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Kristine Johnson's body has been found--UPDATE: Arrest Made

 
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EmmaPeel



Joined: 20 Sep 2002
Posts: 472
Location: Texas

PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2003 10:04 pm    Post subject: Kristine Johnson's body has been found--UPDATE: Arrest Made Reply with quote

Just on FOX. Looks like it's in a rural residential area. There are houses nearby.

Police: Body found in Hollywood Hills is missing woman

(Los Angeles-AP) -- Santa Monica police have confirmed that a body found in the Hollywood Hills this afternoon is that of 22-year-old Kristine Johnson.

Santa Monica Police Chief James Butts says a body marking enabled investigators to positively identify the body found at the bottom of a ravine as that of Johnson.

Los Angeles police received a call shortly after 1 p-m that a body was discovered on Skyline Drive.

About 100 volunteers searched the Hollywood Hills and Topanga Canyon over the weekend, but found no sign of Johnson. She disappeared February 15th after telling her roommate she was going to Beverly Hills to audition for a photographer she met while shopping at the Century City Mall. The audition was purportedly connected to a movie production.
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2003 10:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The eyewitness testimony will be enough to convict him. If he has a mother like Jackie Peterson I won't be surprised.

rd
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EmmaPeel



Joined: 20 Sep 2002
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2003 12:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Note: This arrest came so quickly along with finding her, I'm wondering which came first and if they found the body near where the guy lived or if he gave up where her body was.

Man arrested in disappearance of California woman

Los Angeles, Calif., March 5 (AP) - Police say they have a man in custody who may be linked to the disappearance of a California woman found dead in the Hollywood Hills.

Santa Monica Police Chief James Butts tells NBC's Today Show that the man is being held on unrelated charges. The suspect's identity hasn't been released.

Kristine Johnson's body was found yesterday, hands bound and clothed. The 22-year-old had been missing since February 15th, after telling her roommate she was going to audition for a photographer she met at a mall.

Butts says the man's appearance is similar to that of a composite drawing that was created shortly after Johnson was reported missing.

Butts says police are trying to determine whether the man is linked to any other disappearances in the area.
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EmmaPeel



Joined: 20 Sep 2002
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2003 12:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Murdered Woman May Be Victim of Hollywood Predator
Tue Mar 4, 4:21 PM ET
Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A day after the body of a 21-year-old woman was found in a Hollywood Hills ravine, police said on Tuesday that she may have been murdered by a "predator" who lured women with promises of stardom.

A man who has enticed young women this way before is in custody on other charges and is being questioned in the murder of Kristi Johnson, police added.

Johnson vanished two weeks ago after telling her roommate in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica that she was going to Beverly Hills to meet a man who wanted to photograph her and possibly use her in an upcoming film production.

Hikers found her body, clad only in stockings and underwear on Monday in a remote Hollywood Hills ravine. Her hands were bound, police said.

Police have made no arrests in Johnson's murder but said they had questioned a man who had lured other women to the same street corner, two blocks from his home -- also on the pretext of photographing them for movie roles.

Santa Monica Police Chief James Butts said the suspect mentioned the same film production in each case and asked at least one of the women to wear a specific item of clothing that was found on Johnson's body.

The suspect, who has not been identified, was taken into custody on other felony charges shortly after Johnson disappeared, Butts said, and strongly resembled a composite drawing of a man who left Johnson's car at a parking garage.

"He was convicted of two crimes involving females who he lured with the same 'movie shoot' involving a specific movie production," Butts said. "This person is very convincing, very smooth. This is a very predatory-like person."

###

So what the &#@*! was HE DOING OUT of jail? Anyone want to bet he got out recently? Why do we have to wait until the preditors murder the woman. Don't people learn anything--that these preditors WILL eventually kill their victims so they have not eyewitness?

Obviously they must have brought him in for questioning for the attempted attack on the previous girl who got away because her boyfriend was nearby just in case.
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2003 12:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It said he was convicted of two sex crimes and I'll bet he didn't even go to jail. This is who you put a transponder on. If they take it off they go to jail, period.

rd
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fallout



Joined: 19 Sep 2002
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2003 11:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

From the L.A. Times

LOS ANGELES
Man in Custody Has History of Luring Women
Victor Paleologus, linked to the Kristine Johnson case, has previously faced abduction, assault and other charges.
 
