However, they were not considered admissable evidence, and Laverne was sentenced to life imprisonment once found guilty. She was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 10 years. How can you absolutely know what the truth is? Its covered with mud. It wasnt his custom to try to convince people of a clients guilt. McIntyre now felt certain Jesperson was involved in the crime. Even after the convictions, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and the police were sure they got the correct people. Yet thats what he felt obliged to do. OK, Det. Could a journalist have fed information to Jesperson? The lady who opened the door looked like someones grandmother. After hed retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel, hed directed public works projects for the Department of Commerce. Pavlinac and Sosnovske's arrests for the murder thoroughly angered Keith Jesperson. . She was convicted anyway and sentenced to life in prison after jurors heard her taped confession. An insensitive dictator, they sometimes called him, but he didnt care, even if he sometimes did screw up. Although the judge vacated Johns sentence, the show mentions that he refused to overturn Lavernes conviction claiming that she had abused the system and obstructed justice which allowed the real killer to roam free. As they drove out there, she just watched the odometer. How Serial Killer Keith Jesperson Was Finally Caught - Grunge A relative, or a friend of a friend. At the time, Pavlinac said she was able to dupe authorities because she had learned details of the crime from newspaper articles and from reading the search warrant without police noticing. In February 1987 shed called county probation to report he was drinking. You want to deal before your client has even been charged?, It seemed weird to Phelan, too. cannot later be simply set aside by some other judge. Pavlinac, who was then 57, told police she had helped her partner John Sosnovske rape and kill the young woman. "I don't think she was in love with him. . Working as an Army Airborne MP had been fun. In 1995, Keith Jesperson, who was known as the Happy Face Killer, confessed to killing Bennett and gave information only the killer and the police knewthe location of Bennetts purse. But a man and a woman got blamed for it . Looks like its been there some time. Hed been lead prosecutor on that case; hed put two people in prison for killing that young woman. "I said 'Why is she dead?'" Shed found a purse there that didnt belong to her. The police conducted their own investigation and found Jespersons claims to be true. He provided precise details about each murder, some never released to the public. McIntyre listened as that tape now unwound in an Oregon State Police conference room. What the hell, he decided. Moreover, the show portrays how other witnesses came forward and claimed that Taunja was seen at a bar with two unknown men on the evening of January 21, and none of them resembled John Sosnovske. Yes, she overheard him at JBs Lounge, mouthing off to a man she didnt know. Police science in college had felt different, though. Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) - March 7, 2003 Deceased Name: Laverne Brown Pavlinac A graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Friday, March 7, 2003, in Apiary Cemetery in Rainer, Wash., for Laverne Brown Pavlinac, who died March 4 at age 70. Pavlinac had lied again, McIntyre decided. Not until the spring of 1995, almost a year after the Happy Face Killer letters arrived, did McIntyre once again hear about a serial murderer. Judge Paul Lipscomb of the Circuit Court of Oregon agreed to vacate Sosnovske's sentence after ruling his no-contest plea violated his constitutional rights because it had not been voluntary since he was facing the death penalty. McIntyre called his boss. Same old bull, McIntyre thought. Virtually everyone observes that at least this mistake got corrected. Catching Killers is available to stream now. Corson invited. He wont be happy until I am replacing that man in Oregon State Penitentiary., Jesperson wanted the noted criminal defense attorney Gerry Spence to represent him. Pavlinac then confessed to her. Four days later, Judge Libscomb, in a written ruling, declined to release Pavlinac and Sosnovske. Was she that masterful a manipulator and deceiver? She told her daughter the same exact story. McIntyre coached his sons soccer game that day. . Not a fiber or hair strand in his car, not a flaw in his account of that night. Through the parole officer, detectives discovered that the anonymous caller was likely to be John's 58-year-old girlfriend, Laverne Pavlinac. The judge insisted, "Pavlinac has selfishly engaged in an obsessive and persistent obstruction of justice which deflected the investigation at an early stage, causing it to focus on her boyfriend, Sosnovske, while the real killer remained free to kill and kill again". Investigators had