ANDREA Cincotta’s case went unsolved for more than two decades.
Cincotta’s murder will be the topic of a 20/20 episode airing on Friday, March 10, 2023.
ABCJames Christopher Johnson, known as Chris Johnson, and Andrea Cincotta[/caption]
Who was Andrea Cincotta?
Cincotta was a single mother who lived in Arlington, Virginia with her fiancé, James Christopher Johnson.
She had a son from a previous relationship named Kevin Cincotta.
The 52-year-old worked as a librarian.
What happened to Andrea Cincotta?
On August 22, 1998, Johnson found Cincotta dead on the floor of her bedroom closet in their Arlington apartment. She had been strangled.
Johnson called the police after discovering Cincotta’s body.
As The Washington Post reported, court documents filed in July 2022 stated that the 52-year-old’s body was “cold to the touch” when Johnson told authorities he found it early in the morning on August 22.
Johnson quickly became a suspect in Cincotta’s murder.
According to The Washington Post, Arlington homicide detectives “interrogated him for 28 hours in the first three days after he found Andrea Cincotta’s body in the apartment they shared.”
As DarikNews reported, Johnson confessed to being involved with his fiancée’s death during the interrogation. However, authorities released him after his details of events did not add up with Cincotta’s cause of death.
Johnson has since discussed his reasoning for making what he claims to have been a false confession.
As The Washington Post discussed, a man named Bobby Joe Leonard, who did maintenance work in Johnson and Cincotta’s apartment complex, also became a suspect in the case.
Johnson and Kevin Cincotta told authorities that Cincotta had given Leonard the couple’s old computer about four weeks before her murder.
However, Leonard was deemed to no longer be a suspect in December 1998.
In 2000, he was sentenced to life in prison for the abduction, rape, and choking of a 13-year-old girl in Fairfax County, as The Washington Post reported.
Leonard denied murdering Cincotta multiple times over the years when Arlington authorities went to see him in jail.
As reported by The Washington Post, in 2018, he confessed to the killing to Detective Rosa Ortiz but claimed the murder was planned by someone else.
ABCViewers of ABC’s 20/20 special will see an interview with Chris Johnson[/caption]
As the publication stated: “He said a white man who sounded like Cincotta’s fiancé had called him and offered him $5,000 to kill her. He said the man provided details of Cincotta’s schedule, and that the $5,000 would be in the bedroom closet. It wasn’t, but Leonard never took steps to collect it before he was locked up for the Fairfax attack.”
In November 2021, both Leonard and Johnson were charged with Cincotta’s murder. Leonard plead guilty to first-degree murder, while Johnson maintained his innocence.
Following a three-week trial, Johnson was found not guilty. Leonard received a life sentence in November 2022.
How can I watch the 20/20 episode about Andrea Cincotta’s case?
On Friday, March 10, 2023, a 20/20 TV special about Cincotta’s murder will premiere at 9pm EST, 8pm CST on ABC.
The episode will also be available for streaming on Hulu.
As reported by What’s On Disney Plus, the episode will include interviews with Johnson and his wife, Ginnie Grevett, as well as with family and friends of Johnson.
Viewers will also watch interviews with the lead defense lawyers in the case, Frank Salvato and Libbey van Pelt; a “police interrogation expert who testified for the defense,” James Trainum; and Tom Jackman, a journalist who reported on the trial for The Washington Post.
On March 9, 2023, the 20/20 Twitter account tweeted a preview of the television program, along with the words: “A criminal genius, or an innocent man who confessed to a murder he didn’t commit?
“Watch the exclusive 20/20 interview you won’t hear anywhere else. The all-new #ABC2020 with @RyanSmithTV drops Friday at 9/8c on @ABC. Stream on Hulu. http://abcnews.com/2020.”
