Re: GABRIEL SCOTT JOHNSON 8 months - Tempe, Arizona (USA) - 27/12/09

**Twiglet** Thu Apr 19, 2012 6:32 am

KIII TV3

18 April 2012

Missing AZ baby's mom admissions played in court‎

In the recording played Wednesday, Elizabeth Johnson is heard telling her on & off-again boyfriend and the baby's father that she killed the child by suffocating him, put his body in a bag and threw him in a trash can in San Antonio, Texas.

The baby's father, Logan McQueary, wiped away tears as the phone conversation that he secretly recorded was played.

http://www.kiiitv.com/story/17526442/missing-az-babys-mom-admissions-played-in-court

**Twiglet** Tue May 08, 2012 8:41 pm

AZ Central

1 May 2012

Baby Gabriel case: Messages flew between principals‎

Frantic phone calls to Tempe police, MySpace posts offering to finance a surrogate's baby, a father's e-mail begging his ex-girlfriend to let him raise their son.

These were but a few of the virtual missives that flew back and forth between the principals in the Baby Gabriel case: The baby's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, 25; his father, Logan McQueary, 27; and Tammi Smith, 40, the Scottsdale mother who appeared desperate to adopt the baby who vanished in 2009.

As the trial entered Week 3, prosecutors presented texts, e-mails, voice messages and MySpace posts apparently showing that Smith and Johnson were in frequent contact before and after Johnson fled with Gabriel to San Antonio, the last place the baby was seen alive.

They also show that McQueary begged his ex-girlfriend to let him raise their son.

"I want to see him so bad," McQueary wrote in a MySpace message in mid-December 2009, according to testimony Monday. "Don't do this (adopt him out) because you are mad at me."

Tempe Detectives Matt Harris and John Thompson, testifying on Monday and Tuesday, Days 10 and 11, said police analyzed electronic communications between McQueary, Smith and Johnson that they gleaned from cellphones, cell towers, MySpace, call-detail records and other high-tech sources.

Harris, who routinely investigates cellphone records, said Tuesday that he was called into the case one day after Johnson told McQueary in a phone call and in texts that she murdered their son.

Harris testified he set up a "PIN register trap and trace" on Johnson's Cricket cellphone account to try to track her down.

Thompson said Monday that he received emergency permission to locate Johnson via her Internet sign-ins. Police could tell where she was when she signed in. So when she logged into the Internet from a Florida youth hostel, days after fleeing Texas without Gabriel, police had her location and detained her.

Recordings of messages Smith left Thompson were also played Monday. She is heard calling repeatedly, complaining that she is "a person of interest yet no one is interested in talking to her.''

"Please, please please have somebody call me," Smith is heard imploring, admitting that she called a detective a dozen times that day.

Smith and Johnson are accused of conspiring to keep Gabriel from McQueary; Johnson because she was a woman scorned, and Smith because she was desperate for a baby, a sibling for her daughter.

Smith's trial on forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference charges began April 17 and is expected to last a month.

Johnson is held without bond on kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference charges and has a September court date.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2012/04/30/20120430baby-gabriel-case-messages-flew-between-principals.html

**Twiglet** Tue May 08, 2012 8:43 pm

AZ Family

1 May 2012

Trial begins third week in Baby Gabriel case
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"We were asked to find Elizabeth Johnson," that word from Miami Beach Police Detective Jenny Valesquez Monday in the conspiracy and forgery trial of Scottsdale resident Tammi Smith.

The 40-year-old Smith may be the person on trial for her alleged role in the 2009 disappearance of 8-month-old Gabriel Johnson, but it is Smith alleged co-conspirator, the missing child's mother Elizabeth Johnson's shadow over the court room of Judge Joseph Kreamer.

On this day in court, Detective Valasquez described for jurors what happened when she caught up with Elizabeth Johnson at a low-rent hostel in Miami Beach -- after Johnson had some way or another gotten rid of her baby -- apparently in the San Antonio, Texas area.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Trial-begins-third-week-in-Baby-Gabriel-case-149776735.html

**Twiglet** Tue May 08, 2012 8:46 pm

HLN tv

2 May 2012

Official: I told Smith to avoid Baby Gabriel case

•Tammi Smith is on trial for her alleged role in Baby Gabriel's disappearance
•On Tuesday, an investigator testified that she told Smith to stay out the custody dispute over Baby Gabriel

A Child Protective Services (CPS) investigator says she warned Tammi Smith not to interfere with the custody of Baby Gabriel. Prosecutors say, despite this warning, Smith tried to adopt him.