been trying to nail down a suspect for weeks when Pavlinac brought Sosnovske to their attention. Thats why Phelan had been so eager to deal. She'sgiveher the shirt off her back," McAlpine said. Please enable scripts and reload this page. Well, she said, maybe she only glanced at it. Ingram, on the other hand, dreamed of taking early retirement, of starting a new life as a fishing guide out on the coast. Some details were incorrect, others you could glean from old newspaper articles. Not in the least. It was, to him, familiar territory: You take a stand, or else you never get anything done. . Laverne Pavlinac, who, along with John Sosnovske, was convicted for the killing of Taunja Bennett, waits at the Oregon Women's Correctional Center in Salem, Ore., Oct. 27, 1995, for word on her release. One of the murders he confessed to was that of Taunja Bennett. Their investigation almost hinted at Johns innocence when Laverne decided to bring another twist to her story. We have made a mistake, McIntyre and Schrunk declared, standing before Presiding Circuit Judge Paul Libscomb. [He said,] 'No, no. Later, he offered to buy her dinner. Reports about two anonymous letters. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? I understand that, so Im skeptical.. Laverne Pavlinac paged him late last night, Ingram reported. Phelan looked back and forth at these two prosecutors. Pavlinac seemed to know intimate details about the case. Once on trial in 1991, Laverne Pavlinac pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed that her whole story was false as she was trying to escape her relationship. We left her at her daughters home. Sosnovske was brought in for questioning and denied any involvement. They found Taunja Bennetts Oregon ID card., No, Im not. This case hasnt made him gunshy about his job. More than 25 years have passed since the ordeal, and in that time, both Sosnovske and Pavlinac have died. She has changed her confession many times, and there is not a shred of physical evidence tying either of the two to the crime, but a jury convicts her. Laverne insisted that she tried her best to move away, but most of her efforts were unsuccessful. Theres no longer any doubt that these two individuals are innocent. As McIntyre knew, Schrunks aversion to overreaching prosecutors derived from firsthand experience. She recanted her confession and said that she had made it up to escape from Sosnovske. Hes seen news reports, McIntyre reasoned. Jim was four rows back when Roberto Clemente went up and over the fence to make the final, glorious series-winning out. "She was that kind of woman. . Not a great deal is known about Bennett's background, but the 23-year-old was first reported missing on 21st January 1990. On Sept. 25, Phelan met in the district attorneys office with McIntyre and his second chair, Keith Meisenheimer. At one point during the conversation, the icon shared her . Im sorry for the whole situation., When it was Sosnovskes turn, he addressed not her but the judge. For the most accurate data, please search on the Detailed View page. Her first husband divorced her after 26 years and four children, her second died of cancer. She had changed her story so many times that investigators said they wondered if she was telling the truth. Birkland was haggling over the years but clearly thought this arrangement worth considering. Before long, her claims began to implicate herself in the murder as well. Then his pager flashed and beeped. So thats where they formally arraigned Sosnovske that evening. He liked to think he moved cautiously while deciding what to believe. She had been beaten, raped and strangled. Pavlinac had made the whole thing up. When he returned to the office three days later, Mike Schrunk was waiting. He sent a letter to the authorities laden with smiley faces, bragging about his '90s killing spree and simply admitting he was 'done killing'. . Certainly this was terribly upsetting, certainly this has shaken all of us who work within the legal system. But no, no. People took the blame and Im free.. On the other hand, John wanted to escape the death penalty and hence pleaded no contest to the charges, which saw him also being sentenced to life in prison. All NRE reports represent a moment in time. . She was found dead just one day later, beside the Old Columbia River Highway in Portland, Oregon. Despite a gag order, he was still talking to journalists. She opened her door, greeted them warmly--and sighed deeply at what they had to say. ET on ABC. "He went off into the woods with her," Pavlinac told investigators. She had reason to know. ABCs 20/20: Happy Face Killer chronicles Taunjas gruesome death and portrays how the entire country was left shocked once Lavernes confession turned out to be false. Ingram was right, Pavlinacs story did still fit the facts. It was nice and neat. For a while, the prosecutors held back. Schrunk put McIntyre on it right away, gave him Keith