Opinion ID: 2639434
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Newspaper Articles

Text: On January 16, 1992, Joanna stated that she knew how to get to the murder scene because somehow she knew it was off of Ferrari Mill Road. She was not sure if she read that in the paper or somebody told her. But she claimed that she learned it was Ferrari Mill Road maybe ... the day before the deputy sheriffs took her to the location. She claimed she did not know how to get to Ferrari Mill Road, but assumed it was in the same area in which she found the clothes. At the 1994 reference hearing, Joanna's testimony changed dramatically. Joanna claimed to have specific knowledge of Ferrari Mill Road from two newspaper articles, dated August 13 and 22, 1984. While she claimed she had never noticed the road before November 1984, she said she was familiar with the area because it was near where the clothes were found. She claimed not to have the faintest idea where the bodies were found on Ferrari Mill Road itself. Once at the Y (the fork in the road before Four Corners), she said that she correctly guessed which direction to go. The referee found that Joanna lied in both 1992 and 1994. As the referee pointed out, Camp Creek, where Joanna found the clothes, was 12 miles from Ferrari Mill Road, so Joanna's assumption that she found Ferrari Mill Road because it was in the same area as Camp Creek was disingenuous. Moreover, Joanna's two statements are suspect because of their material inconsistencies. In the 1992 recantation interview, Joanna claimed that she learned of Ferrari Mill Road from the paper (or somebody told her) perhaps one day before her November 1984 trip with the sheriffs deputies. At the 1994 reference hearing, however, she claimed she knew of Ferrari Mill Road from two newspapers articles she read on August 13 and 22, 1984 more than two months before the trip. Finally, Sergeant Wilson testified at the 1985 jury trial that Joanna told him she did not read any newspaper articles about the case. The referee found that Joanna did not read the newspaper articles until after her 1992 recantation. We accept this finding as true.