My Bf Choked Me
He would get mad if I beat him at Nintendo and tell me to get out of the house. The breakthrough came when the FBI began tracing the articles the killer left behind. After her first dance, she came home saying she was not ready for boys fussing over her.
Weinberger assured the agents that Justin would return later that day, and that they would be in contact. I can't remember exactly how my ex reacted but the subject soon changed. Fortunately, there was a way to rule out suspects--DNA testing. A toll-free hotline sizzled with tips that were fed into a computer. He's the person I click with most out of everyone I've ever known. He told them there was porn--but not child porn--on his own computer and that he knew nothing about his son's computer. "He would be out playing basketball a lot, but by himself. " 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. After hearing the DNA results, he said he wanted the death penalty, waived his Miranda rights and freely told his story. University officials declined to say whether disciplinary action was taken.
Justin pleaded not guilty on May 29, 2001, and was freed on $7, 500 bail. At the FBI, a day passed with no word from Michael Weinberger. 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. No one apparently noticed him that day shortly after Courtney's Nov. 8, 2000, murder, but that was not unusual for Justin M. Weinberger. Some of Courtney's playmates developed emotional problems. Anger and fear surged through him. Soon after the news raced through the Rancho Cordova neighborhood of modest ranch-style houses, a street corner memorial cascaded across the sidewalk. I decided to exaggerate slightly and add a fictional detail, just to make it more 'juicy'... a detail I thought was harmless at the time but actually could have landed my dad in serious trouble......... 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. Justin was whiling away the afternoon drinking beer at Folsom Lake with the Rocklin crowd when his cell phone rang.
"I told him I was going to flee, " Justin said, "and he said he was going to kill himself. The detectives asked Justin whether his father knew that he killed Courtney. 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. Within a day, Sacramento Sheriff's Dets. Justin's mother is not alive to dispute her son's allegation, and Duree flatly denies it on his father's behalf. The agent raced to the Weinberger home, then contacted the attorney general's office. He also asked about his dad's well-being and expressed concern about his car. She did not seem interested in romance and dating. He had seldom attracted much attention in his 19 years. Weinberger later refused interview requests routed through prison officials. She relished ordinary things--ice cream, her dog Tigger, roller skating, swimming in the small backyard pool.
Although another judge signed the warrant, alarms went off when the U. S. Attorney's office learned that a state prosecutor's home was targeted. The FBI and other investigators questioned registered sex offenders and pulled over BMW owners. It was a small case compared to the international child-porn ring busted last month by federal and local agencies, and the initial investigation was handled routinely by Special Agent Kenneth G. Hittmeier. 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. But she stood out, with spunky charisma and compassion that caused her to bring home poor classmates who seemed as though they could use a good dinner. A few weeks later I was with my ex and when the conversation started to dry up, I decided to withdraw the porn magazine incident from my arsenal of rainy day anecdotes. The next morning, the young man was still suicidal. She gave chase at high speed and got his license number. His mother, Janice Maureen Weinberger, made rambling late-night calls to his closest buddy's mother. "She was worried about him committing suicide, " the friend's mother recalls. Justin eased the car to the curb and got out after he struck up a conversation with Sconce.
When friends confronted Justin, he told them he was depressed--but not enough to hurt himself. Sometimes she asked neighbors for a ride to the store because she was not allowed to drive. Courtney was a warm child, and a number of her classmates considered her their best friend. She doted on Justin, dressed with flair and drove sporty cars. The victim in that case, hair salon owner Autom Specht, had pressed the district attorney's office to file a misdemeanor criminal complaint. "It crossed my mind that she could identify me... something told me that if I'm gonna get away with it, I'll have to kill her. But they also discovered newspapers featuring stories about Courtney's murder, photos of Weinberger wearing sunglasses like those with her body, and T-shirts and boxer shorts similar to ones found at the murder scene. After more work, several agents descended on the Weinberger home with a fresh warrant on Nov. 6, 2000.
He had dogs, cats and a tree fort. "We started drinking whiskey. When Weinberger began choking her, he said she flailed and fought. He darted for cover at the sound of an approaching boat, but two fishermen pulled directly into the cove. He sometimes cut classes and seemed lethargic. It offers not only a child killer's own account of the crime, but also insights into what caused him to destroy two lives--Courtney Sconce's and his own--and devastate both of their families. 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. This time Justin bought a deer rifle, but the state's mandatory waiting period prevented him from taking it. Children and parents broke down as they clung to one another and gazed at photographs of Courtney Hannah Sconce.
He met some women through a dating service but the relationships did not last. And, Weinberger alleged, family secrets tormented and bent him. Federal investigators and prosecutors felt that some child pornographers of roughly Justin's age and criminal history had received excessively long prison terms under federal sentencing guidelines. One was a lanky, clean-cut college dropout and computer buff who had saved newspaper clippings about the murder. Since about age 6, he was raised in a three-bedroom house perched among the dusky oaks and pines. They picked through Courtney's belongings for overlooked clues.
Her mother Cindy's tubes were tied, yet Courtney found her way into this world. FBI investigators did not turn up any child pornography on the senior Weinberger's computer. He drove off, past her favorite skating rink and onto the freeway. She also seemed genuinely concerned when he said he wanted to kill himself. Courtney Sconce was many things Justin Weinberger was not. As a youngster, Justin took piano lessons and played soccer on a team his dad coached. At Oak Ridge High, a pastoral campus cut by a tiny creek, he enjoyed math and shied away from extracurricular activities. She kept tiny bottles of wine in her car, and had one conviction for driving while intoxicated, in 1997.