Transcript of True Crime Vault: The Confession? New

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Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault, where 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 dead body. One of the detectives was yelling in my face, calling me a fucking murderer over and over again in my face.

Over and over.

Stuffed in the closet, folded up, was Andy Sinkata, his life partner.

Did you place Andy in that closet? Don't sit there and constantly deny things that are so obvious that what you're saying 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.

It's all very hazy, and it's 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 this 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 the whole time.

Calling to 911. What is your emergency? I need an officer. What's going on? Uh, I thought my girlfriend was missing. I hadn't seen her. Uh, I think she's dead. You think so? Yeah, she's in the closet. She's laying over on her side. She's cold.

This story begins in 1998 with a chilling 911 call made from inside a 2-bedroom condominium in Arlington, Virginia.

All right, what's your name, sir? James Christopher Johnson. What is her name? Andrea Cinquata.

Andrea Cinquata and Chris Johnson are a low-key, quiet couple, certainly an unlikely pair to be at the center of this story.

These were 2 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. Andy loved reading.

She was a small woman, about 5'1", 100 pounds, soaking wet.

She loved to 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, there was a kind of exuberance.

Chris was working at Home Depot.

Chris Johnson had a background in engineering. He had worked in construction and contracting. Chris is my brother. Chris was the brains 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. I work construction. Like fixing things.

Andrea, 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, it's just pie. But there was one time she got her bike out, took it in the elevator, you know, it's like, I would go biking too. So we ended up just going on bike rides up and down the trail.

When did your connection with Andrea turn into something more?

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

So at 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?

None at all.

No? None at all.

I thought she looked great, and we looked similar in age. My gray hair started when I was 17. Everyone thought we were the same age, and it had no— it made 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 him how to drive.

Chris got along well with Andrea's son, Kevin. Chris and Andrea seemed 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 D.C.

And while it's right near such a busy city, it has a bit of a small-town feel.

Quiet, 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 it brought you 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 her. She was getting ready to go out to the pool.

Andrea had the day off work and made plans to meet a friend for lunch after swimming.

What happens then?

I go to work. I ended up having to work late.

You 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.

Hi, it's me. It's about 2:15. I'm looking to try to get home about 5:30. If you want, you can go ahead and give me a call.

They had plans for the night. We're gonna go see a movie.

We can confirm whether we're going to the movies or renting video. Otherwise, I'll see you tonight. Love you. Bye.

Chris then gets delayed at work, so he called and left another message.

It's after 5 o'clock. I have pick up a couple things. I'll be on my way. Probably be home 5:30 or so.

I get there, I thought I was going to be home this time, and then that got delayed, so it's like, okay, I'm going to be a little bit later.

Hi, it's me. It's 5:39. I've left Home Depot. I'm on my way home, but I'm going to get gas. I will see you in a little while. Bye.

So what happened when you came home?

I got home and she wasn't I was like, "Okay." The day before, she had told me that there's 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 2-year-old daughter. And she— that woman had left a message on the machine Andy, it's Judy.

Uh, I'm at home. We have some bad news.

Give me a call. So it was like, okay, well, Andy's babysitting the 2-year-old.

While you were waiting, what were you doing at home?

I did some laundry, had a little bit of a snack, watched TV.

Chris said it got to be about 10 PM 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 I was like, just looking for Andy. Could you give me a call? I actually called the hospital seeing if there was anyone admitted with the name Andrea Cencada. 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 PM, Chris says he started getting tired, so he lays down to go to sleep in the bedroom.

So Chris woke up and he noticed that the closet door was closed and it was often left open. So he went in.

I got up and opened the door. And that's when I found her.

After that door opens, nothing will be the same.

She is cold to the touch. Yeah. Okay. All right, I want you to stay on the phone with me, okay? Okay.

Chris Johnson is asleep in the bedroom he shares with his fiancée, Andrea Sincotta, waiting for her to come home.

I woke up at in the middle of the night, and I look over. I'm sort of looking at the wall.

