5 – Let’s Make A Deal
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Every day they rise early, battle rush our traffic, march like liming and big courthouse and wait to be called. They are electricians and engineers, salesman and secretaries, mechanics and music teachers. They come because jury duty is a civic obligation. It's the law.

Most, of course, we'll never deliberate anything way he is in lunch that because most of ninety five percent of all criminal cases in amErica are settled with a plea bargain, three deals are efficient and cheaper, way cheaper than going to trial. But there is one additional benefit, not exactly a secret, but they don't talk about that much. In high school civic classes, police deals eliminate the risk of having a jury decide things, because, as every victim knows.

juries are notoriously unreliable.

and every cop knows IT just takes one year to not be completely convinced. And every lawyer knows you can go sideways. Bottom line is we don't know what a jury mayor may not do.

Three deals, on the other hand, allow lawyers for both sides to claim Victory and say justice was done for Victor paya logos. Plea deals were always good deals. Charges dropped her down graded and exchange for a guilty plea, potential felonies, punch with probation.

He pleaded with this very good lawyer. That happens every day.

And he was paya logis quite a lot.

He has a long history of committing financial crimes for all identification type crimes.

You look at this history and you start to see what is capable of.

oh yes, Victor pelosi was a capable command. All right, that was a killer. Here's his lawyer's answer. This is a perfect .

textbook of example of how somebody who's innocent, I don't care. What about his past, can be railroad IT based on prior prejudice?

In this episode will take you inside the losses alist courtroom, or Victor paya logos came face to face with women from his past.

I was shaking. Anyone was that tell you my voice I was shaking .

will take you behind the scenes where men and suits dickered over the details of justice was .

a great thing for a justice.

And you will be present when Victor pelly illogical turns on the wheel dealers sending tremors through the crowd at courtroom. I am Keith Morrison, and this is murder and the hollywood hills, a podcast from deadline episode five. Let's make a deal.

IT took more than three years to bring Victor pay illogical to trial for the murder of Christ Johnson, in large part because prosecutors, a sign of the case, kept becoming judges by the summer of two thousand and six. IT was David wall Green, the third prosecutor assigned to the case, who is given the task of taking at the trial.

So I inherit the case rather, they probably about three years into the case. So IT was a .

large task. Take on that.

David IT was a fairly complicated case with a lot of a lot of discovery, lot of witnesses. So IT was difficult. But that has happened.

No one in the office envision, and that's for sure. But one thing, there was no forensic evidence, no scientific evidence, no eyewitnesses, no. The entire case against paleo logo seem to rest on stories, stories told by several women who would say their their encounters with Victor the illogical were similar to what police believe happened to Christie Johnson. No, to get a jury to believe that too. We felt.

based on the prior victims and the other circumstances, evidence we had, that we did have a compelling case despite the fact that we didn't have the physical evidence.

That I stay when walking rose to deliver his opening argument. He saw twelve impalpable faces seated before him, ten men and two women. There was an engineer turned real ee state agent, the creator of a popular children's cartoon show, and of the MV driving inspector then so on. All the jurors had said during jury selection that they could vote for the death final day if they felt the evidence support. So cameras weren't allowed in the courtroom. We know from court transcripts and the recollections of the people who were there, what happened next, what happened when David walden rose from a seat and told the jury that the evidence would show the Victor paya logos that deliberately lord Christie Johnson to the hollywood hills and struggled her.

The defender refined his techniques over the years, began with more of him portraying himself as some kind of entertainment producer. He then added that he was working on a James bond .

project that the prosecutor told the jury is what paleo gus had told other Young women over the years. The same pitch he said that yogis gave Christie Johnson at the century city mall on february fifteenth, two thousand, three.

He insisted that the women show up to the audition wearing typically black high heels, nylons, a black mini skirt, a White top.

the outfit Christi have been asked to wear. IT was all part of a pattern, the prosecutor said. A pattern is damming, is any fingering, print or DNA match to drive the point home. He then became calling as witnesses women who had close encounters with Victor paleo gus in the past. Some of those encounters have been previously mentioned.

