Beyond All Repair Ch. 3: Bad Blood

WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

Heads up, this episode has descriptions of violence, strong language, and allegations of sexual assault.

I've seen a lot of crimes in my, you know, years as a detective.

But to see this one, where this woman was just beaten beyond recognition. It turned out to be my sister.

I wanted to tear his head off, his body. Just the blatant lies.

Even if she committed murder, I know that I love my sister, but she needs to also be held accountable if she committed murder.

And I never want my son to ever think that. Mom, I love you anyway. That is not the right answer. That's not the right answer.

This is Shane. I am just getting ready to read the psychology report.

Shane Coraya is once again recording a voice memo. for me. He's the lawyer in New York City, remember. And like you'd hope a lawyer would be, Shane is organized. He's been a thorough record keeper for pretty much his whole life.

I've read this so many times over the past, I guess, almost two and a half. Decades.

Shane is about to re-read a court-ordered psychological evaluation of the Coraya family. His family. It was done in 1997, five years before Marlene Johnson was murdered. Shane was nine years old. at the time of this report.

Alright, so I'll just read the reason for referral. This is in the matter of Coraya v. Coraya.

Shane's parents, referred to as Mr. and Ms. Coraya throughout the report, were getting a divorce. They had already been separated for a few years. The kids were separated, too.

The couple's only daughter, Sophia, lives with her mother and Shane. Mr. Coraya expressed hostility toward the two women.

Hostility that, like father, like son, Ms. Coraya says, was passed down to Sean.

Ms. Coraya blames Mr. Coraya for Sean's delinquent behavior. She and Sean got into a battle, and Sean called the police, who sided with the mother. At that time, Sean went to live with the father and stopped going to school.

Sean steals, his mother says, but also that he's gotten physical.

Eventually, Sean struck her, and she filed for a PINS petition. A PINS petition, by the way, is, in the state of Newark, a person in need of supervision. If law enforcement hasn't come to intercept your kids, then you try to go to family court and get the court's help.

That PINS petition didn't go anywhere, Shane says. Sean went to go live with his dad, but Shane, the youngest, he was staying with their mom. And she was there, talking to a psychologist for the state of New York to make sure of it.

George Coraya, the father of Shane Coraya, me, is petitioning for visitation rights. He states that the mother is pressuring the boy not to visit with him.

This pressure, if that is, in fact, the right word here, seems clearly out of concern. Because, as Sophia told this psychologist,

She believes that the father is responsible for Sean's antisocial behavior, and that, given Shane, the father would accomplish the same. Thank you, Sophia.

The gratitude Shane feels is because in Coraya vs. Coraya 1997, Mr. Coraya wasn't granted visitation rights. Shane credits Sophia and his mom for that, for protecting him from his dad. Because, as he himself told the psychologist,

He stated that he is afraid that he would become like his brother, Sean.

Who is the Sean that Sophia was afraid of Shane becoming? That Shane was afraid of becoming? So much so that the Coraya family remains divided today. Physically, emotionally, intentionally. How do Sean and Sophia, siblings at odds since childhood, end up accusing each other of murder?

Just because we have the same two parents does not mean we like each other.

Those same two parents, who didn't like each other either, and who also had a history of he-said-she-says, according to the family psych evaluation.

Regarding visitation, Mr. Kariah stated that he sees both Sophia and Shane regularly, while the mother, Sophia, and Shane insists that there have been no visitation for more than three years. Thus, there are many indications of contradictory data.

The case against Sophia rested on Sean's word, that he saw his sister standing over Marlene with fireplace tongs. This is a story that was concocted by Kariah to save himself from the charge of murder as a first degree.

He would do anything to save his own skin, so I definitely don't trust his testimony at all.

According to Shane and Sophia, if you want to understand why Sean said what he did on the stand, you need to know who he was to them growing up.

There's a reason this little son of a bitch, who I happen to be related to, is up here lying.

In some ways, Sophia and Sean have been through a lot together. They were both born in Guyana. It's the only South American country where English is the official language, sandwiched between Venezuela and Suriname. The Kariahs have a rich ethnic background, as many Guyanese people do. There's Chinese heritage, Indian, Portuguese.

There was constant screaming in the house.

This is Sophia in our very first conversation back in 2021.

They created, the two of them, a very toxic environment for all of us.

Both Sophia and Shane attribute much of this toxicity to their father, specifically. Nine-year-old Shane described violence in the home to the psychologist conducting the family evaluation in 1997..

He also stated that the last time he saw his father, Mr. Kariah slapped his sister and called his mother a whore.

Sophia and Shane have separately told me many of the same stories about their father's aggression. Thrown fists. Thrown plates. Shane told me about a time his dad threatened him with a knife, which his dad denies. But Shane did call the police on him at the time.

