Gabriel Johnson #4 2/16/10 - 2/20/11

[Nut44x4]

This is another sad case. IMO Gabriel is dead. Regardless of whether he is dead or alive, it is in my opinion he will never be found. I'd like to think he is having Christmas under some nice peeps tree this year, but I can't.

[Nut44x4]

[Belmom]

I do not trust sources? Logan McQueary talked to Det. Salame and he still believes his son is alive. Please watch this old media interview with the Smith. They claimed they had contact with Elizabeth after she made the claim to Logan she killed Gabriel. I believe he is alive. As long as Logan believes so do I.

http://www.kpho.com/video/22128137/index.html

[Northern Rose]

New Exclusive Jailhouse Interviews with Elizabeth Johnson  (with video)

http://www.foxsanantonio.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/vid_4279.shtml

[Northern Rose]

Attorney for mom of missing 'Baby Gabriel' wants Texas detective to testify

The new attorney for the Tempe mother of missing ‘Baby Gabriel' Johnson is seeking a court order from Texas to require a San Antonio police detective to testify regarding an interview he had with Elizabeth Johnson.

Whether or not a Texas court will allow the detective to provide information during both an active homicide and missing persons investigation within its jurisdiction, remains to be seen.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Paul McMurdie granted the request by Johnson's attorney, Daniel Raynak, during a hearing Thursday to sign an out-of-state subpoena for Detective Jesus Salame.

Salame interviewed Johnson, 24, at the Maricopa County Jail in May without her legal counsel present. That prompted her attorneys, Nick Alcock and Adam Feldman, to contend that her Sixth Amendment rights were violated and that the case should be dismissed.

In mid-December of last year, Johnson drove to San Antonio with Gabriel, then 8 months old, in the midst of a custody battle with Logan McQueary, 25, of Gilbert, her estranged boyfriend and father of the boy. Gabriel was last seen at a San Antonio motel on Dec. 26, and the following day, Johnson told McQueary during a phone call and via text message that she killed him and threw his body in a dumpster.

When she was arrested in Miami, Fla. three days later without her son, she told an FBI agent that she gave Gabriel to a couple at the motel a day after she met them at a park in San Antonio, according to court records.

Since early January, Johnson has been incarcerated in the Maricopa County Estrella Jail on a $1.1 million cash bond on charges of kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference in connection to the disappearance of her son.

A trial date is tentatively scheduled to begin in early May on her charges here.

http://www.ahwatukee.com/news/valley_and_state/article_9bd053f9-1c6a-5b9e-a9ac-0c271698602a.html

[Northern Rose]

Woman who wanted Baby Gabriel considered adopting child's mother, too   (with video)

PHOENIX -- The Scottsdale woman charged in connection with the disappearance of Gabriel Johnson reportedly considered adopting the baby's mom in order to get custody of him.

Tammi Smith, 38, wanted to adopt Gabriel, the Tempe baby who has been missing for nearly a year.

As a way to do that, Smith allegedly was willing to adopt Gabriel's 24-year-old mother, Elizabeth Johnson.

There are also allegations by the state that Smith and Johnson discussed using child-support payments to get Gabriel's father, Logan McQueary, to give up his parental rights.

According to the defense, those conversations -- if they took place -- were legal.

Gabriel disappeared just after last Christmas. He was just 8 months old the last time he was seen alive. That was on Dec. 26 in San Antonio. Investigators have no idea if the child is still alive.

At one point, Johnson told McQueary that she had killed the baby. She later changed her story and said she gave him to a random couple in San Antonio. Johnson has since maintained that she knows nothing about the people to whom she allegedly gave her baby.

Johnson has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, child abuse, and custodial interference in Gabriel's disappearance. She is set to go on trial May 9 in Judge Paul McMurdie's courtroom. The Superior Court says the trial is likely to last three weeks.

Smith has pleaded not guilty to charges of felony forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/Woman-considered-adopting-Baby-Gabriels-mother-111520909.html

[Northern Rose]

Baby Gabriel's Mom a No-Show in Court

PHOENIX - The mother of baby Gabriel fails to show up at a scheduled court appearance Thursday morning as she faces charges in her baby's disappearance.

A tape of a jailhouse interview of Elizabeth Johnson explaining why she originally said she killed her baby had just been released by FOX in San Antonio.

Johnson was arrested almost a year ago, after she took Gabriel to Texas and told police she gave him away to a couple she did not know.

Her lawyers want a judge to dismiss the case because they said a detective from Texas flew to Phoenix to interview her without their consent.

That detective claims Johnson confessed to killing Gabriel.

In a jailhouse interview done earlier this year, Johnson said she killed her son to get back at the baby's father.

“I wanted to hurt him and that was the only thing I could do. And I also blamed him for me giving away my baby. I wanted to do it on my own … also, ruining my life. I blamed him for everything,” Johnson said.