 
   
By Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton, Times Staff Writers
Police sources said the man investigators are focusing on in the kidnap-slaying of Kristine Johnson is Victor Paleologus, who was twice convicted of luring young women with false promises of potential acting jobs, and of assaulting one of them.
Paleologus was released from state prison Jan. 20, less than a month before Johnson disappeared, after serving a sentence for burglary.
   
   
   
 Santa Monica police said they have a "subject of interest," but declined to identify him other than to say he is in custody on an unrelated allegation.
Other police officials said Paleologus has been in jail since he was arrested Feb. 17 by Beverly Hills police on suspicion of auto theft, resisting arrest and violating his parole. He is being held on $1.15-million bail.
Paleologus, 40, has served time in prison for convictions on six charges, including falsifying financial statements, writing a fictitious check and assault with intent to commit a sex act.
Johnson, 21, was apparently abducted and murdered. Her partially clad body was found Monday in a remote Hollywood Hills ravine.
In 1991, Paleologus was tried on charges of attempted rape, assault and false imprisonment of a young woman he allegedly lured to a hotel room by a promise that she would meet Hollywood celebrities, including Madonna. After a jury deadlocked, he entered a guilty plea to false imprisonment by violence and was sentenced to three years' probation.
A probation officer had recommended a prison sentence, citing Paleologus' use of false identity in claiming to be a record company executive, lying to police and failure to offer complete expressions of remorse.
The victim in that case suffered bruises on her face, neck and legs and rope burns on both wrists where Paleologus tried to tie her to a hotel bed.
"Victim regards the defendant as being highly capable of repeating such behavior in the future," according to a probation report in the case, dated October 1990. "She believes he needs to be stopped."
Paleologus was given probation and assessed $2,700 in fines and 200 hours of community service after submitting a letter stressing his clean record, promising career in sales and stable relationships. He cited his wife and church as supports.
On Tuesday, as word spread of the arrest, a former landlord in West Hollywood said Paleologus came to him looking for a place to stay after he left prison in January.
"When he came out here he came looking for a job," said Amir Shokrian, owner of Amilex Property and Finance Co.
Shokrian said Paleologus was a part owner of a restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard before his imprisonment. Eric Shackelford, a security guard for the property, described him as a quiet man.
After Johnson disappeared, another woman reported to Santa Monica police detectives an attempt to lure her in January using a similar promise of a photo shoot and a future in the entertainment industry.
"This female witness and her boyfriend have positively identified him as the person they described in the composite," Santa Monica Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. said. "This subject lived within two blocks of the intersection where he met this witness on foot in January."
That meeting ended in a struggle between the boyfriend, who was watching nearby, and the man. Butts said the man became angry after he discovered the woman had failed to wear a clothing item he requested and would not come with him.
Johnson, police said, was asked to wear the same item, which he declined to identify.
The boyfriend, a former police officer, chased down and frisked the man. He didn't find any identification and the man broke free.
Butts declined to identify the man in custody. He said he had twice been convicted of crimes involving luring women "to the location of the crime under the pretense of photographing for publicity-type photos related to the entertainment industry." One case was a felony and one a misdemeanor, Butts said.
The last anyone saw of Johnson until her body was discovered was when she told a roommate Feb. 15 she was going to meet a photographer in Beverly Hills. She told her roommate she met him at the Century City Shopping Center and he offered her an audition. Butts said his detectives have "evidence" that establishes the man in custody was present at the mall Feb. 15.
A day after Johnson vanished, her Mazda Miata was dropped off at the St. Regis Hotel.
Butts said the hotel's valet attendant recalled a man fitting the suspect description given by other witnesses who gave him the car keys after the attendant told him he could not park in the valet space. The hotel contacted the authorities Feb. 24. Sources said crime scene investigators have gathered fingerprints from inside the Miata and other forensic evidence from the ravine where the body was discovered.
Johnson's body was found Monday by hikers about 100 feet below a dirt access road near the 8500 block of Skyline Drive. A nearby home, recently the set for a pornographic film, was one of 10 locations where investigators served search warrants last week. Johnson was covered in a sleeping bag or blanket, clad in stockings and underwear, with a hand bound, sources said.
She had been there for some time, Butts said.
Investigators identified Johnson by a tattoo of a hibiscus on her back, he said.
"We believe she [Johnson] met him later, that she was abducted, taken against her will, and ultimately [became] the victim of a homicide," Butts said.
Johnson was described by friends and family as an outgoing woman who looked like a model.
She was born in Northern California and raised in Saugatuck, Mich. She had attended Santa Monica College and had worked at CNCG Cellular of Marina del Rey since November.
*
Times staff writers Errin Haines and Hanah Cho contributed to this report.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.
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EmmaPeel