When he disappeared in December 2009, Gabriel Johnson was seven months old and his whereabouts are still a mystery.

Smith is on trial now for charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference for her alleged role in the baby’s disappearance. Prosecutors say Smith wanted to adopt Gabriel so much that she was willing to break the law.

CPS got involved in the situation before Gabriel went missing because his father, Logan McQueary, filed a report with the agency. McQueary told CPS that Gabriel’s mother had a violent past and he was worried about his son’s wellbeing.

CPS investigator Alisha Shumway testified about a series of conversations she had as she followed up on McQueary’s report. Shumway says she talked to Gabriel’s mother, Elizabeth Johnson, and at first, she said Johnson denied having a violent past. But later, Johnson admitted that she had slashed McQueary’s furniture with a knife.

Johnson also allegedly told Shumway that Gabriel was with his new adoptive parents, Tammi and Jack Smith. However, Tammi Smith allegedly told Shumway she was just babysitting and denied trying to adopt the child. Shumway said when she confronted Johnson again, Johnson denied ever saying Smith was adopting the child.

Shumway also testified that after verifying that Gabriel was safe, she told Johnson that she need to resolve custody issues in court with McQueary. Shumway says she also told Smith to not intervene in the process.

Johnson is also facing trial for her role in the baby’s disappearance. She is charged with child abuse, kidnapping and custodial interference. Prosecutors say Johnson sent a text message to Gabriel’s father saying she had killed their baby. She later changed her story and told investigators that she had given the child away to some strangers in a San Antonio park.

Wednesday in court, we expect to hear from several police detectives who tried to find Gabriel.

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/05/02/investigator-i-told-smith-stay-out-it

**Twiglet** Tue May 08, 2012 8:48 pm

HLN tv

3 may 2012

Baby Gabriel's mom: Smith planned the adoption

•Baby Gabriel went missing in 2009
•Tammi Smith is on trial for her alleged role in Baby Gabriel's disappearance
•Tuesday, jurors watched video of Baby Gabriel's mother saying Smith planned the child's illegal adoption

Baby Gabriel’s mother told police that Tammi Smith orchestrated an illegal adoption of her baby. Jurors in the Smith trial watched a video of that conversation Wednesday.

In the video, Elizabeth Johnson says Smith arranged to meet in a San Antonio park, and that when she met them, they introduced themselves as “Tammi’s friends.” Johnson sounds emotional when she tells police that she strapped the child into the couple’s car seat and said goodbye.

The whereabouts of Gabriel are still a mystery. And the story is further complicated by the fact that Johnson also told Gabriel’s father that she had killed the boy and stuffed his body in a diaper bag. When Gabriel disappeared in December 2009, he was seven months old and today is his third birthday.

Smith is on trial for charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference for her alleged role in the baby’s disappearance. Prosecutors say Smith wanted to adopt Gabriel so much that she was willing to break the law

Also on Wednesday, jurors heard testimony from an undercover detective who helped wiretap Smith’s phone during the investigation. Several recorded phone calls were played in court. In one of the calls, Smith is heard laughing about the fact that the name of her cousin, Craig Cherry, is on a paternity document for Gabriel. That document is the basis for the forgery charge, but in one of those recorded calls, Smith tells Cherry several times that Johnson is the one who wrote his name on the document.

Meanwhile, we could hear from Smith herself as early as Monday.

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/05/03/baby-gabriels-mother-smith-planned-adoption
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**Twiglet** Tue May 08, 2012 8:50 pm

My Fox Phoenix

7 May 2012

Tammi Smith's interview played in court
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It’s day 11 of the trial of Tammi Smith. She’s the woman accused of forgery and custodial interference in the case of missing baby Gabriel.

