On the floor, Timothy Stephenson had an enviable life. He was married to a physician, they usually lived in a $2 million house with their twin daughters in a quiet suburb east of San Francisco.
However Stephenson harbored a secret: About twenty years earlier, he had shot andkilled a person he met at a bar in Kansas Metropolis.
The crime remained unsolved till 2021, when Stephenson’s darkish previous finallycaught up with him. By then, his private life was unraveling. His husband had filed for divorce the 12 months earlier than and the couple had been locked in a authorized battle over custody of their kids.
Authorities arrested him on homicide expenses that December and extradited him toMissouri. And this month, he pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide and was sentenced to 16 years in jail.
For Stephenson, all of it got here crashing down after police obtained new informationthat helped them piece collectively what occurred that evening again in 1998 in KansasCity.
That info got here from Stephenson’s estranged husband.
He advised his husband 10 years in the past that he’d killed somebody, courtroom paperwork say
Stephenson’s sentencing got here a decade after he advised his husband, Joseph Ginejko,concerning the killing he’d dedicated in Missouri. In keeping with a possible trigger assertion obtained by CNN, Stephenson advised his husband in 2014 that he met the person, Randall Oliphant, at a homosexual bar in January 1998 they usually drove to Stephenson’s home in Kansas Metropolis, the place he shot him twice within the toilet.
Oliphant pleaded for his life after the primary shot, Stephenson mentioned. Theprobable trigger assertion didn’t point out a motive.
Oliphant’s physique was discovered two months later in some woods in rural Benton County, Missouri, about 100 miles southeast of Kansas Metropolis. Missouri State Police mentioned Stephenson was conversant in the realm as a result of his father and grandmother lived close by and he’d been there many instances.
In his confession to his husband, Stephenson advised him he later reworked the toilet to masks the crime scene and conceal proof.
Investigators interviewed Stephenson in 1998 and he admitted to taking an “unknown male” to his house in Kansas Metropolis. However he mentioned he gave the person a trip from his home afterward and dropped him off at a special bar.
Stephenson’s telephone data revealed roaming expenses from a mobile tower nearwhere the sufferer’s physique was present in rural Missouri, investigators mentioned.
In 1998, investigators additionally tracked down the one who’d purchased Stephenson’sJeep Wrangler in Might of that 12 months – 4 months after the killing. The brand new ownertold them components of the carpet had been lacking when he purchased it. Police mentioned theyfound traces of blood within the Jeep’s rear cargo space, however DNA proof wasinconclusive.
It’s not clear why police didn’t arrest Stephenson in 1998. The Missouri StateHighway Patrol declined to remark to CNN and referred inquiries to the BentonCounty Prosecuting Lawyer’s Workplace, which didn’t reply to requests foradditional particulars.
In 2021, investigators deliberate an undercover operation to get extra particulars
Stephenson and Ginejko had been married in 2008 and lived with their daughters inDanville, in San Francisco’s East Bay — a suburb that was as soon as named the safestin California.
Court docket data present Ginejko filed for divorce in January 2020 — six years after hishusband’s startling confession — in Contra Costa County, but it surely’s unclear when thedivorce was finalized. Ginejko advised police he tried to analysis the Missouri killingafter his husband’s confession however there was little info obtainable on-line.
However in some unspecified time in the future between early 2020 and April 2021, Ginejko spoke to thepolice. Ginejko advised them particulars concerning the killing that had by no means been publicly revealed, the possible trigger assertion mentioned — suggesting that he solely might have discovered them from his husband.
Within the possible trigger assertion, investigators mentioned they then staged an undercoveroperation: an April 2021 assembly between Stephenson and Ginejko that wassecretly captured on audio and video.
Throughout that dialog, which included the estranged couple speaking about theirchildren, Ginejko introduced up Stephenson’s 2014 confession. Stephenson’sdemeanor modified and he “grew to become paranoid,” the courtroom doc mentioned.Stephenson requested his husband if he was sporting a wire or recording theconversation, and even frisked him — additionally inspecting his pockets, telephone and coffeecup.
Ginejko requested Stephenson a number of instances why he killed Oliphant, and his answerswere conflicting. Stephenson lastly admitted that he had certainly confessed years in the past to the killing, however claimed he’d advised his husband that to scare him into staying with him, the courtroom doc mentioned.
Stephenson’s 16-year sentence consists of credit score for time served.
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