I was cocksucker or faggot or, like, that was my name. Like, from 13 to 18..

And that really.

The Kariah parents worked long hours, so Sophia took on the role of guardian. Not legally, but literally. Mostly to Shane. As for Sean...

Sean is dad's kid. Like, 100 percent.

If Sophia was the protector, Shane says, Sean was the instigator.

He was selfish, advantageous, and didn't give a shit about the impacts.

And, as their mother claimed in the psychological evaluation, Sean could get physical, like his dad. Shane told me about a time that he went after Sophia.

I remember him picking up a bat and he took it to my sister, to the point where my sister is screaming, Shane, call the police. And I run downstairs, call 911.. They're like, what's your address?

Shane was young enough at the time that he didn't actually know their address.

And I'm screaming to Sophia while she's, like, fighting off Sean with a baseball bat, Sophia, what's our address? I called the cops before I knew where I lived because of Sean.

But Sophia couldn't do it alone. And when help came, literally knocking, Jehovah's Witnesses going door to door, she answered.

And so I made the decision, I made the decision to go to the Kingdom Hall with them three times a week and take Shane with me. So that we would be safe while my mother was at work. It was peaceful. It was safe. And at times, boring as hell.

Eventually, Sophia met her first husband through the religion. This guy wasn't the love of her life, Sophia says. But marriage was an opportunity to get out of the Bronx and further from her father and Sean. Much further. Her husband's family was from Washington state, and she agreed to move there if her mom and Shane could come with them.

And we made this agreement and moved across the country.

It was 1998, a year after that family psych evaluation was done. Sophia was now 19 years old and newly married, and she, Shane and her mom felt like they'd been given a fresh start. Things seemed hopeful for the first time in a long time. But within six months, one of their problems would follow them to Washington.

So it was my grandmother who called and she said, you guys are so far away and Sean really needs help. Can you please help your brother?

Sean was getting into a lot of trouble in New York, Sophia says. And he had either dropped out of school or gotten kicked out. He needed a chance at a fresh start too, their grandmother pleaded.

I know that if he just got away from his father and all of this stuff in New York, the influence, that maybe he can have a shot at a life.

As much as Sophia disliked Sean, she loved her grandmother, her dad's mom. She lived with them when they were all in the Bronx brownstone. It was for her grandmother that Sophia says she got Sean enrolled in high school, out in Washington, and convinced her mother to take him in, give him a second chance. It was for her grandmother that she brought Sean to the Kingdom Hall with her to try to give him more of a community and moral foundation. And Sophia thought it was working until one day, Sean came to her in the middle of a school day.

And he said, this is my girlfriend, Cynthia. We're in trouble. And I'm like, okay, what is it? He said, I think she's pregnant.

I was like head over heels for this boy at 16.

This is Cynthia.

He would walk me to class. He would carry my books. And he used to say that he used to sing. So he started singing something. Don't ask me what it was, because I did not understand it.

That's how Cynthia remembers Sean in the beginning of their young love. This is how she talks about him today.

He's somebody that's manipulative.

It took starry-eyed Cynthia a little while to see what her parents seemed to pick up on right away about Sean.

My family did not accept Sean whatsoever. My family basically disowned me because of him, for, you know, a while.

Even Sean's mom took Cynthia's parents' side.

She told me, she goes, your mom's right. Your mom's right not to like Sean. He's not doing anything good with his life.

One example of this? Pretty soon after moving out to Washington State, when he was 16, Sean was found guilty of a hit-and-run, which he'd gotten into using his mom's car, taken without permission and without a driver's license. So yeah, a bad boy. In a long black leather jacket, talking smooth to Cynthia.

There was times where he kind of spoke in like a different accent. And half the time I was like, I don't know what you're saying, but it sounds so good.

What kind of an accent?

Kind of like the people that sing reggae. That type of accent.

There's this one picture of Cynthia and Sean from around this time that may as well be captioned Rebels in Romance. They both have these satisfied, closed-mouth smiles. Sean has one arm around her, the other clasped in her hand. The epitome of teenage toughness. Except for one little dimple that gives Cynthia away.

And one of the paramedics actually pulled me aside and he goes, I need to tell you this, but he's faking it. And that's the first moment where I was just like, what?

Sean's own mother has claimed that he would fake seizures, by the way. But real or not, Cynthia was starting to worry about safety. Sophia took her and her infant daughter in for a period of time.

She treated me like a sister. She never, ever, like, looked down on me. I do remember when I first met her, she said, why are you with my brother?