Baby Gabriel has not been seen in nearly a year.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/justice/baby-gabriels-mom-a-no-show-in-court-12092010

[Northern Rose]

Texas Cop To Be Called In Baby Gabriel Case
Elizabeth Johnson A No-Show At Hearing

PHOENIX -- A judge paved the way for attorneys to interview the San Antonio police officer to whom Elizabeth Johnson reportedly confessed to killing her son Gabriel.

The mother of missing baby Gabriel Johnson did not appear at the status hearing on her case in a Phoenix courtroom Thursday. The judge said he and the attorneys received a seven-page letter from her, but did not release details.

Gabriel was last seen with his mother on Dec. 26, 2009, in San Antonio, Texas. Johnson has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, child abuse, and custodial interference.

Police do not know whether the boy is alive. Tempe police say Johnson originally claimed she killed the baby and later said she gave the child to a couple in San Antonio.

A source close to the baby Gabriel investigation said Elizabeth Johnson confessed to killing her son to San Antonio Detective John Salame.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Paul McMurdie granted the prosecuting attorney's the motion to depose Salame. The next status hearing on the case is set for Jan. 24.

The confession came during an unauthorized meeting between Johnson and Salame in the Estrella Jail in Phoenix, a meeting of which her attorney was unaware, according to the source.

Because the meeting was unauthorized, it is not admissible in court unless there is a ruling otherwise.

In other recent developments, Tammi Smith, the Scottsdale woman who tried to adopt Gabriel before Johnson fled to Texas, reportedly tried to adopt Johnson, 24, as a means to gain custody of the child, according to court papers filed by Smith's attorney.

The state alleges she tried adopting Johnson and other ploys to gain custody without the father's consent, but eventually learned that was not legally possible.

Johnson is set to go on trial May 9 in Judge Paul McMurdie's courtroom.

http://www.kpho.com/valleynews/26078410/detail.html

[iluvmua]

Audio: Does Baby Gabriel's Mom Confess To Ex?
Mother Of Missing Baby Gabriel Claims She Killed Son To Spite Father
Pat McReynolds
Reporter, KPHO.com
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PHOENIX -- For nearly a year, there has been no sign of baby Gabriel. Elizabeth Johnson, the boy's mother, maintains that she doesn't know where he is.

But in a phone conversation obtained by CBS 5 News, Johnson said what had only been seen in a text message: That she killed her son.

The source of the recording requested to remain anonymous.

Johnson was on the run in December 2009 in Texas. And in spiteful detail, she explains to the boy's father, Logan McQueary, what she did to her boy.

"Where are you and where is Gabriel?" asks McQueary.

"Gabriel is in a Dumpster," Johnson responds.

"No, he's not," said McQueary.

"You want to talk to girls, that's the price you pay," said Johnson.

At the time of the call, McQueary and Johnson had recently broken up. They shared joint custody of their son, Gabriel.

"I killed him this morning," claimed Johnson.

"No, you didn't," said McQueary.

Johnson responded with, "I couldn't do it anymore, I couldn't do it alone. You made it impossible for me to have my own life. You made it impossible for me to have Gabriel. You were going to take the only thing I had left. You wanted to take from me. You wanted to make me miserable. So find some new girl to make your new baby."

In the call, McQueary tried to learn exactly where Johnson was so he could lead investigators to her.

She told him she destroyed all of her identification and even called herself a ghost.

McQueary wanted to know his son was OK, but he didn't want to agitate Johnson anymore than she already was.

"Don't you care about me? All you care about is Gabriel. And he's gone now. You know what I'm capable of and you pushed me anyway. You destroyed my life," said Johnson.

"I haven't destroyed anything," said McQueary.

"Yes, you have, Logan. You made me kill my baby boy," said Johnson.

After she was arrested in Florida, Johnson told investigators she did not kill Gabriel, but rather arranged for him to be adopted by an anonymous family.

McQueary told CBS 5 News that he hopes his son is alive, but the call showed how determined she was to hurt the father of her baby.

"You made me do this," Johnson tells McQueary.

"You did not hurt Gabriel," said McQueary.

"Yes, I did. I suffocated him. I suffocated him and he turned blue. I put him in a diaper bag and put him in a trash can," said Johnson.

Elizabeth Johnson isn't expected back in court until Jan. 24.

Johnson is accused of kidnapping and custodial interference.

[iluvmua]

http://www.kpho.com/news/26124485/detail.html

[iluvmua]

http://www.kpho.com/news/26137317/detail.html

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/15/earlyshow/living/parenting/main7152004.shtml
NEW YORK, Dec. 15, 2010
Baby Gabriel Mom Makes Possible Confession
In Taped Phone Calls, Voice Said to Be Elizabeth Johnson Tells Baby's Father She Suffocated Son, Put Him in Dumpster
CBS)  Eight-month-old Gabriel Johnson has not been seen in nearly a year. And in an audio tape obtained exclusively by the CBS affiliate KPHO in Phoenix, a voice purported to be that of his mother, Elizabeth Johnson, claims she killed her only son.
Baby Gabriel was last seen the day after Christmas.