It's 1:37 AM, 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 when 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 Sinkata. His life partner.

She's on the floor of the closet, laying on her left side, surrounded by clothing.

I ran and called 911.

Arlington 911, what is your emergency? Uh, I need an officer. What's going on? Uh, I thought my girlfriend was missing. I hadn't seen her. We were supposed to go out tonight. Uh, but I figured I'd give her some time. Uh, I think she's dead. You think so? Yeah, in the closet. The door was closed. I didn't look in the closet. She's laying over on 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 7 years. Uh-huh. Okay. And I mean, this is not— it wasn't like her at all. So what, you were out then and you just came home and found her? No, I got home at 6. I did my laundry. She must have been in the place the whole time. I just didn't look in the closet. Okay, the door was closed.

He tells the dispatcher that there did not appear to be a forced entry.

When you came home tonight, did anything look strange when you came in the apartment? I mean, did it look like something— the lock was messed with or anything? Uh, the door deadbolt was not locked, but the doorknob was locked. Okay, so the deadbolt was not Yeah. Okay. I mean, I've been home the whole time.

The 911 operator kept me on the phone until I heard the sirens.

You hearing any sirens or anything? Yeah, I can hear them. They should be there any minute, okay?

As all this is happening, how are you processing it?

I was in a state of 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. And I was just trying to— what's the next thing I got to do?

He tells police that he's noticed $107 of coins, a gym bag, and two of Andrea's purses are missing. Also missing, her car and car keys. Police issue a lookout for the car to all units.

Within the hour after the police get there, they take him to the place police headquarters and start questioning him.

Whenever you have a case where somebody's partner dies, the partner is 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 in my face, and it seemed like that was going on for hours and hours. And I was telling them, no, no, 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. 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 till 8, 9 in the morning. He denies 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 looks like hers. And then, you know, as I'm passing, that's her license plate. And I'm like, that's her car. I immediately slam on the brakes, pull over on the shoulder, and I call the police. I said, you're not going to believe this. I found her car.

Were you concerned at how that might seem? A couple hours ago, they're yelling at you as if you're a suspect, and 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 until about 6:30 PM that Chris was finally Came out, he just looked like someone who'd been through the mill.

He was very tired, very tired, uh, 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— sorry. His body on the caisson at Arlington that I broke down. So I was like— that was like 2 weeks later. But you have to hold it together to function.

And you were trying to do the same thing then?

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 her? Did I hit her?

Please don't play this by the games. I don't know what I did. This is true.

You absolutely do.

Did I choke her?

Tell me.

In the days after Andrea Cincotta's death, Chris Johnson is repeatedly brought back into the police department for questioning.

The interrogation of Chris was pretty brutal.

In those first 3 days after Andrea died, he was interrogated intensively. He comes back in. Voluntarily without a lawyer.

Saturday morning, 8 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. Authorities say 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 videotape that we have is from Monday, August 24th, which is 3 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. I 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 or arguments between the two of you for any reason at all?

I don't get into fights.

Arguments. I'm not talking physical confrontation.

I mean, not even verbal.

Detective Holmes questions Chris about not noticing that the closet door was closed until the middle of the night.

Over the course of the time that you were home, you must have gone past that closet at least 5 times from your explanation to me, and you never noticed 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 to do with it. It seems like from the moment I called 911, they had their mind made up.

He was asked the same questions over and over and over again.

Did you place Andy in that closet? In that apartment? You already know that Andy had been placed in the closet. You placed Andy in that 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 at 1:30 in the morning.

Detective Cindy Brennaman, 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 to hurt that person, but you do accidentally. And if that's what really happened, don't sit there and go through all of this. Say it was an accident. 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 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.

And you know what the truth is.

I'm the cause of it, but it was an accident, or I'm the cause of it, but it was deliberate.

I don't know 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. If I wanted to use the bathroom once, they— I was escorted to the bathroom.

It's clear that these officers don't believe Chris's version of the story.

Sit there and constantly deny things that is so obvious that what you're saying That 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 6 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 the 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 know?