In this podcast, there was the woman who had her drinks Spiked back in ninety one, the x girlfriend, who a few years later was stocked and choked when he tried to break up with them. The woman who is lowered to an audition in one thousand nine hundred and ninety eight, wearing as order to mini skirt, and Stella s and very nearly tied up and raped before he escaped to call the comes paya logos, was arrested and convicted of seven assault in that case. But well, out on bond, he continued the pattern he approached kassie to at the mall with the same modification pitch.

Remember, kai is the one who had a stuntman accompany her to a so called addition in hollywood hills. Cathy told the court that SHE and her friend waited and waited for bail the logos to show up, but he never did. Later, Kathy told me he often wish you sh'd been able to do more to confront and stop pail logos. Back then.

I knew this was a guy that was creepy and up to no good. I didn't know to the extent of what he was up to, but I I did go through wishing. I had called the police and told them my story at the time, and I went through all of that stuff in my head that .

I wish I have done a little bit.

yeah. And four days .

after paleologus was paroled on that one hundred and ninety eight thousand years old days, said the prosecutor, he was added again. Store video from late january two thousand and three showed the moment Victor palo, ga. Approach Susan Murphy at the century city mall understand Murphy said that polio logis asked her to wear the same get up as the other women for her bond girl audition, and then SHE told him how he ran away after SHE and her boyfriend could front at him.

I really thought I was just a guy who tries to get women into compromising situations. I didn't think he was bad. Bad news.

He was bad news. alright. Three weeks later, the prosecutor argued daily, aleg murdered Christie Johnson, in fact, just hours after running away from Susan Murphy and her boyfriend, said the prosecutor, paya logis, was back at the century city mall looking for yet another victim.

This time, the target was a newcomer to L. A. Named Alice Walker Walker told the jury he was waiting tables at a restaurant in the mall when he met paya logue. He told her his name was Victor iboe to said he was an novell's who just written a new book.

He told me about this book. IT was a book about a snuff film maker. IT was so elaborate.

Alice was an english major in college. He loved writing and authors and treat her. So when this Victors suggested they continue the conversation in a nearby hotel bar, well, I was agreed.

And then after that whole conversation about the book and coming out here to get IT publish, then he started in on the whole, just before he said his friend was .

directing IT catnip. Alice is was a ballet dancer who come to L. A. With dreams of becoming an actor. Well, vector, or said he could sure a hook her up, said his friend was looking for a new face for a bond film, a gennifer garner type to play a dominate ricks.

There is a small role, and Victor not play many lines, but you'd be featured in a number of scenes. Alice agreed to addition for the part. Like the others, he was told to wear a black mini skirt, nylons and a White dress shirt suitable for a tie.

He would provide a type, and the leos are highs. So I went the next morning and I got all those things.

Alice said he met Victory at a building on loss antigua that had an empty yoga or dance studio on the second floor and while they waited forward that the director was ready to meet with her, said, I was vitor hater strike sexy posses practice. He called IT a few time. He said he even tried to get out of practice romantic scenes that he said were in the movie.

He graphed me and kissed me, and I threw him up against the wall and he broke down like he wilted.

but palace was not put off, he said. Victor kept in touch. Over the next week or two, their talks were almost always about future additions with director friend.

The auditions never materialized, though. Then he stopped calling. SHE figured sh'd missed her chance. But one saturday afternoon amid february, Alice came home to find the message light under home phone blinking. The message was from .

Victor to call me, I, I, I wanted, say, like ten thirty in the morning and said, you have to come up to the house. You have to, I have to find you. I, I don't know where you are today is the day and you need to come up to the house and and and meet the director. He's going to be here soon and and I just, I need to I need to find you.

Alice said. Victor's voice on the message machine seem to have an edge to IT no matter analysts couldn't call a Victory back, even if he had wanted to. SHE didn't have his number.

I never had a phone number. He always called me, and he was always from a hotel phone.

IT wasn't until after Victor was arrested for the murder of Christie Johnson, that Alice realized her message from Victoria have been left. Just hours before Christ met the man at the mall, SHE told her roommate the one who'd invited her to addition for a bond film. Detectives later determined that called Alice have been made from a payphone at the century city mall.