Meisenheimer as his second-chair prosecutor. At Pavlinac, at Jesperson, at the whole situation. . If the defense arguments were so strong, they reasoned, why then was Wendell Birkland, one of the best in the state, making noises about a possible deal? Sosnovske commanded Pavlinac to drive to the Vista House monument, overlooking the gorge. Watch the full story on "20/20" THIS FRIDAY at 9 p.m. They stopped at his house for money. By then inundated with briefs and investigative documents, he conceded that Pavlinac and Sosnovske indeed were innocent. He offered unlimited access to Jesperson--in exchange for no death penalty. . Pavlinacs description of tire tracks and broken branches didnt fit with photographs or the detectives recollections. Theyd received two anonymous calls, the detectives explained. The purse and jeans patch were phonies. He ordered McIntyre to give him daily briefings; he appealed for results; he told reporters, I dont want our office to do wrong. Few knew he was a highly decorated infantry commander in World War II and Korea, for he talked little of himself. Yes, theyd be fools to say the system hasnt convicted innocent people. They visited Pavlinac that morning, Ingram explained, right after the state crime lab advised them about the fake evidence. Well, there was a case where a woman named Laverne Pavlinac claimed she and her boyfriend, John Sosnovske, murdered another woman named Taunja Bennet in 1990. Once at the gorge, he carried the body into the woods, then threw the shower curtain from the car window. ". Lets dig into the details and find out where John and Laverne are at present, shall we? While police didn't get any hard evidence, the recordings demonstrate how Pavlinac attempted to convince her boyfriend he played a role in Bennett's death. It's thought that Pavlinac suffered abuse at the hands of her partner, John Sosnovske. Report an error or add more information about this case. I didnt mean to . Several days later, Ms . In late March, detectives had arrested Keith Jesperson, a long-haul trucker whom Winningham had been dating. I'm thinking, 'My God, she is actually involved in this,'" Ingram said. For an hour and a half, Ingram just took notes. On the same day the crime lab report arrived, so did a deadly, unexpected diagnosis: His father had liver cancer. . Pavlinacs eyewitness account, Sosnovskes polygraphs, Sosnovskes handwritten statement. If I could do anything to get them out, I would., McIntyre, although obviously bothered, did not permit himself to sound quite as disturbed as the others. A jury had convicted a Portland woman named Laverne Pavlinac based on her detailed confession to police that she helped her boyfriend John Sosnovske rape and kill the 23-year-old. We have the wrong people in jail, he told Schrunk. . Hoping to un-fix it, Schrunk arranged for an expedited hearing at the Marion County Circuit Court in Salem, near where Pavlinac and Sosnovske were imprisoned. Why else? John Sosnovske was 39 years of age and was described as an alcoholic with violent tendencies. She took other things from the search warrant. I always have wanted to be noticed . She changed her story again, this time to say she too was involved in Bennett's death. Now it was another prosecutors problem. . She knew from news reports and a search warrant receipt that it was 1 1/2 miles east of Vista House, below an embankment, in a loop between switchbacks before Latourell Falls State Park. Pavlinac then told police that she had found items in the trunk of her car that matched those sought in a search warrant. Early in the investigation into Bennett's murder, a woman named Laverne Pavlinac came forward to confess, saying she murdered Bennett with and at the direction of her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske. So they ran Sosnovskes name on the computer, saw he was on probation. Pavlinacs face was not that of a murderer. He had heard rumblings out of Clark County, though. Knowing this, Sosnovske and his attorney had little appetite for a trial. This time they brought machetes and clippers. The Registry provides detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989cases in which a person was wrongly convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges based on new evidence of innocence. Following the news of Pavlinac and Sosnovske's arrests, authorities found another confession written on a restroom wall in a Montana Greyhound bus station. New '20/20' Explores How 'Happy Face Killer' Got Away with - People Jesperson refused. Convicted murderer Keith Jesperson, right, shown here at a Nov. 2, 1995, court appearance in Portland, Ore., with attorney Thomas Phelan, has recanted all his previous murder admissions. She gleaned many details from early news articles. A Question of Guilt - Los Angeles Times Particularly since they had not one scrap of evidence pointing in any other direction. . Guy named John Sosnovske, Corson declared. 