thing. The rug had those marks that are made by a vacuum player, and now he admitted that he was the one that vacuumed. Even if it wasn't him that committed the murder, he could have been cleaning up after Bobby Joe Leonard.

But the contents of the vacuum bag were never tested.

The vacuum bag was stored away in evidence and not open for two decades. The vacuum bag had trial and it was just a proof of dust. The prosecution went as far as to say that the vacuum bag was red herring and that the failure to test it had no impact on the case. And they did admit that the police could have done a better job processing the crime scene. But they insisted that this case wasn't about

the crime scene. It was about Chris hiring Leonard to kill Andrea. The prosecutor suggested that perhaps Chris had some motive to want the beach house all to himself, but it came out of trial that Chris was the only person on the deed. After Kevin's in Kada, gone off the stand, Bobby Joe Leonard was supposed to be the next

“witness. I believe that the prosecution thought that Leonard was their star witness.”

So we're all waiting for the big moment when Leonard comes into the courtroom and he won't come in. There was a flurry of activity and the trial was stopped for a while. And that was because Leonard was saying, "I'm not going to testify unless I get a concession."

Bobby Joe Leonard is a manipulator and what he wanted to do was call the shots at this point. So Bobby Joe Leonard says that he will not testify against Chris unless they agree to put a request in to move him to a better prison. This raises the question, "Was this demand the real reason Leonard told authorities his story?" So the prosecutor's agreed to make this deal.

And Leonard walks into the courtroom to give his story for the first time publicly.

How he killed Andy. He said that they had a casual, nice conversation and then that he attacked her.

“I just said before I leave, could I bother you for something to drink?”

And she said, "Sure." And she came back with the soda in her hand. She reached out to hand me the soda. I just lunge towards it with both of my hands and just grabbed it by the throat and just choked it down to the ground. She didn't really offer any type of resistance under that. He's not expressing any remorse. He casually described it. Like almost like he was enjoying telling every single detail. It was a polling. There's a huge problem with the way Leonard describes

this scene. He says she didn't struggle. It is absolutely contradictory by the evidence because she had bruised

in all of her forms. This woman fought, she fought for her life. During Bobby Joe's testimony, one of the ways he said he identified that this collar was Andy's

“boyfriend was he said he had collar ID and that became a point at trial. Leonard said,”

"I knew it was the boyfriend of Andreas and Kada because it was the same number. How did you know that, Mr. Leonard? I saw it on the collar ID." Unfortunately, for Mr. Leonard, we tracked down a witness, the new Mr. Leonard pretty well. The defense brought Leonard's ex-wife, Francis Hudson to the stand and they asked her,

"When blank, did you have collar ID?" and she said, "No, we didn't have collar ID." But Hudson also testified

that she had moved out a few weeks prior to the murder because Leonard had choking. So the prosecution made the point that Leonard could have gotten collar ID after she left. The prosecution admitted that there was no forensic evidence tying Leonard and Chris to a murder for higher blood. They claimed it was because too much time had passed to click phone records and other verifying information. Bobby Jill Leonard is a killer and a liar.

He's had a lot of victims in his life and this trial is Bobby Joe Leonard attempting to add one more victim to his list. Chris Johnson. But the prosecution insists that Chris Johnson is the liar and they're about to present the jury with a shocking new theory. When they said that, my jaw dropped. This trial took a tremendous toll on Chris. He didn't sleep. He would come in, drawn,

exhausted. Everything about this trial drained Chris to like a nob of what he was before this. Here with the jury going to believe, if they're going to believe, outside of what they could have believed in the prosecution side, I was just so scared all the time.

“Beyond the testimony of Bobby Jill Leonard, the case hinges on a key piece of evidence.”

They had this long video taped interrogation and the prosecution wanted to play it for the jury even though it's hours of him denying. The prosecution said, "We want to show the jury that Chris Johnson is a liar. We want to show them that he repeatedly denied this and then admitted her." I actually think that it didn't do what the prosecution had helped it would do. The jury seemed very upset. They seemed upset with the police

and they seemed to gather more empathy towards Chris. And then the prosecution introduced a surprising new theory that this wasn't a false confession at all that it was a strategy by Chris Johnson to mislead authorities. They claimed that you made the false confession to derail the investigation to sort of take the light off the Bobby Jill Leonard. When they said that, my jaw dropped. I'm confessing to something to derail their investigation of me doing something. It just doesn't make sense.