When Sean found out Cynthia was staying with Sophia, he was livid. Sophia says he'd call her house, accusing her of trying to keep him from his daughter. It got to the point where Sophia ended up changing her home phone number. It was the beginning of a months-long estrangement in a sibling relationship that had been strained practically their whole lives. But it was not the end for Cynthia and Sean.

He picked me up, he pulled me up by the hair, and then he slams me to the wall and he picked me up by the neck. And slammed me over and over with my daughter in arms.

Cynthia says she feared for her life. in that moment. She details another incident a couple months earlier, when she says Sean punched her and threatened to kill her, saying he was going to take their daughter. Cynthia's restraining order was denied. Quote, Insufficient evidence of imminent danger of physical harm, the report concludes.

And my first reaction was like,

Cynthia went to her parents. But that's about it, she says. She's really only talking to me now because her daughter's an adult.

And I've never told her everything. Never told her that her dad, which at the time I thought it was my duty because I was his wife, never told her that her dad raped me time and time again.

I never told her that.

He hurt me.

Sean has denied this allegation, and others of a similar nature. And you will get to hear from him in his own words down the line. But you know who else never heard about the Sean. Cynthia says she knew? The jury in Sophia's trial.

I don't know why Cynthia did not testify. Why she was never called by the defense.

I do. Or, I at least have an idea. Sophia's lawyer, Therese Lavallee, hasn't wanted to talk on the record. But I do have a window into her strategy with regards to Sean. Sophia's trial footage, which includes the pre-trial hearings, where decisions were made about what evidence and testimony the judge would and would not allow the jury to hear.

as this bad character.

Sean, remember, was the key witness testifying against Sophia. The prosecution needed him to appear credible, reliable, a victim in this whole mess. But Therese, a.k.a. the defense, The evidence we can show directly contradicts that. She had information suggesting that Sean was none of those things leading up to Marlene Johnson's murder.

There's no way. There's no way. Sophia was a part of that.

But the prosecutor argued that all of this was prejudicial. Our courts have defined unfair prejudice as, quote, more likely to arouse an emotional response than a rational decision by a jury. I should be entitled to explore Sean Correa's motivation, his own personal motivations, for committing this crime. Because if I'm not allowed to do that, then essentially what we're dealing with is a kid who says, I was just tagging along with my sister. You see, Your Honor, and once he gets caught, once he gets caught, then he starts pointing the finger at my client.

and the crimes that he's committed?

Then my client is being denied a fair trial.

I spent the past four years investigating a crime. When you're driving down this road,

I might plan on killing somebody.

A four-year investigation,

hundreds of interviews, thousands of documents, all in an effort to see what the U.

I don't have any opinion on that.

Season three of In the Dark is available now wherever you get your podcasts.

And I'd never experienced that level of attraction in my life.

Sophia fell hard and fast. She filed for divorce from her husband, not realizing how much she'd end up divorced from. Because adultery, in the eyes of her kingdom hall, was grounds for expulsion from the religion. Disfellowshipment, it's called. And it meant that other Jehovah's Witnesses weren't allowed to maintain contact with her.

1 Corinthians 15, 33.

My mom and Shane, I couldn't understand that one because we're still family.

This was the beginning of a really isolating period in Sophia's life. Amid all the hostility and volatility of her upbringing, she'd always, always had her mom and Shane. So now, Sophia looked to a new, chosen family.

Marlene was my best friend.

Marlene Johnson, Brad's mom.

I started to not just love Brad, but I really loved his family. His mom and I started playing dress-up to it. She had all these wigs with all these styles, and I was like, oh, this is so great.

Brad was an only child, which meant Sophia was like the daughter Marlene never had. And Marlene was not the mother Sophia never had, but a mother she never had. One who didn't work all day, who let her do her makeup, who watched movies with her and gossiped,

We were newlyweds, and then I was pregnant.

Flip it and reverse it, but yeah, Marlene was going to become a grandmother the following spring.

And she was so excited about her first grandchild.

That's an understatement from what I've heard from some of Marlene's friends. And this mother and daughter-in-law were about to go into business together, an event planning business called Best Friends. For real. It was like Sophia had been given another chance to start over. She didn't have her mom and Shane with her this time, but she had the Johnsons.

All of them were incredible to me.

She was just about ready to put that other life and maybe that other family behind her when she got a call from her grandmother again, saying her brother Sean.

Your mother isn't speaking to you. Shane isn't speaking to you. You have only this new man's family. Why don't you try to cultivate something with your brother, who's so willing? And his girl is pregnant, and maybe you guys can form a relationship.

But the last time Sophia had heard from Sean, she says, he was spewing vitriol by phone for taking Cynthia and his daughter in. She and Brad had, in fact. Why should she help him out now, after six months of Sean-free living? The same reason she did last time, Sophia says. Grandma Karaya mind tricks.