Because, um, because what Detective Brennan and his 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 with what I believe happened.

Then Detective Brennaman 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 accident happened?

Tell me. You tell me. Did I push her? Did I hit her?

Chris, don't play those mind games. I don't know what I did. Yes, you do.

You absolutely do. Did I choke her?

I came out of the game.

Chris's story was consistent, and he stays consistent.

But it's about to change.

And finally, after 24, 25 hours with the police, he lapses into this sort of dream state.

This definitely is a point where the detectives are like, okay, this guy's ready to confess.

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How many hours do you think you've slept over the past 24?

I don't know for certain, but I would say 3.

There are 7 hours of video showing the interrogation of Chris Johnson. By now, he has already been interrogated for over 21 hours, and you can tell by watching the tape that he's becoming increasingly exhausted.

He got very tired and he sort of deteriorated into a crumbled-up mess.

I want to tell you what you want to hear, but I don't know. I don't know if I was home before her or after her.

And then there is a turning point in the interrogation. It's around 7:15 PM, 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, and 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 fell. 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 made one like that, and I go like that, and then I hit her.

And 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 him.

She's gone.

Okay, so what else did you do then?

I followed up with her, crying. I asked her to come back.

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.

And then what happens? I must have put her in the closet.

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 want him to solidify his version of events. So they tell him to write it down.

You write down number 1 right here that you came into the house. Put it in your own words.

Chris writes down a 3-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 handprints are on her neck. Your handprints are on her neck." I never would have hurt her.

Put today's date on there. Get ready to go home and 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, and 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, you need to talk to a lawyer. But that was After all of the interrogations, did you think you'd be arrested? They had me pretty much thinking I've— something must have happened and 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 discovers something crucial. He learns that the police had lied to him about pieces of evidence that they say they discovered at the crime scene. To begin, Andrea had not, in fact, been killed after Chris got home.

Rigor 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 for the lunch. She didn't call the friend. Both of these very unusual. The friend calls. And leaves a message on the answering machine.

Just checking to see that you're all right. It's, uh, 2 o'clock on Friday. Bye-bye.

And that's when I realized they'd been lying to me the whole 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 '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 Cincotta. She didn't die from a blow to the head.

Andy Cincotta was obviously strangled. That was clear from the very beginning.

So as he imagines it, he gets the details wrong. And, 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 You're not.

You watched all 7 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. Police badger and badger and badger and badger, lie to him, lie to him, lie 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. I was great 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 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 her in 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's story believable here?

No.

No. He is 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 mean anything if they're not corroborated. A 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 Andrea Cincotta, then who did?

He talked his way into her home alone.

In the aftermath of Andrea Cincotta'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 just really hard to, uh, process.

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.

While 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 4 weeks before Andrea Cincotta 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 where could I donate it?" She sees this man outside who was working for a company called Trash Masters.

He was at that apartment complex installing mailboxes there. It's probable that she saw one of the Trashmasterz trucks, assumed it was like recycling or trash company, and she asked him whether they take— use 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." Andrea Cincotta, at that point, actually let the man into her apartment. The apartment all the way back into the bedroom to take this computer.

She later tells Kevin, her son, and her fiancé 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 that Chris and Kevin were upset that she had let a stranger into the house while she was there by herself.

So this guy with the computer Mm-hmm. 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 Annie Sincotta. This is somebody that needs to be thoroughly checked out.

The police tracked him down fairly quickly.

They figure out that this is a man named Bobby Joe Long.

Leonard.

4 days after Andrea's murder, he had landed in a jail in Philadelphia accused of assaulting his wife, charges that were later dropped.

Arlington County Police, they went up 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. Didn't match anything at the scene.

The police didn't take his clothes, didn't get a search warrant for his place.

So this person that was once a 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 Andi, like, had a cerebral hemorrhage or fell and hit her head." I wondered 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 traced treated it like a homicide since the start. It wasn't until 6 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 this 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.