Joined: 20 Sep 2002
Posts: 472
Location: Texas

PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2003 1:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

fallout wrote:
From the L.A. Times

Paleologus was released from state prison Jan. 20, less than a month before Johnson disappeared, after serving a sentence for burglary.

Bingo...just like I thought--he just got out. Thank you judicial system!

What happened to California's 3 strikes law anyway??
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EmmaPeel



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PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2003 3:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good timing: Supreme Court UPHOLDS 3-strike law.

Supreme Court Upholds 'Three-Strikes' Law
1 hour, 41 minutes ago

By ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld long sentences meted out under the nation's toughest three-time offender law, ruling that a prison term of 25 years to life is not too harsh for a small-time thief who shoplifted golf clubs.

California's three-strikes-and-you're-out law does not necessarily lead to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment, the court said, even though a relatively minor crime can yield a life term if the criminal has a felony record.

The court divided 5-4 in two cases testing the limits of California's Proposition 184, intended to close the revolving prison door for criminals with lengthy, violent records.


Twenty-six states and the federal government have some version of a three-strikes law, which typically allow a life prison term or something close to it for a person convicted of a third felony.

Wednesday's rulings address only the effects of the California law. But the high court's reasoning will likely shield other three-strikes laws from similar constitutional challenges.

"This makes it extremely difficult if not impossible to challenge any recidivist sentencing law," said University of Southern California law professor Erwin Chemerinsky, who represented one of the men in Wednesday's cases. "If these sentences aren't cruel and unusual punishment, what would be?"

A chief author of the law, former California Secretary of State Bill Jones, said the court understood what the state was trying to do.

"Our goal in California is to have no more victims," a written statement from Jones said. "The court's decision today ensures that repeat murderers, robbers, rapists and child molesters will be off our streets as soon as they commit an additional felony."

The court noted the popularity of three-strikes laws and the public fears behind them. State legislatures should have leeway to keep career criminals away from the public, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (news - web sites) wrote for the majority.

"When the California legislature enacted the three-strikes law, it made a judgment that protecting the public safety requires incapacitating criminals who have already been convicted of at least one serious or violent crime," O'Connor wrote.

The Constitution's Eighth Amendment guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment does not prohibit California from making that choice, she wrote. Complaints about the law should be directed at legislators, she added.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Anthony Kennedy (news - web sites) fully agreed with O'Connor's reasoning. Justices Antonin Scalia (news - web sites) and Clarence Thomas (news - web sites) agreed with the outcome.

In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer (news - web sites) said the case of Gary Albert Ewing is a rare example of a sentence that is so out of proportion to the crime that it is unconstitutional.

The sentence means Ewing, an AIDS (news - web sites) patient, would serve at least 25 years in prison without possibility of parole, Breyer noted on behalf of himself and Justices John Paul Stevens (news - web sites), David Souter (news - web sites) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (news - web sites).

Outside California, a 25 year prison term is more the norm for someone convicted of first-degree murder, not shoplifting, Breyer wrote.

"Ewing's sentence is, at a minimum, two to three times the length of sentences that other jurisdictions would impose in similar circumstances," he wrote.

Breyer read a summary of his dissent from the bench, a step justices usually reserve for cases in which there is strong, often ideological, disagreement.

The same lineup of justices also acted in another case, a widely noted appeal in which a small-time burglar was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for stealing videos from KMart.

The court reversed a federal appeals court ruling which had found Leandro Andrade's sentence unconstitutional.

California's law was adopted by referendum in 1994, largely in response to the murder of schoolgirl Polly Klass by a repeat criminal who was out on parole.