And so I did, despite my best judgment. And if there's one thing I could change in my life right now, where I know I made the wrong choice, it was that. That decision altered the course of my life.

January 10, 2002 was a pretty typical Thursday. Brad went to work, like usual, Sophia says. She stayed home, like usual. But unlike usual, Sean and his pregnant girlfriend were expected at her house at 830 in the morning to go over his divorce paperwork. So the sibling stories match so far, including the part about Sophia agreeing to give Sean the money to file his divorce papers and realizing she didn't have it.

And I thought, oh, shoot. OK, well, I'll have to give this to you tomorrow, because I left. I was over at Marlene's last night and I left. I must have left my coat there.

in January. Now, as someone who has experienced Washington state in winter, it's a little hard to imagine how you forget your coat in January. But Sophia says there was a reason for this.

I know exactly.

Oh, really? OK. Sophia had spent the day before at Marlene's house. This was pretty common. She was waiting for a ride home from Brad when her in-laws started arguing.

I'm like, we've got to get out of here. This is not good. We've got to get out of here. They're fighting. And he's like, oh, great.

And so, Sophia says, in trying to get out the door quickly, her coat didn't make it with her.

And in fact, I called Marlene and she informed me that she was going to do a yoga class and that she'd come home and shower, get ready, and she'd make a note to bring my coat.

But Sean can't wait around for the cash coat. He has to go to work. His girlfriend has to babysit. And this is where.

And I mentioned to Sean, hey, you know, these are going out for donations. They're good stuff. It's just that it cannot fit us, or we know we won't ever need it or use it.

Side note, this is an interesting detail for Sophia to remember. Think back to Sean's version of events for a minute. Sean told the jury that after the murder, Sophia gave him a pair of Brad's pants to change into, which were submitted as evidence. They didn't fit me. I think the legs were too short.

I was in a nursery, in the rocking chair.

The nursery for baby boy Johnson, who's due in just a few months. She just recently finished setting it up with Marlene, who's due at her house for lunch pretty soon.

It's.

Sophia's mother, whom she hasn't seen much of since being disfellowshipped from their kingdom hall a year earlier. But her mom is having a problem with her bank account, and Sophia is listed on her account, so she needs her daughter to go to the bank with her.

That was the last call I made to her.

Sophia and her mom get back from the bank sometime after 2 o'clock, she says,

There's no car in my driveway, and Marlene's car should be there, so I said to my mom, I don't understand she's not here, because she was always on time.

Sophia calls Brad. He hasn't heard anything from his mom. Her father-in-law? Nothing. Someone needs to check on Marlene.

All of the lights are on.

Sophia says, her irritation quickly subsides as they get further up the driveway. The garage door is open, but Marlene's van is gone. Brad gets out of the car.

I said, wait, let's call the police.

Brad heads for the door leading from the garage into the basement of the house and tries to open it.

But the door is stuck. And he pushes his weight against this door.

Marlene is just on the other side of that door, on the floor. Her son has only gotten a glimpse of the situation.

And he started screaming that his mom was on the ground and she was hurt. I called 911 immediately.

But Sophia says she doesn't know what's actually happened.

Deep, deep breath. Take a deep breath for me.

Sophia eventually hands the phone over to Brad, who's now gotten a better look at the body on the basement floor. He knows it's his mom, despite the fact that she's virtually unrecognizable. What makes you think?

she was murdered? The hammer imprint on her forehead where there was teeth and eyeballs.

And I throw up. I remember just throwing up. I was sick.

If you're thinking back to the version of events we heard Chantel on the stand in the last episode and thinking, what the hell? I'm right there with you, sitting in the Johnson's house while Sophia looks for money, hearing a scream of some sort, nervously descending the steps and standing over Marlene with a stocking over her face, holding fireplace tongs. Aside from the divorce paperwork and the abandoned coat, the siblings' stories diverge so drastically. it's like they moved through January 10th in parallel universes. And when they returned to reality, one of them was discounted by detectives, the other believed.

to be unbelievable, I have no idea.

Because this just feels like such a he said, she said.

And that's all we have.

But that wasn't all they had. The physical evidence in this case was thin, frustratingly so, but it wasn't absent. And despite all the things, Sophia's lawyer, Therese, couldn't tell the jury about the person accusing her client of murder,

Physical evidence, no.

To this day, 22 years later, the only person physically proven to be at the scene of Marlene's murder is Sean. And yet... All we know is that there was really no connection between Sean Kariak.

and the victim Marlene. The only connection.

is Sophia Johnson. The only connection or just the obvious one?

I know that I wasn't there.

And if Sophia wasn't with Sean, was someone else?

You know, people always think the husband did it. And that thought came across my mind.

That's next time.