Chapter 7

SUMMATION

On  Friday afternoon,  Jan. 27,  1984, the defense rested  its  case.  Before  final  arguments  were heard,  the prosecution  called rebuttal witnesses to counteract Johnston’s testimony.

On  Saturday morning,  the 12-day  trial concluded with both sides presenting  final arguments to the three-judge panel.

“Murder  is the  ultimate form  of incest,” stated prosecutor Mong.

He said the dynamics of this case had started long before the  couple disappeared; it  started in the moonlit  night [in  1977] when  Johnston said  the reflection on his  stepdaughter’s “bare butt” made him wish he had a camera.

“Incest,  like rape,  is not  a sexual occurrence, but is indeed one  of abuse and dehumanization and violence.” Therefore “the shooting, mutilation and butchering  of  Annette  Cooper  and  Todd Schultz clearly  indicate  that  the  perpetrator  of this crime is the defendant.”

He  told  of  Todd   and  Annette  testifying  “so eloquently”  through  their  autopsy  reports  and evidence  from BCI—from  dirt removed  from under her  fingernails—how Annette  grabbed Todd’s head in agony  as he was  shot six times.  In addition, Mong   said,    two   more   shots    were   fired “execution-style” into Annette’s head and neck.

Johnston’s counsel,  Thomas Tyack, told  the court his  client  was  a  scapegoat  for  the local law enforcement  authorities, and  hinted the  murders may  have  been  connected  with persons connected with the occult.

He said there wasn’t any concrete evidence against Johnston, accusing the prosecution of manipulating events out  of their proper time  frame to benefit the  prosecution. Many  of their  claims, he said, left room for a greater than reasonable doubt.

The  specific  instance  cited  was  Steve  Rine’s testimony. Rine said he saw Dale Johnston push the murdered teenagers into a  vehicle on the day they disappeared—Oct. 4, 1982.

“The  validity  of  his  testimony...is  certainly something that has to be questioned a great deal,” Tyack said.

As for  prosecution claims that  witnesses saw the teenagers  with  Sarah  Johnston  in  Dr.  Mason’s optometric office  between 6:30 and  7 p.m., Tyack said  that for  the contentions  to be  true, both Sarah Johnston and Michelle would have to have had knowledge of the crime.

Sarah  Johnston would  be  unable  to keep  up any appearance of  a grieving parent, if  this was the case, he said.

He  dismissed prosecution’s  claim that  the young people were  killed because Annette  threatened to reveal Johnston’s sexual “misconduct” with her.

If testimony  was to be  believed, he said,  she’d already told numerous persons about the misconduct long before the murders.

Robert  Suhr, Tyack’s  assistant counsel  told the court the  killings may have  been associated with occult  practices  because  the  body  parts  were discovered  buried  in   a  semi-circle  of  seven shallow  graves,  and  that  seven fingernails had been taken from Annette’s hand.

The  “cross-shaped” slash  on Schultz’s  torso and the  three diagonal  cuts around  it, with another cut  underneath, reinforced  defense’s theory,  he said.

The autopsy showed some  of the dismemberment cuts were smooth and precise  while others were jagged. This,  Suhr  said,  indicated  two  persons  were responsible for the dismemberment.