There were some dramatic new developments Monday. Prosecutors played recordings from when Tempe Police initially interviewed Tammi Smith as a person of interest in the baby's disappearance.

Smith spent much of the day listening to the interview she did with a Tempe police detective in January of 2010.

Lead investigator Ramirez spent hours questioning Smith about her involvement with Elizabeth Johnson and her son Gabriel Johnson.

Smith audio: “I felt so sorry for her, she has nobody and I was trying to be a mother to her.”

At the time of this interview, baby Gabriel, who Smith wanted to adopt from Johnson, had been missing less than a month.

Johnson fled Phoenix with the boy in late December 2009. She told the boy’s father she had killed their son, but then said she gave him to a couple in a park in San Antonio.

Tammi Smith is on trial not in the Gabriel's disappearance, but for forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference, as she tried to adopt the child.

During the 2010 interview, Smith expressed frustration at police scrutiny regarding the baby's disappearance, saying her intention all along was simply to help a struggling Mom.

Smith audio: “Here is a girl who has no one for moral support. Looking back, I’m never helping anyone again. I ain’t helping nobody. I told my husband don’t even help anyone with a flat tire, we might get in trouble for murder cause he might have had someone in his trunk.”

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/justice/tammi-smiths-interview-played-in-court-5-7-2012

**Twiglet** Tue May 08, 2012 8:53 pm

Examiner

7 May 2012

Tammi Smith, woman who tried to adopt Gabriel Johnson, cries in court‎

On Monday, Tammi Smith, the woman who attempted to adopt missing baby Gabriel Johnson, cried in court as she listened to a taped interview she gave to Tempe, Ariz. police regarding the infant's disappearance.

Smith is charged with forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference in relation to Gabriel.

According to ABC 15, during her two-hour interview with lead detective Patricia Ramirez, Smith appeared to be caught in a lie when asked about forging a document during her attempt to adopt the baby.

When attempting to obtain custody of Gabriel, Smith is accused of writing her cousin's name on a paternity document that pertained to the baby. This was likely due to the fact that the child's father, Logan McQueary, was trying to get custody of his son away from the child's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, and was eventually successful at doing so.

On the tape, Smith could be heard saying, “I didn't sign any paperwork and I didn't file any paperwork.”

Smith was then shown a court document by Ramirez that caused her to change her story, saying, “Oh, okay, so that is my writing. Yes, right here that is mine,” she said to the detective.

“I made a huge mistake,” Smith said.

She then asked Ramirez if she could get in trouble for the forgery and was told by the detective there was a “criminal consequence” that went along with it.

According to ABC, Smith will likely take the stand sometime this week.

In Dec. 2009, Gabriel’s mother fled the Tempe, Ariz. area with him – at the time he was less than a year old. During her trek, she contacted the baby’s father claiming she’d killed the boy by smothering him. After finally being arrested in Miami, Florida she told authorities she gave Gabriel to an unidentified couple in San Antonio, Texas. Extensive searches have been conducted to locate him, but Gabriel has yet to be found.

Johnson is charged with child abuse, kidnapping, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference. She is currently housed in a Phoenix jail and has undergone psychiatric evaluation after refusing to eat and allegedly assaulting several other inmates. Johnson's trial is slated to begin in Sept. 2012.

She continues to insist Gabriel is alive, but will not divulge his whereabouts.

http://www.examiner.com/article/tammi-smith-woman-who-tried-to-adopt-gabriel-johnson-cries-court

**Twiglet** Thu May 17, 2012 9:42 am

ABC 15‎

10 may 2012

Smith defends herself for her involvement in Baby Gabriel case
‎
A Scottsdale woman took the stand to defend herself for her involvement in the Baby Gabriel case.

Tammi Smith faced a line of questioning Thursday about the paperwork that helped put her on trial in the first place.

Smith is accused of lying on a court document in a plan to try and adopt Baby Gabriel without his father’s permission.

Prosecutors said Smith put her cousin’s name on court records suggesting he could be Baby Gabriel’s father even though Smith knew it wasn’t true.

Smith admitted she and Elizabeth Johnson, Baby Gabriel’s mother, both filled out paperwork challenging the paternity of Gabriel.