Kevin Cincotta actually attends the 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. And that was when I first met Kevin Cincotta and learned about the death of his mother, Andrea Cincotta. 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. Mind that the police still think that I must have done it.

20 years pass.

2 decades later, suddenly it's a huge break in the case.

It's shocking.

He's been arrested for what?

You think, oh, this is a movie, this is a TV show. This isn't real life.

I was in the fight for my life.

He's either a criminal genius or he's 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.

You confessed in a written statement. 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 still can't use my hands.

I don't know what I did.

If Chris Johnson did not kill Andrea Cincotta, then who did?

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.

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 gonna do.

Back in 1998, after Chris Johnson found his fiancée Andrea Cincotta's body in their bedroom closet, he called 911.

Arlington 911, what is your emergency? Uh, I thought my girlfriend was missing. I think she's dead. You think so? Yeah.

He was immediately the prime suspect, grilled by police for 28 hours. Over 3 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 and admit the truth.

Chris says he was exhausted and finally broke down under the pressure. And based on the evidence police told him they had, said he must have had something to do with it.

Describe for me how you took her to the closet. Tell us what's happening.

He said I dropped her on the floor.

And then what happens?

He has to put her in the closet.

But Chris says he was under duress, 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 charged, but the suspicions remain.

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 is left reeling. Andrea'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 an amazing, powerful woman. Sorry. Uh, there was one time we were lifting a 12-foot-tall wall, and I realized I did not have a good grip. I looked at her I knew that she could hold it while I changed my grip. I let go, regripped 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. A year after Andrea's death, he had a chance meeting at a movie theater.

I did a 100-mile bike ride, and I went straight to the cinema. I didn't bother to go home and get showered or anything. And I was standing in line, and this person's was in front of me and he said, "What film are you going to see?" So I said, "Notting Hill." And I said, "What film are you going to see?" And he said, "Star Wars." And he said, "Oh, I'll go and see Notting Hill 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 figured nothing'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 fiancée had been murdered?

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 fiancée was murdered on the first date?

It seems like it's not something that you want to hide or whatever. Totally upfront. 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 led to marriage.

Meanwhile, Andrea Cencotta's case goes cold despite initial suspicions about Chris and another man named Bobby Joe Leonard.

Now, a few weeks before she was murdered, Andrea Cencotta 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, uh, was pushing and pushing for them to come to some sort of solution in the case.

Andrea's 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 Cincotta filed a 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 told him absolutely not. And that 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 to get together.

I'll have the chicken salad dressing on the side, please.

Gyro salad, no tomato, no onion.

The subject came up as he presented it. Was, you know, the 20th anniversary of her death is coming up. And that's how we—

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? Wouldn't you be at least a little suspicious?

I could understand I understand where you're coming from.

Imagine this was your mom. Because you know me, or you knew me.

Yeah. Chris adamantly denied Kevin's assertion.

Kevin, I'm gonna say it again. I did not kill your mom, and I'm sorry that you think I did.

But Kevin keeps at Chris. He confronts him about what he said in the interrogation.

Chris, sorry, but you confessed on video.

You confessed in a written statement. Did you see the video tape? Yes.

Chris, there's no doubt that the police bungled this case, introduced false information, and that false information—

You alluded to it.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I wasn't gonna allude to it. Yeah.

But that doesn't mean that you didn't do it, because you did do it.

How did that conversation leave you feeling?

I 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 weren't 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 a new cold case detective comes on to the case.

Detective Ortiz is part of the cold case unit. She is revisiting Andrea Cincotta's death.

The detective goes to see Leonard at Wallens Ridge State Prison. It is a supermax prison on a mountaintop in Virginia.

After years of denying any role in Andrea Cincotta's murder, Bobby Joe Leonard has a shocking new story to tell.

Apparently Bobby Joe Leonard had found God, and he decided he was going to come clean with respect to Andrea Cencotta.

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 gonna come clean with respect to Andrea Cencotta.

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 Andrea Cencotta." Leonard is serving a life sentence for the rape and attempted murder of a 13-year-old.

