Chapter 13

A NEW TRIAL

On  May  13,  1985,  another  brief  was  filed in support of a motion for  a new trial. In it, Logan police  detective  Jim  Thompson  was  linked to a satanic   cult.   Thompson    had   directed   the investigation, which led to Johnston’s conviction.

According to the brief,  Deputy Chief Dale Griffis of  the  Tiffin,  Ohio  Police  Department  linked Thompson with  a cult after he  was given “certain physical evidence  from the desk  and surroundings of Chief  Thompson” by current  Logan Police Chief Barron. Thompson had  previously been police chief in Logan.

The defense  said the incident  involving Thompson happened prior to the  murder of Annette and Todd but was  a significant factor in  the case, “in as much as Thompson was the leading investigator.”

The  brief   stated  that  if   Griffis  had  been permitted to testify, “he  would reveal that he is a nationally  recognized expert on  the occult and satanic  activities,  and   that  he  rendered  an opinion, based on the evidence presented him, that former police chief Thompson  was linked by him to “a satanic-type cult.”

In September  1985, another appeal  was filed with the 4^th  District Court of  Appeals in Portsmouth, Ohio to reverse  Johnston’s conviction. It claimed Hocking County’s prosecutor  Chris Veidt and Logan law  enforcement officers  withheld evidence that might  have  proven  Johnston  did  not  kill  the teenagers.

The brief claimed evidence  presented at the trial was insufficient for a  verdict of guilty. “At the outset, it must be recalled  that this case is one that   is  purely   circumstantial,”  because   no evidence was  ever presented by a  witness who saw Johnston causing  the deaths of  Annette Cooper or Todd Schultz.

“Nor  was any  evidence ever  presented that  Dale Johnston  had   made  any  statement   wherein  he admitted criminal involvement.”

The brief  also noted that  the prosecution’s case claimed the  killings happened on  Johnston’s farm in a remote, forested area about seven miles south of where the victim’s body parts were found.

But  during  the  trial,  the  defense  presented evidence  “which  strongly  supported  a  finding that, in fact, Todd and  Annette were shot in the area of the cornfield.

“What   the   prosecutor   attempted   to  do  and apparently succeeded in this case in doing, was to paint  a  picture  of  sexual  misconduct  through inadmissible evidence...to utilize the emotion and the  strong  feelings  that  would,  of course, be aroused by such testimony to [draw attention from] the glaring lack of evidence.”

“Complete disclosure of  evidence favorable to the defense   is  a   long  recognized  constitutional standard,” attorneys Tyack and Suhr concluded.

The decision of the  4^th District Court of Appeals came  down and  on  Aug.  6, 1986,  overturned the lower  court’s verdict.  A new  trial was ordered, but  the county  appealed the  decision to  Ohio’s Supreme Court.

The appellate  court’s reversal had  been based on the  improper  questioning  of  hypnotized witness Steve  Rine. The  court said  his testimony should not have been admitted into evidence.

While the Supreme  Court meticulously examined the lower   appellate   court’s   decision,   Johnston remained  imprisoned on  death row  at Lucasville. His  wife, Sarah,  was treated  for depression. On Aug. 26, 1986 she divorced him.

Johnston’s mobile home burned or was burned to the ground  and  he  remained  in  a  legal limbo, not knowing whether he would live or die.

Sarah, now remarried and living in another part of southeastern  Ohio,  says  that  she maintains her faith in Dale’s innocence. She believes that a new trial will  reveal the identity  of her daughter’s murderer.  “It won’t  ever be  settled until  that person is found guilty.”

The Ohio Supreme Court,  after more than two years deliberation,   upheld   the   appellate   court’s reversal, concurring in favor of a new trial. They said,  on Oct.  5, 1988,  that their  decision was based  on the  fact  that  some evidence  had been withheld  by the  trial prosecutors  and that  the court  had made  a mistake  in allowing  testimony from  Steve Rine;  the witness  who had previously been  hypnotized  by  the  police  to  refresh  his memory.

The evidence withheld was the testimony of Shirley Frazier,  whom the  defense referred  to as  “Jane Doe.”

Johnston heard the news  on the radio. Handcuffed, he  was interviewed  at the  prison facility  by a Columbus reporter. “I am not convicted of anything now.  I  do  not  know  why  I  have to have these handcuffs on.”

Johnston   is  obsessed   with  finding  Annette’s killer.  “The only  thing  that  can keep  me from searching for him would be my own death,” the then 55-year-old Johnston said.

“You  can understand  how  any  man would  feel if convicted  of a  murder he  didn’t commit  and was forced  to sit  in  prison  while the  killer went free.”

Seemingly  relaxed and  smiling, he  said that  he thinks he  knows who the killer  is. “This type of person  justifies  everything  he  does,” Johnston said. “He is a person with no values whatsoever.

“How could anybody explain or justify what he did. It is  one thing to kill  someone, but nothing can condone  the horrible  acts,” he  said. “This goes beyond what he did to  the kids. He was willing to take my life and destroy my family.”

Don Schultz, speaking for himself and his ex-wife, Sandra, said, “We decided as a family that we have no comment at this time.”

Hocking County Prosecutor Veidt was “disappointed” with the  Supreme Court’s decision  but decided not to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Because of prejudicial  feelings in Hocking County a change of venue was  ordered and the retrial was scheduled for July 10, 1989 in Cincinnati.

Judge  James E.  Stilwell, the  presiding judge of Johnston’s three-judge panel,  resigned at the end of  1988.  In  November,  Veidt  ran  for his seat losing  the  race  to  Thomas  H.  Gerken. Veidt’s prosecutor  position  was  won  by  Judge Gerken’s brother, Charles Gerken.

A    Logan   teenager    transposed   the   town’s     apprehensive  mood  in   1982-83  with  a  similar prevailing mood  now. If Johnston  didn’t kill the teenagers, the  17-year-old said, the  real killer may still be around.

A  grocery  store  owner  said  that  everyone  is discussing  the  court’s  decision.  “Most of those people...are  against it.  A lot  of people  can’t believe  he was  given another  trial. Everybody’s been  bitching...because  they  all  think  he was guilty. I say he had something to do with it,” the grocer said.

Before  the   news  of  Johnston’s   reversal  was announced,  many residents  thought the mutilation murders  of  Annette  and  Todd  had resulted from their  discovery of  drug trafficking  in the area and that  they were dismembered as  part of a plan to provide a satanic cover-up to the killings.