Three-strikes laws in other states and the federal government were also passed in the 1990s, when the spread of crack cocaine fed public fears about rising violent crime.

Supporters of the laws say they keep habitual criminals off the streets and serve as a deterrent for criminals who already have one or two felonies on their record.

Critics say the laws are too harsh and inflexible in general, and particularly so in California.

The California law requires a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for any felony conviction if the criminal was previously convicted of two serious or violent felonies. It also permits judges to treat as felonies a third offense that would otherwise be a misdemeanor.

In practice, the California law has often meant harsh prison terms for people like Ewing and Andrade.

A clerk in an El Segundo, Calif., pro shop noticed Ewing trying to make off with the $399 clubs shoved down one pants leg.

Ewing had four prior convictions for robbery and burglary. Although prosecutors could have charged him with a misdemeanor in the golf club case, they chose to charge him with a felony under the state's three-strikes law.

Andrade's "third strike" was a 1995 charge for twice shoving children's videos down his pants and walking out of Southern California KMart stores. The tapes, including "Batman Forever" and "Cinderella," were worth $153.

Andrade was eligible for extra punishment under the three-strikes law because he had a history of burglaries. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 25 years to life, with no possibility of parole until 2046, when Andrade would be 87.

The cases are Lockyer v. Andrade, 01-1127, and Ewing v. California, 01-6978.
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2003 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't know that there were three felonies in there, Emma, but that's simply because he wasn't charged with serious crimes. For example, he kidnaps a woman and she has rope burns on her wrists but he is not charged with kidnapping. In fact, the jury is undecided about convicting him on the lesser charge of false imprisonment.

You hit it right on the head. Just let out of jail for all those charges, with all those warnings from everyone all along the way. He cited his wife and church as reasons he should not be imprisoned. Shouldn't it be obvious that if they were such influences on his life he would not be committing these crimes to start with?

He was on parole. All parollees should be required to be shackled with transponders, after serving their full sentences for the severest crimes they can be convicted of. When will we learn? How many more women must die until we do?

rd
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EmmaPeel



Joined: 20 Sep 2002
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2003 1:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

{sigh} Get your hankies out


Father unprepared for daughter's death
Thursday, March 06, 2003

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kirk Johnson said he was stunned by the news, unprepared for the possibility that his missing daughter was no longer alive.

"I was not prepared, mentally or otherwise," said Johnson, whose 21-year-old daughter was found lying dead in the foothills of Hollywood. "I didn't allow myself to think that way. I felt like she was still out there. I had a feeling. So, I denied that she may have been involved in a violent death."

A 1999 graduate of Saugatuck High School, Kristine Johnson moved to California two years ago. She was working for a small cellular phone company and had dreams of getting into the entertainment industry, with plans to study makeup.

She disappeared Feb. 15 from her home in Santa Monica, Calif., after telling her roommate that she was going to Beverly Hills, Calif., to audition for a photographer she met while shopping at a mall. Her bound body was found Monday in the Hollywood Hills.

Police said a man convicted of crimes that involved luring women with offers of bogus publicity photographs is under investigation for the death. The suspect, who has not been charged or publicly identified, was arrested on an unrelated felony parole violation shortly after Johnson disappeared, and remains behind bars.

The disappearance of Johnson, a beautiful and photogenic young woman, attracted the attention of newspapers and television news crews in Los Angeles, and quickly became a national story.

Kirk Johnson recalled the telephone call from Santa Monica police Chief James T. Butts, informing him that his daughter's body had been discovered. A flowery tattoo across her lower back, something she had done on her senior class trip to Florida, helped identify her body.

"He had a sorrowful voice," Johnson said Wednesday. "He said, 'Are you at home?' I said, 'Yes, I am.' He said, 'Do you have someone with you?' and I said, 'Yes, my wife (Pam).' Then he said, 'I'm very sorry. We have found Kristi, and she's no longer with us."'

Within moments of hanging up, he said he was awash in memories of a younger Kristine Johnson hugging him, kissing him and exchanging "I love you's" with him. Then he walked outside of his house and looked to the sky.

"I stared up to the heavens, I lifted my eyes and I called out her name and I repeated, 'I love you. I love you. I love you,"' Johnson said. "And then, suddenly, my whole body just relaxed, and I smiled. I knew she was in heaven with God."
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