10 Bizarre False Confessions To Horrible Murders - Listverse A series of strange confessions Police brought. She was going to send John Sosnovske to jail - by any means necessary. Or 'I will cause trouble for your family. With Laverne implicating herself in the crime, both she and John were arrested and charged with Taunjas murder. Jesus Christ, go bury it. He was not skeptical about the Bennett murder case, though. I dont have time for this.. His last piece for the magazine was on a U.S. Forest Service ranger who was the target of a bombing in a dispute over land rights, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Virginia Gov. Episodes three and four of Netflix's Catching Killers details the story of the 'Happy Face' murders, including the elderly couple who spent four years in prison for a crime they didn't commit. As the initial investigation was relatively slow, the police decided to make the details of the case public, hoping for a tip or lead. . She previously claimed to the FBI that he was a wanted bank robber and frequently complained to Sosnovske's probation officer that he was drinking too much. It was founded in 2012 in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. They were both convicted and sent to prison in 1991, based almost completely on Laverne's accusations and the fact that she had correctly identified the area where the body had been found. A search failed to turn up incriminating evidence. This has been an awful three months, McIntyre allowed; just ask his family and colleagues. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. I just said it, this is close enough," she said. We have to do something, or we look like idiots. Why Did Laverne Pavlinac Come Forward? The second letter, sent to the Oregonian newspaper, was a little harder to dismiss. He remained convinced, though, that the right people were imprisoned for Bennetts murder. I raped her and beat her real bad . Pavlinac was tried first. Pavlinac could be heard sobbing throughout the courtroom. He knew nothing about these anonymous letters, but he knew all he wanted about the Taunja Bennett murder. That had seemed proper to McIntyre. Helping victims felt good. Summary of Case: "Laverne Pavlinac was the codefendant of her then boyfriend John Sosnovske. In 1994 newspapers and authorities began receiving anonymous letters from someone who contended he had killed Bennett. On the last day of the trial, McIntyre watched Wendell Birkland beseech the jury for seven hours--Its not logical to assume that this 58-year-old grandmother strangled a girl to death--before finally sitting down. McIntyre thought the two men complemented each other. I put them away. By 5 p.m., he was under arrest for the murder of Taunja Bennett. She felt trapped within the confines of her toxic relationship, and believed she had to go to extreme lengths in order to distance herself from him once and for all. It had amounted to nothing, though. On those occasions, Jim McIntyre more often than not bristles. As she walked, she spoke over her shoulder. She was standing in the parking lot, joking around with Sosnovske. The informant turned out to be Sosnovske's girlfriend, 58 year old Laverne Pavlinac. A lady in Bend had called him, saying the Happy Face Killers handwriting looked an awful lot like her estranged husbands. First they would hack away the blackberry bushes. In January 1991, a jury had convicted Laverne Pavlinac of felony homicide; two months later, her boyfriend, John Sosnovske, had pleaded no contest to the same charge. The emotion in Pavlinacs taped confession--that was just too genuine to be faked. If the murder happened up at Vista House, that put it back in Multnomah County. Once you make that decision, you cant entertain the possibility of being wrong. Investigators installed a hidden recording device in their home hoping to catch Sosnovske making incriminating statements. Now Jesperson had led them to it--several miles from where theyd found Bennetts body. In the 11 months between then and her trial, they only multiplied--as various defense lawyers and investigators more than once pointed out. Once he developed his theory, though, he felt no hesitation at all. He was divorced, with two children. She tells this to her own daughter.. No longer was this a case for the Multnomah County district attorney. Before serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, known by his nickname "Happy Face Killer," turned himself in, authorities believed they had solved the murder of his first victim Taunja Bennett. The pair were convicted in 1991 for the murder of Taujna Bennett, 23, of Portland.. Pavlinac would plead guilty and testify against Sosnovske; in return shed get just six to eight years. Id trust her to baby-sit my own daughter, Ingram declared. By then authorities knew something about Jesperson. No, I want to correct it.. Just hours after John Sosnovske scrawled his seven-page statement, McIntyres phone rang.