Frantic like weird, I ve never heard his voice like that.

Stories, stories as evidence, stories from women. Paya logis is attune Andrew flying cross examine each and everyone aggressively. What's so wrong about hitting on beautiful woman? He seemed .

to say he's over forty years old, I assume is not the first male to try to meet a Young lady and maybe get lucky, irrespective of what tale they tell.

As for the prosecution theory that Christie Johnson was murdered by a guy he met at the mall, a theory based on a room mates story about the outfit the guy asked to a wear to an audition. Well, the flyer had already told me that was a pretty flimsy hook on which to hang a capital murder case.

The only evidence they have on this case is that, allegedly, miss Johnson tells her roommate that he might have some meeting with a gentleman who might put her in a movie role. I eat a James bond flick that's IT. And suddenly, from that one issue, mr. Pei logos is the killer .

andry fire had a certain style in the courtroom, is lean and handsome face was animated with indignation as he stocks back and forth before the jury box. The only witness with anything relevant to say about Christie Johnson disappearances, he thunder, was a parking valley who'd seen a man driving Christies metta soon after he disappeared. And that parking valley, he said, twice failed to pick Victor palo logos out of police lineups.

This man is innocent no matter what happens when his time comes, whether it's in outside or in death row or whatever. He didn't do this, so he'll always be able to live with that. But the problem he can't live with is the fact that everyone thinks she's guilty because of what happened with three or four women.

go. Yes, IT was going to be a spirit defensive, right, when they seem to have a good chance of raising reasonable doubt of jurors once IT was laid out for them. Factor pi ilog and his lawyer, however, might have been having second thoughts. IT heard the women testify that seeing the jurors faces IT must have occurred the Victor Bailey August, during those accusing days in court that his life had been like a long descending escalera or and now he had arrived at the very bottom.

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IT was a little after eight on the wednesay morning when the first jure walked into the jury room shipping their morning coffee. IT was the night day as the Victor pay the a logue trial, and many were anxious to get started. They hide the clock in the wall, but at eight thirty the balmoral escorted them into the courtroom, didn't show. And then word came that court was delayed for the second day in a row. Just down the hall, the judge was meeting with the lawyers again.

Something was up and reply, or represents a defended is sure David walgren represents the people.

There was a deal on the table. Andrew flare presented his proposal to the judge picture pay the a logos he said was willing to plead guilty to murdering Christie Johnson if prosecutors took the death penalty off the table and if the judge would agree to a specific sentence. Twenty five to life we've .

been in trial for, I believe, almost two, two and half weeks. I had called almost forty witnesses to the stand. And you have to keep in mind, this case was almost three .

and half years old that's prosecute .

of David wall grim the defense had never approached us with any willingness to take responsibility um so a certainty was surprised um that they approach ached us expressed to why us to plead guilty to first degree murder for what will amount to a life .

sentence no but one more thing, said vict defensive journey, or maybe two more, the state would have to drop all other charges, the bmw theft, the burglar identity fraud and so on. And Victor paya log. This would retain the possibility of being her role. Judge Robert Perry thought about that might be a smart deal for the prosecutor .

because IT is a very sketchy case. There is nothing to tie anybody to her body. No evidence.

But as judge party recalled later, the deal was also good for the offense. Given all those stories.

the woman is what the I said, and is a guy who said, and he even came on to me, and he even tried to attack me, that start to make a amount of evidence.

Once again, there are no recordings of a closed door meeting between the lawyers and the judge, but a court reporter was there, which is how we know who said what, and also about the big problem. The law made IT clear for the judge to accept the deal.

Like the one on the table, the defender would have to plead guilty, no problem there, but would also have to make a full, detailed confession in open court, and that Victor palo augus did not want to do this is from a transcript of that meeting. mr. Flyer, I spoke to mister pavlos, and he is willing to accept the deal.

The big problem of mister pedia, August, he does not want to give a factual plea. Judge Perry, if he wants to plead guilty, he has to say where IT happened and how that happened, and if he is unwilling to do that, I don't think I can take this plea. mr.