At the next meeting, Detective Ortiz The police came back with the 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 Andrea Cincotta.

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 Andrea Cincotta, taken it home, and that he'd then gotten 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 Ortiz, That same person with that same phone number on our caller ID called me a day or two later.

Leonard said the caller identified himself as, like, the boyfriend of Andrea Cegatter. The voice sounded like an older white male. Chris was 36 at the time.

This white guy says, "I want you to come. I want you 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." Sight unseen, no down payment, never met the person, this caller.

Leonard never mentioned Chris by name. He didn't know his name.

The police are intrigued by Leonard's story. Remember, they had initially suspected suspected Chris Johnson, so they set up a sting.

They're basically trying to corroborate Bobby Jo Leonard's story of what occurred, so they send an undercover officer, a female, to say that she is a family member of Bobby Jo Leonard, and she tells Chris that he owes Bobby Jo Leonard some money.

Good morning, Mr. Johnson. How are you?

I'm good.

Ken, Bobby Leonard.

My family's in the need of money in a bad way. Bobby Leonard said you owe him money from a— something from a long time ago. Who? Bobby Leonard. He said just find Mr. Johnson, that Mr. Johnson will be able to help us out, that you owe money from before. I don't owe him any money.

As you're hearing this, what are you thinking?

Well, I'm scared. This is as I'm walking out the door, what, 6:30 in the morning, it's 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.

2 weeks later, Chris is approached again. This time, Chris says, by a tall, intimidating man who said he was Bobby Joe Leonard's brother.

How you doing, Mr. Johnson? How are you? Good.

Miss Toni, I think you know why I'm here. I'll be after my brother Bobby.

Actually, no, I don't know why you're here.

Okay, well, are you gonna pay my brother the money?

First of all, I need my lawyer. Okay, in case you're Arlington County Police, there's not enough evidence for you to prove to me who you are.

Okay, well, I'm definitely not the police, so obviously there was something that went on with you and my brother.

No, God.

After dealing with the girl, and you know, we were all on edge.

Oh my God, I was absolutely scared. Scared out of my mind. These people are going to be, are going to be hounding us, and Chris had nothing to do with it.

After those two stings proved unsuccessful, I would definitely go back and re-interview 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 is arrested outside his front door as he's heading for work.

I was in shock. 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 the Colonial Village neighborhood. 59-year-old James Christopher Johnson and 53-year-old Bobby Jo Leonard.

I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. I could not believe that they would arrest him. For what?

They tell you that you're charged with murder for hire, that The claim is that Bobby Joe Leonard, you paid him $5,000 to kill Andrea.

It's ridiculous. I was racking my brain. How did in the world did 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 it.

After hearing about the indictment, Kevin Zinkata Kevin Johnson said it was the happiest day of his adult life.

Kevin finally felt like, now some justice is being done for my mother. Someone is being held responsible.

But it makes no sense to Chris Johnson and his attorneys.

Chris was the only person police ever had an interest in prosecuting.

Did mistakes made at the crime scene affect the investigation?

They put the body into a superglue cabinet.

The police lost any of the ability to get the touch DNA. It was likely all over her throat.

And why is Bobby Joe Leonard telling people he expects to be pardoned?

Bobby Joe Leonard called his girlfriend.

The governor's office said that by next week you could be walking out the front door.

They're gonna cut me a deal and I'm gonna be home soon.

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After he was arrested, Chris spent 9 days in jail and then was released on bond. He was confined to home detention.

This is where I spent 11 months of my life.

Wow. You know, I stretch 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 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— her life insurance, any money that there was went directly to the son, as it should.

Even the condo condominium that they lived in actually went to Kevin.

Salvato reached out to attorney Libby Van Pelt to join Chris's defense team. Van Pelt is an Ivy League-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 as lawyers we look at cases like these and we say like, yeah, 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 with how 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 evidence. Bed clothing was recovered, seized, put into an evidence bag, but nothing was ever done with it.