Let's take that for a mental spend. That means that in order to deflect suspicion from the hitman, he brought suspicion on himself. To get away with the murder, he's making sure the police

feel? I've done a lot of closings. This was the worst one for me ever. No matter how cool you

try to portray yourself, how you try to become. When you have a client like Chris Johnson that you really believe in, there's a enormous amount of pressure. That was it. That was the moment it was in the jury's hands. Then you don't know what the jury's going to do. After the closing was done, we went to get quick bite-dee. Everybody else is like, they'd laugh. They thought, well, it's going to be at least a couple hours. You know, jury's can last a couple days. Came back into

the courthouse, out 30 minutes later. The deputy came out and said, verdict. Hard, skips a few beats, and then you think it's been an hour. I will say, in all my experience,

I haven't never seen a jury come back that quickly, ever. I did not want to hope,

but part of me was like, that was really quick. A 24-year-old deal that had happened at Chris Johnson's life had all come down to this. This was the moment that decided everything. Chris certainly looked nervous as his body was braced for a blow. My heart was in my throats. I had no idea what decision it was going to make. They gave it to the clerk. The clerk said not guilty. It was, it was relief. Now it's just floods and floods of tears. I couldn't, I just couldn't believe it. The jury

had made the right decision. What I can hope to do in it, Jenny. We were solving, I mean, everyone in the courtroom was emotional. I was the jury's woman on the Chris Johnson meant for hard smile. When we started deliberations, I could tell from the room that everyone

“was saying, oh yeah, this is not even a case. Why did they even bother bringing the case?”

If you don't believe Bobby Joe Leonard, then the case is over. Because he's the one saying, I killed her, but I did it at Chris Johnson's behest. One of the trial jurors in this case asked us not to use his last name. We were aware that Bobby Joe Leonard was offered certain things in exchange for his testimony. You know, is there a reason, any reasonable doubt here with what I'm hearing? And there were some reasonable doubts. You don't hire someone to kill someone who

you've never met. And out of all the Bobby Joe Leonard testimony, he never claimed that they met.

I feel like that was for me the important detail that gave reasonable doubt. And when we watched that interrogation video, that possibly was thought maybe that Chris was intentionalizing to the police, but none of us really felt that that was a compelling case. It seemed to me that the police were just kind of hammering home what they thought to be the case. They weren't taking his initial state that's per face value. So it was kind of pushed him to get to another answer. We think that

it pained Chris as a sympathetic actor. At the end of this trial, the prosecutors walked over. Hands out stretched. I said, you prosecuted an innocent man. You bankrupted him in every way that you can bankrupt a man. Emotionally, spiritually, I didn't even want to shake their hand.

“I think prosecutors brought this case in the hopes that maybe they would catch lightning in a”

bottom. Prosecutors have more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. It is an awesome power to be a prosecutor and with it comes an awesome responsibility. One month later, Bobby Joe Leonard received an additional life sentence for admitting to killing Andrew. As for Kevin Sincotta, he declined to do an on-camera interview with ABC News in time for air. But he provided us with a detailed account of the reasons why he is still convinced that Chris Johnson

is guilty of murder for iron, including what he calls suspicious behavior and discrepancies in Chris's story and information he believes that Bobby Joe Leonard could only have received from Chris Johnson. Kevin told us that Bobby Joe Leonard sent and said, Leonard asked for Kevin's forgiveness.

“Kevin told us, I don't forgive him, but I believe him.”

After his acquittal, Chris Johnson is again working on the dream home. He and Andy were building together.

I had to finish it for her as almost a memorial.

“Almost 25 years after the death of Andrea Sincotta, the home they began to build together”

is on its way to completion without her. This was Andrea and my dream to build a house together. I look around it and I see memories of Andy all over it. It's definitely memorial to her. Chris is now a free man, but the decades

longer deal is left its mark. Sounds like you're not the same person you were before all this

happened? No, absolutely not. I used to be a lot more trusting. I trusted everyone. Trust it, the police and now my eyes have been opened. So what do you want people to learn from this case? I want other people to also open their eyes. It can happen. If it can happen to Chris Johnson, it can happen to you or it can happen to someone you love. We've reached out to the prosecution team and the Arlington County Police Department

to comment on the criticism raised by Chris and his lawyers. Now they declined an interview but the Commonwealth Attorney of Arlington County gave us this statement. We hope that through the process we've helped bring some closure to Miss Sincotta's family. However, I must respect the verdict of the jury. We prosecuted a tough case in the fairest way we could and that's where

“I believe I should leave it. There is still a cloud over Chris Johnson despite his being found”

not guilty. There's still a cloud over him as to his nature and his nature is so sweet. But I think people meeting him if they found out. Yes, he went through this trial. Maybe they would look at him with suspicion in their hearts and that is a travesty.

This will never be over for Kevin Sincotta either. His mother was murdered. She was a

single mom who had raised him and she supported him and then she's gone, what could be worse and

“he just wants answers. It's been almost 25 years since her death. How do you remember?”

Every day. She cared a lot about the people in her lives and she was just someone you wanted to be with. If you could talk to her now, what would you say? I'm sorry, it wasn't there to protect her. We should point out tonight that Chris Johnson's lawyers tell us he plans to pursue a civil suit against the authorities while continuing to rebuild his life. That is our program for tonight. Thank you for watching. I'm David Muir and from all of us here at 2020 in ABC News. Good night.

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