LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Andrea Cincotta was a 52-year-old librarian for the Arlington Library in Virginia who was brutally murdered in 1998. At the time, she was a single mother to a 24-year-old son named Kevin and a fiance to James Christopher Johnson. She was found dead on the floor of her bedroom closet in their Arlington apartment by her fiance, who was the prime suspect in the case. Andrea’s son still believes that it was Johnson who hired Bobby Joe Leonard to kill his mother, but the court acquitted Johnson and sentenced Leonard to life in person.
The sentence came 25 years after Andrea’s murder and is now the subject of the latest episode of NBC ‘Dateline'. Amidst many twists and turns in the case, Johnson maintained his innocence despite Leonard naming him as the man who hired him to kill his fiance. The case is officially closed by the authorities and Johnson is a free man. Johnson’s story was covered in ’20/20’, an ABC News special, when he came in front of the cameras and narrated his version.
Who is James Chris Johnson?
Johnson belonged to Alexandria, Virginia but was living with his partner Andrea in Arlington for at least seven years when she died in 1998. There was a 16-year age gap between the duo, but neither the younger Home Depot employee nor the reference librarian seemed to care. The two were deeply in love and never seemed to be at odds with each other. Kevin, Andrea’s son from her previous marriage, didn’t have any problems with Johnson and found him adoring. He was an average man who was looking to start his life with Andrea until tragedy struck and he was thrown into a huge abyss of uncertainty and crime.
On the tragic day Andrea was murdered, Johnson returned home at six in the evening and waited for his wife as they had a movie date planned. When she didn’t return, he assumed that she might be with her friends and did laundry, and later went to sleep. It was only after midnight that Johnson spotted the half-opened closet door and found the body of his wife, crumpled into the corner. As the prime suspect, he was interrogated for over 25 hours at first but was released, only to be brought in again for a thorough investigation.
What vision did James Chris Johnson have about Andrea?
When Johnson was in the investigation room with detectives Cynthia Brenneman, Robert Carrig, and Romie Holmes, he didn’t ask for a lawyer and submitted his DNA plus fingerprint samples, giving his full cooperation to the authorities. But his hand was forced by Carrig who informed him that his fingerprints were found on Andrea’s body and that he had failed the polygraph test, which were all lies. Interestingly, Johnson shared a vision that he had about his wife.
He mentioned that he had a “vision” of him and his fiancee arguing, just for it to escalate so much that he knocked her into their bedroom desk with a smack on her neck. “It’s all very hazy,” he somberly told detectives. “Just an image… I see myself holding her, and she slips out of my hands, and she goes down to the floor… I fell on top of her. She hit her head on the desk.” He was extremely vivid in his description but the authorities let him go because Andrea’s autopsy reports revealed no trace of blunt-force trauma.
Where is James Chris Johnson now?
On the day the court ruled that Leonard was the only killer, Kevin was distraught. He was convinced that it was Johnson who ordered the killing of her mother by hiring Leonard for a meager sum of $5,000. But despite indicting both Johnson and Leonard, the jury acquitted Johnson of all allegations, even questioning why he was named. Even though his vision confession was admissible, the defense argued that it was given under stress and coercion. There was no clear evidence linking Johnson to Andrea’s murder. Leonard’s statement of Johnson hiring him to kill Andrea was also dismissed when he mentioned that he saw Johnson’s number on his caller ID.
The trial went on for three weeks and Johnson was eventually acquitted while Leonard was given the life sentence. Now a 60-year-old, it looks like Johnson is trying his best to move on from the past and has a small family of his own in Washington DC, which includes his wife Ginnie Grevett.
Who is James Christopher Johnson’s current wife?
Johnson married Ginnie Grevett over two decades ago and had fought hard to leave the case of Andrea’s murder behind. Despite his best efforts, the past has always caught up with him and has kept him awake at night. But with the support of his current wife, Ginnie, Johnson has managed to weather the storm. She has been a bedrock of support, standing right beside her husband, convinced that he’s not guilty. Johnson knows that nothing will be the same but he comes across as a man who has lost everything he believed in.
In the ABC news special ’20/20', Johnson said, “You’re never going to be the same. “I used to be a lot more trusting. I trusted everyone, trusted the police, and now my eyes have been opened.”
Dateline’s two-hour episode 'Behind the Closet Door' airs Friday, June 23 at 9 pm/8 pm CT.
