How Many Days Is 42 MonthsChoking For My Dad's Best Friend Porn
Wed, 03 Jul 2024 00:38:25 +0000"I can't recall many times I actually saw him come out of his room. I love my dad so much. A month later, the scent of marijuana brought a campus cop to his room, and the cop confiscated two marijuana pipes. He was smitten with BMWs and once had owned one.
On that mild, sunny afternoon, Courtney Sconce was wearing a white T-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes. When friends confronted Justin, he told them he was depressed--but not enough to hurt himself. Mark Sconce is haunted by the question his daughter's killer left hanging at his sentencing. The federal government also unwittingly gave a break to the killer. He sometimes cut classes and seemed lethargic. "I love you, " they told one another. They second-guessed themselves, even though they believed there was little basis to immediately arrest him and none to think he would kill a child two days after they seized his computer. This time Justin bought a deer rifle, but the state's mandatory waiting period prevented him from taking it. Within a day, Sacramento Sheriff's Dets. I thought at worst it'd paint my dad in my boyfriend's mind as a bit of a weirdo, nothing more (they'd never met and it was unlikely they ever would, for reasons I won't get into.
Justin's mother is not alive to dispute her son's allegation, and Duree flatly denies it on his father's behalf. "It is an extremely sad situation and the agents have struggled with it internally. "I'm not trying to say it was not my fault, " he said. "I figured that if I had to go to jail, I should go for a crime that's worth going to jail for. He made a chilling decision. Justin said she clashed with her husband about her drinking. Timberlake had attended the same school as Courtney and knew Rancho Cordova.
As months dragged by and Courtney's murder went unsolved, Mark and Cindy Sconce lived in the foggy hell of the unknown. It was hard to believe, even harder to take, that someone could choke the life out of a winsome, bright-eyed tomboy who was always on the go, skateboarding and playing ball with the guys, running down the leafy avenues, ponytail flying. Justin told friends he carried the rock just in case someone showed him disrespect. "I told him I was going to flee, " Justin said, "and he said he was going to kill himself. About an hour later Justin Weinberger watched children, eager to start the long Veterans Day weekend, stream from the cinder-block classrooms of W. E. Mitchell Middle School. A plaque on it reads: "She played hard and lived life to the fullest every minute of her short life. His grades dropped during his senior year of high school, yet a strong SAT score in math helped him gain admission in 1999 to San Diego State University, where he majored in computer science. "I think it was busted down because of Michael Weinberger's position, because it was represented to me that he was with the attorney general's office and it would be handled at home, " Specht says. When they went clubbing, his pals sometimes ditched him, fearing he would spoil their chances of picking up girls.
He had dogs, cats and a tree fort. "It really never would have happened if the FBI had not come to my house on that Monday.... By the time they scaled the levee, Weinberger said, Courtney seemed relatively relaxed. "It was weird, like they were brother and sister, " Harrington recalls. She doted on Justin, dressed with flair and drove sporty cars.
"Don't hurt me, " he recalled her saying. But he began acting recklessly. Sometime after midnight, sheriff's deputies told them a girl's body had been found along the Feather River. It turned out they both liked math. But one magistrate declined to sign it because he knew the senior Weinberger. The detectives went back to Weinberger, but he maintained his innocence. He darted for cover at the sound of an approaching boat, but two fishermen pulled directly into the cove. He told investigators that his father warned that he might get caught immediately.
Her father, Mark, found some Highway Patrol officers when he went to a nearby Taco Bell looking for his youngest daughter, and the search was on. I knew my mom was going to die.... We were talking about committing suicide, and I guess I kind of retaliated. Once Justin got home, he said his father told him investigators had traced the visor. Although he shed tears, he was composed enough to speak at his mother's memorial service a few weeks later. He wanted a criminal history check, an interview and a DNA sample for each. Justin Weinberger was a child of El Dorado Hills, a short drive from Rancho Cordova and a leap up the economic ladder. So he headed out, driving his mom's black BMW to Rancho Cordova to pick up his final check at the auto parts store where he worked as a delivery driver. One was a lanky, clean-cut college dropout and computer buff who had saved newspaper clippings about the murder. And there was a neighborhood ruffian. Ages ago now, I was nosing through his private box of belongings which he used to keep at the back of his wardrobe. "She wanted to know where we were going.