Fire, well, I respectfully disagree. He's acknowledging through the plea that he hurt their daughter. Judge Perry, the law requires not only that the plea be freely and voluntarily made, but that there is a factual basis for the play.

And round and round, they went for nearly an hour. The lawyers in the judge haggled over what Victor paya logos would be willing to admit to contact with Christ, yes. murder? Yes, but admitting to murder during a kidnapping or attempted rape, revealing just what he did to that poor girl, well, no, Andrew flyer insisted that Victor p. Lio logue would not go there. Why a detail like that could make things pretty rough for play, a logos on the inside, as he told me when we talked earlier, at the jail.

has gained a lot of attention in the media. So a lot of people or their family get the internet information, bring IT in.

I've heard that it's more difficult than a prison to deal with the kind of charge of facing it's.

It's not a good thing. Now sound a good thing.

Prosecute David.

I think he always intended on committing a rape, and whether that day he intended to commit a murder, I don't know, but when he strangled Christie to death, while her recent angles were bound, certainly he intended to killer.

Two other lawyers entered the room, bad dixon, David wall, grants boss at the D. S. Office and theatre flyer, Andrews, father and law partner. None of them, that seemed wanted the jury to decide this case.

So they brainstorm, spit, bold, looking for a language, accept all to both the judge and Victor payload s the end the judge related Victor pay logue was brought in and according to court transcripts, this is what judge berry said, the fact that you are willing to say I had contact with her and I accept responsibility for her murder, that's enough for me. With that, the judge reconvening court outside the presence of the jury and asked Victor paleo, ga. Several questions for the record.

Did he admit to meeting Christie Johnson? Pai logis said, yes. Did he take responsibility for Christy's death again?

Paid logis said, yes. Had his guilty plea been coerced in any way? Bills gas said, no. Did he understand that he was surrendering his right to an appeal? A little logo said, yes, he did.

Satisfied with those answers, the judge then asked the beef to bring in the jury once that all taken their seats, judge barry told them that a deal had been struck and the trial was over. He thanked them for the service and set them home. Outside the course, both the prosecutor on the defense attorney grind as if they just discovered teeth. Both claim Victory defense to turn the Andrew fire crown because he traded a potential death senate for twenty five to life with the possibility of parole, which was the very same sentence of forty three year old bailo logos would have gotten under california three strikes law. If you'd only been convicted of any one of the lesser crime he was charged with, any one of them would have been strike through IT was as if Christie johns's murder Carried no .

penalty at all.

But for prosecutor David walgren, the end seem to justify the means. In his view. The video had gotten a serial predator off the streets for twenty five years, and maybe for life.

The defender plead guilty. He admitted killing Christie Johnson first degree murder. He took responsibility in open court. H, we will keep off the street as a result of that, please. For the rest of his life.

which seemed probable at the time, twenty five to life might as well mean life. Twenty five years seemed so far away.

I was just relieved that he was going to be incarcerated.

It's Christy's mom, Terry hall.

And twenty five years, that's a reasonable amount of time.

As for the women who testified, the women whose collective voices seemed to seal Victory pay logis is fade. They felt vindicated.

I was very pleased that he .

decided to plead guilty.

There were just so many of us women who came forward to say, this guy tried this at this time. I felt really empowered by that. I sort of had this visual of these women just surrounding him, sort of looking at him, and like, and I you don't you're not going to anywhere and you're not doing this again.

When Susan Murphy heard about the deal sounded like justice.

I was so happy for her family and for the families of the other girls that testified, I mean, to know that there is a sense of piece that comes with that. They know what happened to their daughter now.

But did they really picture pi allegation had taken responsibility for Christian death, but he hadn't said the thing about how or win, where or why for her mother, Terry, that seemed just as well. Do you attach any importance to the idea of knowing what happened, of knowing what her last hours or minutes were composed of what they were like for her?

I think I have enough information already to know that I was very horrifying. And that's one of you. That's a great struggle.

