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(Continued from Page 1)When asked if her husband had told her about finding a ransom note, she said he had --after he was arrested.Copenhefer has told authorities he found the initial note, then followed its instructionsout of curiosity.“It sounded like something he’d do. He’s curious, to put it politely,’’ his wife told the court.Mrs. Copenhefer was still on the stand at presstime today, and her husband was expected to follow her to the stand to testify in his own defense.The prosecution closed its case yesterday with some startling testimony by A1 Johnson, a computer expert from the FBI’s Pittsburgh office.He testified that he retrieved from the defendant’s computer:• a transcript of the taped telephone message from victim Sally Weiner to her husband the day she was kidnapped.• a transcript of the telephone call Mrs. Weiner received a day earlier from the kidnapper who lured her to the abduction site by claiming he was planning a “Man-of-the-Year” tribute for her husband.• a verbatim account of the ransom note found by Mr. Weiner in a blue duffel bag retrieved from underneath a car parked in the Corry Pennbank plaza.• a verbatim account of each of four notes recovered from a chain of ransom drop sites.• and, a 22-point, blow-by-blow account of the kidnapping and murder of Sally Weiner. Titled “The Plan,” it included a scheme for the apparent ambush and murder of Mr. Weiner.Johnson, examined by Assistant DA James Vogel, prefaced his testimony with an explanation of the tedious process of resurrecting the “crime files.”His explanation was aided by an actual demonstration of the retrieval — using computers and printers confiscated from Copenhefer’s home and book store.“Contrary to popular belief,” he began, “a computer does not erase a file as you would erase a letter writtenwith pencil.”He then showed the jury how he accessed Copenhefer’s computer files — files the defendant apparently thought wereits trumpunretrievable.Explaining that he sifted through 42 million bytes — little computer spaces that hold information, he told the jury how he first recovered from Copenhefer’s home computer six versions of the ransom and drop site notes.Next came Johnson’s resurrection of three versions of the text from the taped phone call from Mrs. Weiner to her husband.He told the jury how he then focused his efforts on Copenhefer’s computer from the book store.From that system, Johnson said he retrieved a single version of the ransom/drop site notes; a single version of the taped phone call; a single version of the text of the phone call the kidnapper made to Mrs. Weiner the day before the abduction; and a single version of “The Plan.”Commenting on the final finding, Johnson said, ‘“The Plan’ outlined the entire course of events...that led to the death of Sally Weiner.At that point, Johnson began reading to the jury the texts he recovered:“Harry, I’ve been kidnapped by people who want the money in the bank...They are holding a machine gun to my head...They have promised to let me go alive if you do exactly what they want you to do...They have handcuffed me to a-tree and attached a grenade that will kill me if anyone tries to untie me...If you don’t bring 90 percent of the bank’s money they will cut off my hands...Please, Harry, just do what they tell you and we will live to see tomorrow...”Johnson continued with his reading of the ransom note from the blue duffel bag. This file also contained the texts of the drop site notes that were recovered — as well as the text of what apparently was the final ransom note that was never found.The note began:“Follow our instructions exactly — or your family will die. If you do not follow our orders, we will kill her. And we will not be quick to kill her.She will die a slow, painful and horrible death. We will take days to torture her and we will finish by cutting her into many pieces and you’ll never find enough to bury.”He then read the text of the phone call to Mrs. Weiner that successfully lured her to the Christian Missionary and Alliance Church — the spot from which she was abducted.Then, in a dramatic gesture, Johnson moved toward thecomputers which were mountedon a long table in front of the jury.And, as members of the panel stood to get a better look at the screen of one of the computers, Johnson accessed the machine and began his halted reading of the 22-point “plan.”After the recitation of the plan, the witness explained he believes all of the documents — except “The Plan” — were created on Copenhefer’s home computer over a period of weeks or months.“I feel all the other documents were created at home, then downloaded to a floppy disk, then carried into the book store, and (re-created) on thecomputer there,” he said.David Ridge, one of a two-member defense team, triedduring his two-hour cross-examination of the witness to shake his testimony.But, Johnson wouldn’t budge.Ridge attempted to lay the foundation for the possibility that the incriminating evidence was “planted” in Copenhefer’s computers by someone who accessed the machines via a modem hooked to telephone lines.“That would be physically impossible,” Johnson responded, explaining that Copenhefer would have to have a modem connected to his computers and “there was no modem.”With that, the prosecutionrested its case after 12 days of testimony, 67 witnesses, and 380 exhibits.MTrial ends with hung juryft S ft I I FHt h% VI.
Newspaper Details
Franklin News Herald
Franklin, Pennsylvania, US
Fri, Mar 17, 1989
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Oil R.
PA, USA 20 Aug 2018
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