However, Smith claimed she was just helping Johnson fill in the blanks because the two were rushed to complete the paperwork before the court house closed.

Smith also told jurors when she filled out the paperwork she did not realize it was a legal document.

“I didn't think it was a court house and I didn't know a person could file. I thought an attorney had to file,” said Smith.

“You believed that, to file court documents, you had to go through legal counsel, an attorney?” her attorney asked.

“That's what I believed, yes,” replied Smith.

The trial resumes on Monday.

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/smith-defends-herself-for-her-involvement-in-baby-gabriel-case

**Twiglet** Thu May 17, 2012 9:44 am

My Fox Phoenix

11 May 2012

Tammi Smith: I was doing what was best for baby
‎
For a second day, Tammi Smith returned to the witness stand in her trial. Smith is the woman accused of forgery and custodial interference in the case of missing baby Gabriel.

Tammi Smith broke down on the witness stand Thursday as she talked about her desperate attempt to find Elizabeth Johnson and 8-month-old baby Gabriel in December of 2009.

That was the last time the boy was seen alive.

Smith says everything she did was simply to try and make sure Gabriel was safe.

Taking the stand in her own defense for the second day, Tammi Smith said she never tried to force baby Gabriel's parents into giving the baby up for adoption.

Smith says his mother, Elizabeth Johnson, begged her to.

"When I called that morning she said 'I definitely want you take this baby' and I said 'we'll come and see.' But she was like 'no I need you take this baby today' and that's when Jack and I thought something was wrong and when we did take Gabriel she was like 'you need to go to your new home now.'"

Smith became emotional at times during testimony.

"I'm sorry can you just give me one second? My head's kind of spinning I'm sorry. I'm just kind of going back."

She explained she only thought about falsifying adoption papers as a way to bring Gabriel home safely.

"After a week later or whatever it was, and we hear that she might have killed the baby, we didn't want to believe that, and so we would do anything to get that baby back here."

Smith admits she and her husband Jack did put pressure on baby Gabriel's parents to let them adopt him -- but she told the jury it was only to make sure he had a good home.

"I thought I was trying to do right by the baby so he's not going from home to home," said Smith.

Smith will be back on the stand when the trial resumes Monday. Smith has pleaded not guilty to forgery and conspiracy charges.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/18294914/2012/05/10/tammi-smith-i-was-doing-what-was-best-for-baby

**Twiglet** Thu May 17, 2012 9:45 am

My Fox Phoenix

16 May 2012

Jury to decide fate of Tammi Smith‎

Closing arguments were made Tuesday in the case of Tammi Smith, the woman accused of forgery and custodial interference in the case of missing baby Gabriel.

This case is now in the hands of the jury.

It has been five weeks of a very complicated trial, centered around 40-year-old Scottsdale mom Tammi Smith and her desire to adopt a baby.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Angela Andrews painted Tammi Smith as a desperate woman.

"We can show the defendant wanted to have a child of her own. She was doing everything she could to make sure she found a sibling for a child she already had," said Andrews.

The question is, did Tammi Smith break the law in her efforts to adopt 8-month-old Gabriel Johnson?

She is charged with forging a court document lying about who Gabriel's father was, and interfering with parental rights.

Andrews spoke of Tempe Police's search for Gabriel when Elizabeth Johnson said she gave the baby away.

"They didn't need a villain, they needed to know where the baby was and how to find him, but every single road in the investigation led right back to the defendant."

Johnson's attorney has always maintained Tammi Smith was trying to help Elizabeth Johnson and her baby.

Defense attorney Anne Phillips says there was no intention to commit fraud, and that Smith actually has something important in common with baby Gabriel's father.

"The state, the government would have you believe these two people are adversaries even enemies. The truth is they both have something in common. They both love Gabriel very much and they were victims of Elizabeth Johnson," said Phillips.

Smith is not accused in the baby's disappearance. It's the baby's mom, Elizabeth Johnson, who is in jail awaiting trial in the baby's disappearance.

To this day, no one knows what happened to the child.

We of course will let you know when the jury comes back with a verdict.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/18430334/jury-to-decide-fate-of-tammi-smith

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