Yes, Terry hall knew her struggle to cope with her daughter's murder, but last a lifetime. But when SHE walked out of the courthouse that warm july day in two thousand and six, at least all that legal stuff was finally behind her, except, of course, for the sentencing. And that was entirely from Melody. Terry had every reason to expect a victa logos would die behind bars at some distant date in quiet security, or maybe not court.

This morning received a letter. It's very lengthy from the defendant.

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Sentencing day, september fifteen, two thousand six, till on the friday, judge Robert Perry had every reason to feel good about that good way to end the week. All he had to do was sentence Victor bailo logis to the predetermined twenty five years of life, allow time for victim impact statements, Christie johns's family and Better being Better. boom.

Hello weekend. But when he entered his chAmbers that morning, he found a letter on his desk wrongly addressed to the honner's judge w. Perry. His name is Robert. The envelope was thick, and as he looked at the hand writing on the outside, he could tell IT was from a prisoner, a prisoner named paya logos. Inside there was an eleven page letter neatly parted in pencil on yellow line paper.

Dear judge Perry, the letter began after long rumination to the enormity of the decision, both on july twenty six, and now the following factors have compelled me to renounce the plea of july twenty six. The judge page through the letter, once reading prose that laid on the page like a bag of sand laborer's language, misspellings, dramatical errors denne read IT again, hallie logos, was accusing his lawyer of pressuring him to plead guilty. You have been under the rest. When he added the plea, he said, sleep deprived. His lawyer had not given his case the attention that deserved IT .

just went on.

The judge pulled on his black robe. This was precisely the thing that he had wanted to avoid. When judge barry entered the courtroom, he looked down at the man who wrote the letter sitting at the defense table, shaven, and got and rest in prison issue orange next to him. At his well tailored motor, the lawyer looked patterned.

The court this morning received a letter, its very lengthy from the defendant. It's eleven pages.

Judge ferry did not look happy.

Council, have you had a chance now to look at the letter?

Yes.

yes. Um in the letter, mr. Pei logos makes a motion to withdraw his guilty plea.

He asserts he was pressured into entering the plea and that he now wishes to withdraw. I'm going to deny the motion. Is pai logos?

No, the judge was having none of IT.

I'm going to proceed with the the sense is, of course, set by law. mr. WalGreen, do you have any interested parties that to wish to address the court in the nature of victim impact?

Now IT was .

time for Christy's family to address the court. Her father, kirk began.

I have struggled for the last three and half years with my emotions of anger, hatred, sadness, and I am not gonna live the rest of my life with anger and hatred towards mr. Pei augus. mr.

Paolo s. Needs to get on his needs and look for salvation. And I asked the god, have mercy on the soul. Thank you very much.

Next came Christ mom Terry hall.

Victor polio. Gus has been allowed the freedom to let the evil in his life escalate, resulting in the haneys murder of Christian, my beloved, a Young daughter, a beautiful, a Young woman on the thresh hold of her life. Vict peli augus has never demonstrated remorse based on this reality. IT is the responsibility of our society and the panel system to keep this criminal locked up.

Throughout IT, all Victor patio logos kept his head down as if there was something of intense interest on the table in front of him on tary hall was through judge ferry turned back to pay the logos.

mr. Pay logos have the right to address the court, if you care to.

And let me impose .

sounds for the wellness, deliberate and premeditated first degree murder. Christiane Johnson, the court sentences the defendant to serve twenty five years to life in the state beneventum.

And with that later pay illogical, was LED away. And in his wake questions, we deadline wondered if maybe now might be the time to get some of those questions answered. After all, he was a convicted killer.

Now get IT for a long prison stretch. Maybe he'd finally tell the truth. I didn't really expect him to agree to a new interview, but he did.

And so before he was transferred to state prison, we met again in the same cramped room at L. S. Men's central jail. Well, IT was a gosh to over years, since we talked winter about a year only then believe .

it's two years now.

This time around, daily, a logos did not have a lawyer sitting beside him. But soon after I SAT down, IT became clear that we were in for another helping of half truths and denial. Things are a little different in the last time we spoke. So are you ready now to talk more candidly about what happened?

