Opinion ID: 1059619
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Johnson's Statements to Police

Text: After Hamilton made the initial match of the DNA taken from the crime scene with Johnson's DNA profile obtained from the data bank, three police officers from the Petersburg Police Bureau interviewed Johnson at the Southampton Correctional Institute in August 1996. Upon signing a written waiver of his Miranda rights, Johnson told the police officers that he had been in Petersburg quite a bit during the summer of 1994 and had spent a lot of time at the apartment complex where Hall lived. His cousin and another acquaintance lived in other buildings in the same complex. Johnson stated that on the night Hall was murdered, he encountered her in a hallway and that they went inside her apartment and began kissing on her living room couch. Johnson stated that an African-American man with a light complexion who had a fade haircut knocked on Hall's door, entered the apartment, and began arguing with Johnson. According to Johnson, this man threatened him with a knife and pushed him out of the apartment. Johnson denied being present in any room in Hall's apartment other than the living room and denied being cut or injured in any way while in the apartment. On further questioning, Johnson stated that he had not met Hall in the outside hallway, but had knocked on her door.