Fear of Retribution Blocks Arrest in Decade Old Murder Case
| By DAWN A. MICELI, Correspondent |
Rhonda Johnson could not have known
the violent intent of the person she
allowed into her car on a September afternoon
over a decade ago. That is especially
true, her mother says, given that Rhonda’s
six-month-old son, Co’ran, was
strapped in his car seat in the back of that
vehicle. But what does seem certain is
that fear of that same person who entered
her car is paralyzing others from coming
forward with sought-after information
police need to make an arrest in the particularly
brutal killing of a teenaged
mother and her infant son.
“Some are afraid to come forward
because of fear of retribution, without a
doubt,” said Stamford Police Lt. John Forlivio.
“And that’s part of our problem in
this case. I understand that some of them
are in fear of certain individuals.”
The double-homicide Johnson case
remains open, the details of the heinous
crime spelled out in several extensive
three-ring binders shelved in the Stamford
Police Department's Bureau of Criminal
Investigation. For Rhonda’s family, those
same details are catalogued on a visceral
level – never to be forgotten, yet pushed
aside just enough to allow the happier
memories to seep in.
“I try to remember all the good times,”
said Blanche Johnson, Rhonda’s mother.
“I do my flowers at the cemetery when the
weather is good, and I cope.”
Life was good for the Johnsons in the
days and months leading up to September
12, 1996. Rhonda was a senior in high
school with lots of friends and a boyfriend
she loved. She became pregnant that year
but managed to return to school after
Co’ran’s birth in March and graduate with
her class from Westhill High School. She
even attended her prom.
Rhonda enrolled in college, taking a full
course load at Norwalk Community Technical
College, where she planned to major
in mass communications. She also began
work as a dietary aide at Stamford Hospital,
where her mother was employed in
another department. They worked different
shifts, allowing them to share transportation
via Blanche’s Toyota Camry.
Between family members and a nearby
babysitter, Co’ran was loved and well cared
for.
However, Co’ran was not the son of the
boy Rhonda had been dating in high
school. Unbeknownst to Blanche, Rhonda
had had a tryst one night with an old
friend – someone from the neighborhood.
Blood tests later revealed Andre Messam
to be Co’ran’s father.
“Rhonda wanted the baby to grow up
and know his dad, but they weren’t going
together, and he didn’t come around a lot.
He would give her money for the babysitter,”
Blanche explained.
Messam, 30, of Bridgeport, is serving
jail time on a narcotics possession charge
at Bergin Correctional Center in Storrs, a
level-2 minimum-security facility. He was
sentenced to three years in October 2006
as a result of police stopping him in July
2004 and discovering a small amount of
cocaine in his possession. He had previously
served jail time after being convicted
in 1998 on drug charges, breach of peace,
interfering with an officer, and thirddegree
assault and threatening.
Messam was -- and continues to be -- a
“person of interest” for police in the Johnson
case. In fact, Messam reportedly complained
of being railroaded by police and
prosecutors during his 2006 hearing
because of his suspected involvement in
the unsolved murders of Rhonda and
Co’ran. He told the judge in the case that
police were “playing hardball” and challenged
police to “arrest me for it” -- referring
to the Johnson homicides -- during
his sentencing.
“There’s no question that some of the
persons of interest have criminal records
and some are incarcerated as we speak,”
said Lt. Forlivio. He noted that Messam
was questioned in the Johnson shootings
“because of the scenario and the motive of
the case.”
On September 11, 1996, Rhonda Johnson
had plans to meet the father of her
baby to pick up the babysitting money she
often collected from him – a sticking point
between the two, according to Blanche.
“He didn’t want to pay anything more for
the baby, and he didn’t want his girlfriend
or family to know about him…Rhonda
kept saying to me, ‘Promise me,Mom, that
you won’t say anything.’ They weren’t
going to tell his family until his birthday
on September 15.” That initial phone call
was on Wednesday, but Rhonda received a
follow-up call asking her to postpone the
meeting until the next day, September 12.
Rhonda obliged, but according to Blanche,
“Tomorrow never came.”
The next morning, a Thursday, both
Rhonda and Blanche woke at the regular
time, with Blanche announcing that she
was planning to take the day off because of
some problems she was having at work. If
she did that, Co’ran would not need to go
to the babysitter’s home that day. However,
Rhonda reminded her mother that
missing work might not be the best idea,
and Blanche acquiesced and got ready for
the office. Blanche recalled, “I said, ‘I’ll see
ya later,’ and I kissed her goodbye and the
baby goodbye and I went to work.”
The plan was for the two to rendezvous
at 4 p.m., the time Blanche finished work
and Rhonda started her shift. By 4:15,
Blanche knew something had happened to
her daughter and feared she might have
had an accident en route to the hospital.
Blanche ultimately had a family member
pick her up and drive her home. Blanche
said she began to panic and started her
own search to locate her daughter.