Unfortunately, the police decided in this case to superglue Andrea Cincotta's body.

Superglue is 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 super glue 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 that 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 alleged victims and looked into his criminal history.

We know he strangled and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl and left her in the closet.

Becknell found a pattern in the way that Leonard committed admitted his crimes.

Bobby Joe Leonard went for the throat. He did that again and again and again. The most impactful victim's story for me was the person who Bobby Joe raped in prison.

He was convicted of sodomizing on multiple occasions his cellmate.

Like any inmate who's doing hard time, Bobby Joe Leonard is looking for a way out. So why would he admit to murdering Andrea Cincotta.

A lot of people have asked me what Bobby Joe had to gain, 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, is 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 is made at the Virginia Department of Corrections, Wallens Ridge State Prison.

Leonard makes up a dramatic story about his conversations with detectives.

I'm paraphrasing. Baby, I've got great news. The governor of Virginia and some Some other people came down to see me, and they're going to cut me a deal.

He says, "If you sign this agreement right here, the governor's office is going to be able to print out a pardon for you by the end of the week." He said, "And by next week, we're pretty sure that you could be walking out the front door if you agree to this." Leonard continues to lie and says the deal is so good he's going to be given a full pardon. Just point-blank says, "We're sentencing you. We're pardoning you for all the crimes that were, you know, you were convicted of." At trial, I was worried.

Chris Johnson, he's a normal dude, hasn't spent a lifetime manipulating people. And then you have Bobby Joe Leonard, who is charming, who can talk his way in. In and out of things.

Who are the jury going to believe? I was just so, so scared.

The big unknown. I was in the fight of my life.

No!

Oh no!

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It was Wednesday morning, about 10:00 a.m., when Leslie Jennings-Priore's colleagues became concerned she hadn't come to work.

In 2001, Leslie Prier was living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

when on a spring morning, the unthinkable happened.

There were signs of a struggle, but no forced entry.

This woman was strangled and she was beaten.

She was found in the shower with the water running.

For the next 2 decades, Leslie Prier's case remained unsolved, and the shocking truth about the real killer stayed hidden until very recently when new technology allowed investigators to do what 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.

In September 2022, the trial comes.

You find yourself at an Arlington courthouse facing trial.

It's scary. I 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 Van Pelt did a very engaging opening statement, basically saying that Chris could not possibly have arranged for the murder of this fiancée that he loved so much. When they brought Kevin Secada to the stand, that part was 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 justice for his mother.

Kevin testified that when he was at the funeral home, he overheard Chris standing at Andrea'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 to protect her.

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?

Not anything else.

I did the laundry.

Did there come a point that you vacuumed?

Yeah, but initially Chris said he didn't vacuum. So to Kevin, 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 cleaner. 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 a long time. For two decades. I opened the bag at trial and it was just a poof of dust.

The prosecution went as far as to say that the vacuum bag was a 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 to himself, but it came out at trial that Chris was the only person on the deed.

After Kevin Cincotta got 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 stalled for a while, and that was because Leonard was saying, "I'm not going to testify unless I get a concession." We all waited for the entrance of Bobby Joe Leonard.

He didn't come out.

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 he gets a concession. They agree to put a request in to move him to a better prison.

This raised the question, was this demand the real reason Leonard told authorities his story?

So the prosecutors agree to make this deal, and Leonard walks into the courtroom to give his story for the first time publicly.

Leonard described it in excruciating detail about 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 a soda in her hand.

She reached out to hand me the soda.

I just lunged towards her with both of my hands and just grabbed her by the throat and just choked her down to the ground. She didn't really offer any type of resistance.

Resist anything.

He's not expressing any remorse.

He casually described it like almost like he was enjoying telling every single detail. It was appalling.

There's a huge problem with the way Leonard describes this scene. He says she didn't struggle. That is absolutely contradicted by the evidence because she had bruising all over her forearms. This woman fought. She fought for her life.

During Bobby Joe's testimony, one of the ways he said he identified that this caller was Andy's boyfriend was he said he had caller ID, and that became a point at trial.

