Medford man rejects deal in woman's death

Moments before a Suffolk jury on Friday heard tapes of a Medford man and his wife discussing his responsibility for the death of another woman, he rejected an offer to plead guilty to manslaughter.

Chad Johnson, 23, has been on trial, charged with second-degree murder in the March 2010 death of Jennifer Papain, a North Patchogue prostitute last seen with Johnson. After his arrest in May 2010, he led detectives to where he buried her body off the Long Island Expressway in Medford.

Detectives have testified he told them he strangled Papain, 26, after she refused to give him a partial refund when she did not let him complete a sex act.

Assistant District Attorney Todd Pettigrew produced the tapes made at the Suffolk County jail of phone conversations between Johnson and his wife, Paulette Johnson, 41, after she testified that Johnson never said he was responsible for Papain's death.

Judge Gary Weber excused the jury, and Pettigrew played tapes of two phone calls.

In one of them, Chad Johnson told his wife he initially wanted to plead guilty and then reconsidered. In the other, she told him reassuringly, "You committed a murder, but you're not a murderer, OK? Intent to kill is a murderer. You're not a murderer, do you get what I mean?"

"Right," Chad Johnson responds on the tape.

Defense attorney William Ferris argued that the use of the tapes was inappropriate, but Pettigrew said he was entitled to use them to rebut Paulette Johnson's claim that her husband never discussed his responsibility for the death. Weber agreed.

While the jury waited for almost an hour and a half, Pettigrew, Weber and Ferris negotiated the plea deal for 24 years in prison that Johnson rejected. If convicted, Johnson would face 25 years to life. When the jury returned, Pettigrew played the tapes.

Earlier, Paulette Johnson testified that she married Johnson this year in jail after a relationship that included not only Papain's death, but Johnson sleeping with her sister and relying on Paulette Johnson for housing, a car, a cellphone and money.

Afterward, former Suffolk Chief Medical Examiner Charles Wetli testified that in his review of Papain's autopsy, he could not conclude that she was strangled or asphyxiated.

However, he added that because of the body's decomposition, "you can't rule it out completely."