Leonard would be arrested a year later on rape, abduction and attempted murder charges in Fairfax for brutally attacking a 13-year-old girl and leaving her for dead in a closet. The prosecutors said detectives 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 Johnson hiring Leonard to kill Cincotta.
#A radio station airs hourly news updates trial
Johnson's attorney Frank Salvato alleged at Johnson's trial that investigators' handling of the crime scene compromised the touch DNA found on Cincotta's throat so it could not be tested.
He denied murdering Cincotta and his DNA and fingerprints weren't be found in the home. Virginia investigators questioned Leonard in jail, and took his DNA and fingerprints. Leonard was in a Philadelphia jail after being arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife. Johnson had also told police about the man, telling them "it was not like her to talk with a perfect stranger – especially to allow him in the apartment."Īlthough Kevin Cincotta didn't know the man's name, investigators were able to identify the person as Bobby Joe Leonard. He remembered that his mother told him that she gave her computer to a man who was working at her apartment complex. It turns out, the details Johnson had provided in his supposed admission do not match the autopsy results - she had died from strangulation – not a blow to the headĪrlington Police released Johnson and did not charge him at the time.Ĭincotta's son Kevin, who was 24 at the time, did provide investigators with a key clue. "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," Johnson said. He wrote down his vision and didn't ask for an attorney. "You trust the police, the police don't lie….I literally had no reason to believe that they're lying to me."Īfter 25 hours of questioning over several days, Johnson said he was exhausted and began to tell officers a "dream vision" of how he imagined arguing and hurting his fiancée. How can they get away with it? How can they do that?," Johnson said. After the interrogation, Johnson learned that that was a lie. He told "20/20" that detectives were aggressive and yelled in his face that he murdered his fiancée.Īt one point a detective told Johnson that Cincotta was alive after he came home and that his fingerprints were found on her. Hours later, he said he opened the bedroom closet and found her body inside.Īfter calling 911, Johnson was interrogated by Arlington police for several days. 21, 1998, and said he couldn't find Cincotta, who worked as a librarian. ET and streams on Hulu the next day, features more of the candid interview with Johnson, who was acquitted of his charge in October, footage from the police investigation and exclusive interviews with jurors. The "20/20" episode, which airs March 10 at 9 p.m. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect her," he told ABC News' Ryan Smith in an exclusive interview with "20/20." He has maintained his innocence, and still grieves for Cincotta. Johnson, 61, pleaded not guilty to the charge. This led to Arlington prosecutors charging Johnson with murder-for-hire in November 2021. Convicted rapist Bobby Joe Leonard alleged to investigators he was offered money by a man he believed to be Cincotta's boyfriend to kill her. She had been strangled and crudely stuffed inside a bedroom closet.Īlthough immediately under suspicion by the police, Johnson was never charged. It began in 1998, when Johnson found his fiancée Andrea Cincotta, 52, dead inside their Arlington, Virginia, apartment. (ARLINGTON, Va.) - For nearly 25 years, Chris Johnson has been entangled in a deep mystery that he said has wrecked his family and his life. Fiancé acquitted in murder-for-hire plot speaks out
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