Leonard said, "I knew it was the boyfriend of Andrea Cincotta because it was the same number." "How did you know that, Mr. Leonard?" "I saw it on the caller ID." Unfortunately for Mr. Leonard, we tracked track down a witness that knew Mr. Leonard pretty well.

The defense brought Leonard's ex-wife, Frances Hudson, to the stand, and they asked her point-blank, 'Did you have caller ID?' And she said, 'No, we didn't have caller ID.' But Hudson also testified that she had moved out a few weeks prior to the murder because Leonard had choked her.

So the prosecution made point that Leonard could have gotten caller ID after she left.

The prosecution admitted that there was no forensic evidence tying Leonard and Chris to a murder-for-hire plot. They claimed it was because too much time had passed to collect phone records and other verifying information.

Bobby Joe 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 nub of what he was before this.

Who are the jury going to believe? Are they going to believe our side, or are they going to believe the prosecution side? I was just so, so scared all the time.

Beyond the testimony of Bobby Joe Leonard, the case hinges on a key piece of evidence.

They had this long videotaped interrogation, and the prosecution wanted to play it for the jury, even though it's hours of him denying it. 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 it." I actually think that it didn't do what the prosecution had hoped it would do. The jury seemed very upset. 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 claim that you made the false confession to derail the investigation, to sort of take the light off Bobbi Jo 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 spin. 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 think that he did it. Who does that make sense to?

You gave the closing.

I did.

How much pressure did you 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 be calm, when you have you have a client like Chris Johnson that you really believe in, there's an 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 gonna do.

After the closing was done, we went to get a quick bite to eat.

Everybody else was like— they'd left. They thought, well, it's gonna be at least a couple hours. You know, juries can last a couple days.

Came back into the courthouse about 30 minutes later. The deputy came out and said, "Verdict." Heart skips a few beats, and then you think, "It's been an hour." I will say, in all my experience, I have never seen a jury come back that quickly, ever.

I did not want to hope, but part of me was like, "That was good." Really quick.

A 24-year ordeal that had upended Chris Johnson's life had all come down to this.

This was the moment that decided everything. Chris certainly looked nervous. His body was braced for a blow.

My heart was in my throat. I had no idea what decision they were going to make.

They gave it to the clerk. The clerk said not guilty. It was— it was a relief.

I was just in floods and floods of tears. I couldn't— I just couldn't believe it. The jury had made the right decision.

I went back and hugged Jenny. We were sobbing. I mean, everyone in the courtroom was emotional.

I was the jury foreman on the Chris Johnson, uh, Murder for Hire trial. 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 whom 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, the prosecutors thought maybe that Chris was intentionally lying 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 statements for face value, so it was kind of pushing him to get to another answer. We think that it painted Chris as a sympathetic character.

At the end of this trial, the prosecutors walked over, hands outstretched. 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 bottle.

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 Andrea.

As for Kevin Cincotta, 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 hire, 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 at Bobby Joe Leonard's sentencing, 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 definitely feel that she is here every time I come down here. I had to finish it for her as almost a memorial.

Almost 25 years after the death of Andrea Suncata, 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 Andri all over it. It's definitely memorial to her.

Chris is now a free man, but the decades-long ordeal has left its mark. Sounds like you're not the same person you were before all of this happened.

No, absolutely not. I used to be a lot more trusting. I trusted everyone, trusted 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 criticisms raised by Chris and his lawyers. Now, they declined an interview, but the Commonwealth's Attorney of Arlington County gave us this statement. We hope that through the process, we have helped bring some closure to Miss Zinkata'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 suspicious. He's 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 Cincotta 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 her?

Every day.

She cared a lot about the people in her lives, and it— she was just someone you wanted to be with.

If you could talk If you could talk to her now, what would you say to her?

I'm sorry I 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 20/20 and ABC News, good night.

You've been listening to the 20/20 True Crime Vault. Friday nights at 9 on ABC, you can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020.

Thanks for listening.

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