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Matthew Steven
JOHNSON
Classification:
Serial killer
Characteristics: Drugs
Number of victims: 3 +
Date of murders: 2000 - 2001
Date
of arrest: January 13,
2002
Date of birth: 1963
Victims profile: Aida Quinones,
33 / Rosali Jimenez, 33 / Alesia Ford, 37
(prostitutes and drug addicts)
Method of murder: Beating - Strangulation
Location: Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Status: Sentenced to
three consecutive life sentences,
2004
Man Held In Two Deaths
The New York Times
Monday, January 14, 2002
The police have arrested a Hartford man on charges
that he killed two women. The man, Matthew Steven Johnson, 38, was
charged with two counts of murder in the April 2000 death of Aida
Quinones and the death last July of Alesia Ford. Mr. Johnson was held on
$2.5 million bond on Saturday and was scheduled to be arraigned today at
Hartford Superior Court. Ms. Quinones's partly clothed body was
discovered April 16, 2000, beneath a highway overpass in Hartford, the
police said. Ms. Ford's partially clad body was found July 22, 2001,
near an abandoned building in Hartford.
MATTHEW JOHNSON was convicted in
February 2004 of three counts of Murder for the slayings of three women
who were found murdered in the Asylum Hill neighborhood of Hartford.
He was arrested as a result of an investigation by
the Cold Case Unit,
Connecticut State Police, the
State Police Forensic Laboratory DNA
Section, the State of
Connecticut Department of Correction and the
Hartford Police Department
into the deaths of nine women in the Hartford area over the course of
seven years.
Five deaths occurred in a particular area of Asylum
Hill, and three of the victims were tied to Johnson by DNA evidence. Mr.
Johnson was convicted in the deaths of Aida Quinones, whose body
was found April 16, 2000 at 85 Laurel Street, Hartford; Rosali
Jimenez, whose body was found August 29, 2000 at 50-52 Cedar Street,
Hartford; and Alesia Ford, whose body was found on July 22, 2001,
at 1 Myrtle Street, Hartford.
State's High Court Upholds Life Prison Sentence in
Hartford Serial Killings
October 31, 2008
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ Connecticut's
Supreme Court on Friday upheld the life prison sentence of a homeless
drifter convicted in 2004 of the serial killings of three Hartford
prostitutes.
The court rejected 45-year-old Matthew Steven
Johnson's argument that he should have had separate trials for the three
deaths.
Johnson also claimed it was unfair that jurors were
swayed by forensic scientist Henry Lee's description of the deaths as
serial killings because of similar methods used by the killer.
Johnson is serving three consecutive life sentences
for the beating and strangulation deaths of 33-year-old Aida Quinones,
33-year-old Rosali Jimenez and 37-year-old Alesia Ford.
Their bodies were found within a one-mile radius in a
neighborhood near downtown Hartford in 2000 and 2001.
The three victims were described by police and state
science experts as prostitutes and drug addicts, each of whom had sexual
contact with Johnson shortly before they were found dead.
Lee, a former Connecticut State Police commissioner
and nationally known forensics expert, testified during Johnson's trial
that the women were killed in similar ways and dumped in similar spots.
Their clothing also was disheveled and partially
removed in the same way in each case, he testified, saying those factors
convinced him a lone serial killer committed the homicides.
Johnson told police he did not know the victims and
couldn't be responsible for their deaths because he had not had sex with
a woman since 1982.
That contradicted Lee's testimony that Johnson's DNA
was found in semen samples collected from the bodies of each of the
victims.
Johnson had a lengthy criminal record before the
homicides, according to state records.
When he was 19, he was convicted of beating and
attempting to rob a security guard inside the Cathedral of St. Joseph in
Hartford's Asylum Hill neighborhood in 1982.
He served four years of a 10-year sentence, then was
convicted in 1988 of forcefully restraining a woman on the street. About
two years later, he was convicted and imprisoned for raping and beating
another woman, records show.
STATE v. MATTHEW STEVEN
JOHNSON, SC 17190
Judicial District of Hartford
Criminal; Whether Evidence from
one Murder Case was Properly Considered in Other Murder Case as Proof of
Common Scheme or Plan; Whether Forensic Scientist's Testimony
Constituted Opinion on Ultimate Issue to be Decided by Jury and Whether
His Characterization of Murders as Serial Killings was Extremely
Prejudicial.
The defendant was charged with
murder in connection with the deaths of three women in the city of
Hartford that occurred in April of 2000, August of 2000 and July of
2001. The bodies of all three women were found within a one-half mile
radius of one another. Two of the bodies were found outdoors, while one
was found inside an abandoned building. Two of the bodies were found
lying face up, while the other was found lying face down. All three
women were found with their pants pulled down around one leg.
The defendant's semen was found
at different locations on the bodies of each of the three women. Drug
paraphernalia was found by two of the bodies, and drugs were determined
to be in the bloodstream of all three women. The medical examiner
determined that the amount of force and injuries to all three women were
similar. The trial court consolidated the three cases for trial. A
jury convicted the defendant of all three crimes.
In this appeal from his
convictions, the defendant claims that the trial court improperly
allowed evidence from each murder case to be considered in the other
cases for the limited purpose of proof of a common scheme or plan. In
that regard, he argues that the state showed only that there were some
similarities between the crimes but not that there was a true scheme or
plan by the defendant and that, accordingly, the common scheme or plan
exception to the general rule barring evidence of uncharged misconduct
was improperly merged with the identity exception.
The defendant also claims on
appeal that the trial court improperly allowed a forensic scientist to
testify that based on his review of the autopsies, reports and
photographs of the three murder scenes, the same person committed all
three crimes and that the crimes constituted serial killings. He argues
that such testimony was improper because it constituted an opinion on an
ultimate issue that should have been decided by the jury and that it
violated an earlier ruling by the court that evidence from each case was
not admissible in the others to prove identity. The defendant further
argues that the forensic scientist's characterization of the crimes as
serial killings was irrelevant and extremely prejudicial.
