Amory finds her answer.
Amory goes to New York to talk to Shane about the 2010 report in person. Uncertain what to believe, Amory discusses the report with the detective who wrote it and with Rick Buckner, the lead detective on Sophia’s case 20 years ago.Amory explores why this report was never acted on at the time by the Clark County prosecutor’s office and whatlegally happen from here, both with regards to Marlyne Johnson’s homicide case and with Sophia herself.
Shane: It doesn't make sense that five foot four, six month pregnant you could beat a woman so violently to death that the handles from the tongs separate and that the teeth fly from the mouth of the victim. It just, it doesn't, it doesn't equate. And so—What would it be like for Shane to hear what I had to tell him?my nerves, I just know it. I haven’t seen Shane in almost a year, but it doesn’t feel like it.
Shane: The subject had information regarding Sophia Johnson. This subject, Morgen, was in the lobby and was agitated and insistent on speaking with the prosecutor or someone right away. Shane: You know, I, I still can't figure out if she was there or not, or like, you know, that morning of.Shane: You know, here's the thing about lies. The really good ones are based on some elements of truth. And, like, you sync enough of them up and you might get something that actually makes sense. So, yeah, just, that's where my head's at.
Shane: Could she be the devious, manipulative, uh, psychopath that does this in order to manipulate situations? And even if it means the death of the only person that was kind of her friend back in the day. I get it. This... is PRECISELY what I wanted to ask the detective who WROTE the report after *I* read it for the first time.Former detective, Kevin Harper. Who didn’t remember Sophia saying anything NEW about Marlyne’s murder in their interview. But now, I’d sent him a copy of his report, he read it over, and called me back.Me too, Kevin. Meeeee tooo. Including the fact that the report ends with him referring Sophia’s confession to the Clark Countyoffice.
Rick Buckner: You know, his story about, well, I went downstairs and I was surprised to see somebody with a mask on, you know, bludgeoning this woman. And I freaked out. Bullshit. I mean, that's the dumbest story you've ever heard. I've put this question to the Clark County, Washington prosecutor's office MANY times. Will they ever LOOK at the Marlyne Johnson homicide case again? What will it take? They’ve never answered me.Remember Roylene, Marlyne's sister? She wanted to see the investigation and legal process CONTINUE after Sophia's acquittal in 2005.
Sophia told me in our very first conversation, nearly 3 years ago… that SHE wants justice for Marlyne. But after reading Detective Harper’s report… I started to wonder if Richard had beenDo you want me to start recording? Oh, yes. See, you're, you're good at that. Okay, so I'm gonna start… now. I’d given this a LOT of thought. I decided… I would tell Sophia that I had a new theory of the case… but I wouldn’t tell her where it came from…
Sophia: That's a little different. Whose theory is this? I've actually never heard this version from anyone.. I was ready for it… I just wasn’t READY for it. But Sophia wasn’t either. Because, as I reminded her, she and Detective Kevin Harper aren't the only people involved in this confession.Amory: Morgan said Sophia told him that, she asked Sean if he wanted to kill Marlyne.
Sophia: I said, Morgan, I lied to you. I'm guilty. Go and tell them I did it. Tell them where I'm at and tell them to come see me. Tell them I'm ready to talk. And SO… we’re back to Sophia in the present day… trying to explain to ME… how Morgen was able to give the VERY different, VERY DETAILED account of her confession I’d read in the report.
Sophia: and I would've written it out in the way I think it needed to be written out for me to get to go to prison. Is it possible... that in giving a so-called false confession with the hope of being sent back to prison...Sophia actually gave a REAL one? I put allllllllllll of this to her. Sophia: I, I get what you're saying. Um, some of those things ring true to me. Like, I really was frustrated with her that she did not come to my house. But not because I killed her or I had anything to do with it.
And yet, there are lines Sophia told me she would not cross. Even in this confession, she wouldn't say that she SAW Sean kill Marlyne. Just that she saw him right before and right after Marlyne died, leaving the details of the actual murder to the imagination.
Sophia: I'd like to explain that. So, yes, that, that was. But I was protecting him differently. I could not. and would not let him have anything to do with my family. There is no planet that I wanted him going to Guyana, that I wanted him reaching out to George, or even my mother. Family was too broken. There was nothing good for him. So if I couldn't be out there to protect him, then they couldn't have him either.
Sophia: The only thing I can do, because I'm at my bottom, is stand up for myself because I have zero expectations that anyone else can do it for me., things. Tried to stay composed as she recounted painful memories from childhood, of having her newborn son taken out of her arms, not knowing when — or IF — she’d ever see him again, of hearing horrible things said about or TO her… for decades.Danielle: No sentence would be strong enough for Sophia.
But, I have to say, something about the confession in the Harper report… just doesn’t feel like the other mistakes Sophia has told me about. Reading, in Sophia’s own handwriting!, so many things that she’s spent nearly three years telling me are not even a little bit true, mixed in so casually with things she swears ARE. It was written a full decade before Sophia and I started talking, and finding it still somehow felt like a betrayal.
I'm not really looking to have a full blown conversation, but if it’s of any interest or help, I'm honestly pretty disconnected from the history, all things considered. My mom has been and will always be Danielle.I'm sure most people in my situation would show more interest. However, to me, Sophia is nothing more than the common killer you hear about on the news.
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