Opinion ID: 1254168
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Sondra Johnson.

Text: At the time she testified, Johnson, then confined in the federal correctional facility in Pleasanton, was serving a federal sentence for a federal firearms violation concurrently with a Minnesota term for conspiracy to commit the unrelated murder of Thomas Carroll. She had agreed in a plea bargain with Minnesota and federal authorities to speak to any authorities who wanted to speak to her and to be open and honest about everything. [4] Johnson testified, under a grant of immunity, that in the fall of 1981 appellant wrote to Jim Johnson about a planned armed robbery of an armored car. Jim Johnson then tried to buy guns and make silencers for the robbery. He succeeded in making one silencer, but did not complete a second. In early December 1981, after a telephone conversation with appellant, Johnson told her there had been a change in plans and rushed to meet a new deadline for the silencer. Appellant told the Johnsons that he would pay $5,000 and expenses for someone to drive to California the day after Christmas. Sondra Johnson contacted Dahl and rented a car for him with money later reimbursed by appellant. On December 26, 1981, after receiving a phone call, Dahl left the Johnsons' house. She did not see the gun and the silencer again after he left. Dahl returned on January 4 or 5, 1982. After Dahl returned, Sondra Johnson saw two Datonic .45-caliber weapons that she had not seen before in her apartment. She also saw another gun that Dahl possessed. Dahl gave Sondra Johnson an envelope addressed to appellant in Hawaii and wrapped in a paper napkin. She mailed that letter from Miami on January 10, 1982. Appellant reimbursed her for the airfare and later thanked her for handling the matter. Appellant had told Sondra Johnson in mid-December that Weller, whom she knew as Big Red, would be coming to Minneapolis. Weller called the night before she arrived and told Sondra Johnson the flight number. Sondra met Weller at the Minneapolis airport on December 31, 1981. Weller stayed with the Johnsons until March. When appellant and Garcia arrived on February 19, Garcia had a black eye. Garcia appeared to be totally under appellant's control. Appellant boasted that he had pulled a fantastic job in California, and had killed two people whose bodies would never be found as they had been chopped up. That night Sondra Johnson saw appellant pull Weller into the hallway bathroom and heard Weller screaming while in the bathroom with appellant. Two weeks or so after she arrived at the Johnsons' apartment, Weller described the details of the California murders to Sondra and Jim Johnson and admitted having advance knowledge that they would take place. Weller believed appellant would kill her because of what she had witnessed. Everyone in the apartment was afraid of appellant.