Friends confirmed that they had seen
Rhonda earlier, and the babysitter
informed Blanche that Rhonda had
indeed picked up Co’ran before 3 p.m. as
scheduled. “I ended up going back home
because I wanted to be there if she called.
My stomach was in butterflies, and I really
thought maybe they’d been in a bad
accident,” Blanche said, noting the time to
be between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m., with dusk
setting in.
A phone call from a friend’s mother,
asking what her license plate number was,
left Blanche distraught. A groan on the
other end of the connection compelled
Blanche out of the house to try to walk off
her anxiety.
Another friend later found her on that
walk and confirmed that her daughter and
grandson were dead. Later, Blanche
would learn the complete horror of those
deaths. Far from a feared car accident,
Rhonda and Co’ran had been murdered by
multiple gunshots, several of which were
to the head, as they sat in their parked car
on the side of Grenhart Road.
“It’s a likely scenario that the killer was
in the vehicle,” said Lt. Forlivio. “And yes,
there was thought put into it. Some planning
went into this.”
Blanche says, to her, it is not hard to
figure out who killed her daughter and
grandson because of the circumstances
surrounding Rhonda’s last days and the
route she traveled on the day of the murder.
She maintains that the police, as well,
know the identity of the killer. It continues
to baffle her that no arrest has been made
after all these years, given the investigation
that ensued in the days and weeks following
the almost unimaginable executions of
her daughter and grandson.
“Police said they thought they had
enough evidence to convict, but the state’s
attorney felt that the evidence wasn’t
enough…I think their (police) hands are
tied, and I think they know who did this,
and I know who did this,” said Blanche.
According to Lt. Forlivio, the case is
“still missing a little something…We tried
to re-interview witnesses or persons of
interest as recently as last year.” Despite
that effort and a seeming breakthrough in
October 2001, when now-retired Stamford
Police Capt. Frank Lagan contacted
the FBI for assistance in reexamining the
physical evidence retrieved from the crime
scene, the case remains at an impasse.
“The forensic evidence was analyzed at the
FBI’s lab in Virginia…The results were
that we came up with no evidence to link
a suspect with the crime. There was no
match,” Lt. Livio explained. Even a statefunded
$50,000 reward has failed to lure
witnesses.
Lt. Forlivio declined comment on
whether the murder weapon was ever
recovered, but reports have linked Kenneth
Brickhouse, also a Stamford resident,
to the gun used in the Johnson murders –
an allegation that has yet to be confirmed
by police. Brickhouse allegedly told prosecutors
that he may have supplied that
gun. Brickhouse is serving 17 years in
McKean Federal Prison in Bradford,
Pennsylvania, on drug-trafficking and
firearms charges. He is due to be released
in 2014.
Brickhouse has a posting on a website
that is a pen-pal service for inmates, featuring
their photographs and requests for
female correspondents. “I’m a regular type
of guy that has made some mistakes,” he
notes on the site.
Lt. Forlivio confirmed that Messam
and Brickhouse were “associates.” He
said, “That individual’s name comes up
in this investigation, and he’s been aperson of interest.”
As for motive, again, Lt. Forlivio
declined comment. “If I articulated on
the motive, I’d be spelling out too close to
home what I really think,” he said.
As for Rhonda’s family, her mother
says it has been years since they have
heard from police on the case. “Every day
we would talk to police, and then it started
dwindling, and then it was like nothing,”
said Blanche.
Time has also taken Rhonda’s father,
Zuberi Asim Ajamu, who died in 2006.
His ashes are buried with his daughter,
who rests with Co’ran nestled in her arms.
Blanche still has her son, Rhonda’s brother,
Bilal Hasan Ajamu of Stamford. Their
extended family is readying for the arrival
of a niece’s baby.
Blanche has been raising money for
charitable purposes in memory of Rhonda
and Co’ran’s names for different
organizations. “This past year, I took
Rhonda’s and Co’ran’s pictures and put
them on T-shirts and gave the proceeds to
the youth department at my church, the
Union Baptist Church,” she said. This
year Blanche said she plans to raise
money to help an underprivileged child
go to summer camp.
The home that Rhonda grew up in was
sold. Blanche moved to a new home
where she continues to hold on to Rhonda’s
teddy bears and scarves.
Blanche said, despite the passage of
time, she continues to hold out hope for
closure and justice, but she has come to
the realization that the matter is out of
her hands and in God’s.
“I’m never going to give up hope, and I
think that, indirectly, the Lord is working
for me, because he’s keeping these people
in jail,” she explained.
The Stamford Police Department’s
Bureau of Criminal Investigation asks
that you call their tip line, (203) 977-
5111, if you have any information regarding
this case. The line is monitored by Lt.
John Forlivio and Capt. Richard Conklin.
(Contact Dawn at d.miceli@thejusticejournal.com)
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