I ve never had an issue about talking about any piece of case and not try to hide anything from anyone. The plea agreement, I guess I just, uh, formality, uh, issue you took .

responsibility for Christy's .

death I add to then I add to really get to play.

That's what you want to withdraw。 Absolutely.

absolutely. That is what I wanted withdraw. Are you afraid of what will happen .

to you in prison if you confess to what you actually did?

I don't want to have even go there. My issue is, are not guilty of this. I had nothing to do with miss Johnson's demise, and i'm not going to take responsibility .

for now despite doing just that. In judge parries corporation ict, or pedia, logis told me with a straight face, they never met Christie Johnson, never invited her to addition for a bond films. Didn't killer? Didn't dumper body on that hillside? None of IT did you drive Christie johns's car?

No, i'm soly not.

Were you ever in position .

of that car? absolutely.

So you are distancing yourself from the entire story.

I always have.

yes. Did the judge ask you to tell the court how you killed? How are you killed?

He did. And I refuse to give any type of statement.

Did you say then? Well, I am not gona tell you, because I didn't do .

IT do you say those words now? I didn't do. I didn't say that knows where it's no .

Billy logo told me he he wanted the trial to continue. The prosecution had no evidence, he said, and the woman who testified against him would have been discredited if his lawyer, Andrew flyer, had presented his defense.

What I wanted to do was get on stand and get our witnesses understand and our evidence understand to disprove what they were say. And that's what I really wanted Andrew to get us to do. But when this plea came up IT, suddenly ly stopped all of for us.

Andrew, us with a pretty plea.

That's what i'm being made to believe now is that Andrew us for the play. And I don't believe that. I don't blame that. We had the case one in chief. He felt that, that was definitely going in.

Oh, come on, we're living on a different planet. This is all advance. This kind of silly.

don't you think? No, I don't think no. Because what evidence do you have to says that I did this? Why did you tell me that .

talking to Victor play logos like trying to tap dance on a mattress? One little regretted taking responsibility for something he said he didn't do. The next, he was telling me that the truth is a fungible commodate. The american justice is as transactional as any kind. Midway.

it's part of the big. Cogwheel that just keeps on turning. I think there there's no solemn bow and taking please are done all the time, every day you taken for any one of a million different reasons.

When you go in the cord and you swear that you're taking responsibility for somebody's death, that can be a line that doesn't really matter because it's part of the cognitive, not a solon.

You can ask any of your atterley or any other atterley as the way IT works, i'm sorry to tell you. And that's the way we were in court system.

Well, IT was obvious. I wasn't gonna anywhere with this guy. So I walked away from that last interview with Victor bai logos.

And to the story for us, I was concerned another convicted killer bound for a cold, lonely death behind bars. But I was wrong. In the years that followed, a new chapter was written, a chapter that was both chilling and not lifting.

And here's the thing. IT wasn't written by a Victor Peter logos or the course deal makers. IT was written by the women who had faced him down once and were forced by changing circumstances to face him down again.

Next time on murder and the hollywood hills.

we decided we wanted to make a documentary about the women who testified in this case, because IT was their collective testimony that pretty much took the scales in the prosecutions favor. We got this group together now.

and we've got a story to tell that hopefully a cautionary tale for for other Young people.

Here we are fast forward twenty years later, looking at a full hearing, coming up in a short order. And the question, of course, that bag is what happened here. So only been twenty years.

I wanted him to know that I wasn't scared of him. I walked straight up to him and just went in for a kiss, and I kissed him on the cheek. I let him kissed me on the cheek.

Murder in the hollywood hills is a production of day line and nbc news tib chem is a producer ryan drew Kelly va. Dean and martial house fell their audio editors cars and commons and kiani read or associate CER adam gordin is co executive producer, paul ryan is executive producer, and lisa al is senior executive producer. Reman be see news audio sound mixing by bob malaria, castine Anderson, Price and barns is head of audio production.

Hey, guys, really, guys here remind you to check out the sunday sit down podcast. On this week episode, I get together with the one and only human ant to talk about his chilling new film, heroic and a four decade run of unforgettable movies. You can find our conversation now for free wherever you downloader podcasts.