The car's occupants were cresting the levee--a young man in cargo pants and a little girl in shorts. I'd've drawn the line at 16 and never claimed my dad had been viewing naked people any younger than that, because obviously that definitely would've had my boyfriend marching down to the police station. By fall, he was spinning out of control. Although Michael Weinberger declined requests for an interview, John R. Duree Jr., his friend and Justin's former attorney, insists in response to written questions that "Mr. Weinberger never encouraged or suggested suicide by Justin. The victim in that case, hair salon owner Autom Specht, had pressed the district attorney's office to file a misdemeanor criminal complaint. They had a Polaroid. I rifled through them and had a bit of a giggle and then put them back and went on my merry way. But he was socially awkward, with reserve that let people ignore him and stubbornness that grated even on friends. He spotted a pert girl with a ponytail.
"My friends made fun of me for hanging with him. His friends dismissed his behavior as a response to his mother's death. He drove off, past her favorite skating rink and onto the freeway. He partied day and night when his best friend came to visit. I can't believe I said such a nasty thing about my dad, who I truly love with all my heart.
Sutter County deputies collected evidence with help from the state Department of Justice, where Michael Weinberger worked. The maintenance worker slowed to see the dark-colored BMW parked along the Feather River levee. Michael Weinberger was just a name to the detective, but for two decades he was a respected, well-liked California state prosecutor who supervised several other attorneys and fought criminal appeals, including death penalty cases. He then said he had a gun and told her to get in. I soon discovered the real reason he didn't want us snooping: he had some porn magazines.
The 25-year veteran was no stranger to sex-crime investigations or the power of porn. A few days later, on July 19, 2001, Timberlake was sitting in the sheriff's homicide squad room with Nicholson of the FBI when her boss came in holding a balloon. Home for his first winter break, he passed out during a drinking bout on Jan. 25, 2000, and his friends photographed him sprawled with a bottle of Jack Daniel's. "Probably... we treated him differently than we would anyone else because he was in law enforcement or a prosecutor, " the agent says. The rock-throwing incident was nothing compared to federal child-porn charges, which Congress decreed are crimes of violence and carry tough sentences. "He would be out playing basketball a lot, but by himself. " Justin respected his father, although he told detectives he found him cold and controlling. This shy son of a state prosecutor did not seem to fit the stereotype of a pedophile, let alone a rapist and murderer. The detectives said they offered to check on the car and got Weinberger's permission to search it. Now that he was facing state charges instead of federal charges, Justin was subject to less than a year's jail time. At parties, Justin usually was flying solo. She said she should call her parents and was worried about getting pregnant. They walked into what one described as a "horrible" situation.
A highway patrolman later went to his home and cited him. He also fretted that the publicity would hurt his career. The families of the killer and his victim have struggled, too. I was desperate to have another look at his childhood photos and school reports so I went against his wishes, telling myself just to rearrange everything back to how it was when I was done. The cannabis smell from his room was a running joke on his dormitory floor. He said the news reports of the black BMW and other evidence made his father suspicious, but said he always insisted to his father that he had nothing to do with the murder. Not knowing whether the killer was close to the family, they feared for their other children. He thought his mother was lonely and pitied her. After hearing the DNA results, he said he wanted the death penalty, waived his Miranda rights and freely told his story.
The porn investigation was referred through the FBI's "Innocent Images" task force to the Sacramento field office. According to the video, a letter to his best friend, and interviews with those who knew Weinberger, the ingredients for rage and violence were churning within him, mixed into dysfunction and loneliness hidden behind the veneer of suburban normalcy. After more work, several agents descended on the Weinberger home with a fresh warrant on Nov. 6, 2000. "He told me that he had been having chest pains... and losing sleep over it because he thought it could have been me. His dad told him to come home right away because the FBI had shown up wanting his DNA.