On "The Early Show" Wednesday, CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reported police still don't know whether he is alive or dead. But his 24-year-old mother, Elizabeth Johnson, has apparently claimed in a phone conversation with the baby's father that she killed their son.

In a recording, Gabriel's father Logan McQueary says, "Where are you and where is Gabriel?"

A voice attributed to Elizabeth Johnson can be heard saying, "Gabriel is in a dumpster."

McQueary says, "No, he's not."

Johnson responds, "You want to talk to girls, that's the price you pay."
Johnson and her ex-boyfriend, Logan McQueary shared joint custody. But the day he was supposed to get Gabriel, he received a text message from Johnson that the baby was dead. In the audio recording obtained by CBS station KPHO, Johnson seems to confess to murder -- in chilling detail.

Johnson says, "You made me do this."

"You did not hurt Gabriel," McQueary answers.

"Yes I did," Johnson said. "I suffocated him. I suffocated him. I put him in a diaper bag and put him in a trash can."

According to KPHO, the source of the recording has requested to remain anonymous.

Johnson was on the run at the time of the alleged call and had changed her identity as police searched nationwide for both mother and son. Her motive? She believed McQueary was flirting with other women online and wanted revenge.

In the taped conversation, Johnson continues, saying, "Don't you care about me? All you care about is Gabriel. And he's gone now...You know what I'm capable of, and you pushed me anyway...You destroyed my life."

McQueary says, "I haven't destroyed anything."

Johnson replies, "Yes, you have Logan, you made me kill my baby boy. ... So find some new girl to make your new baby."

Days later, Johnson was arrested in Florida, and told police she gave the baby to strangers in Texas. She had also promised an Arizona couple, Jack and Tammi Smith they could adopt the baby. Johnson remains behind bars, charged with kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference. She is due back in court January 24.

On "The Early Show," Beth Karas, correspondent for tru-TV Network's "In Session," said of the tape's contents, "This is not new information but new to us, the public following the case, and it is really interesting to listen to the exchange and the details that she gives him about what she did. I mean, she doesn't hesitate in saying I smothered him, he turned blue, I put him in a diaper bag, he's in a trash can. Very quickly it comes out of her mouth. Is it a lie or the truth, who knows?"
Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith remarked, "Because she's clearly trying to communicate and get to him in some way shape or form and that becomes the question. Is she just trying to get to this guy or is what is coming out of her mouth the truth?"

Karas said, "She clearly wants to hurt the father of the baby. Her former boyfriend who had broken up with her, all right. She later recants that this was a killing and says she gave the baby away. Either way, she didn't have authority to do. This I mean, she wants to hurt him and now the authorities have to decide, you know, is the baby alive? They think he might be."

Smith said, "Did she not also confess at some point during some interrogation, may or may not have been admissible?"

Karas said, "We don't know the details of it but there is a motion right now to dismiss the Arizona case because of the Texas investigation. You see, she was in San Antonio, there's a separate homicide/disappearance investigation there and a Texas detective, kind of got into the jail in Arizona and talked to her for three hours on tape some months ago. Her new lawyers want to dismiss the case because of that saying that's a violation. ... Her lawyers didn't know about it. However, the Arizona case isn't based on that. I suspect that won't fly."

As for Jack and Tammi Smith, who reportedly were told by Elizabeth Johnson that she was going to give the baby up to them for adoption, Karas said that element of the case is "the new defense."

Karas explained, "Tammi Smith is facing conspiracy to interfere with the custody of the father because she actually had the baby for a few weeks before the custody decision was made. And that custody decision was made a few days before the disappearance of the baby. Tammi Smith now says, 'I want a new grand jury presentation. My defense is I was going to adopt her, the mother, and there's not that much of an age difference, 12 years or so, and that way get the baby, and that's not criminal.' So she says she should not be held. That's her defense."

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/12/15/Tape-of-mom-saying-she-killed-baby-played/UPI-35191292435482/
U.S. News
Tape of mom saying she killed baby played
Published: Dec. 15, 2010 at 12:51 PM

Listen  http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/12/15/Tape-of-mom-saying-she-killed-baby-played/UPI-35191292435482/
PHOENIX, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A Phoenix television station broadcast a tape of a conversation between the parents of a missing baby in which the mother tells the father she killed the boy.

The recording was aired Monday on KPHO-TV, The Arizona Republic reported. The father, Logan McQueary, recorded his conversation with Elizabeth Johnson, which occurred Dec. 27, 2009.

Their son, Gabriel, then seven months old, was last seen Dec. 27 in San Antonio, Texas. Johnson later told police she gave the boy to a couple she encountered in a Texas park.
In her conversation with McQueary, Johnson told a different story.

"You made me kill my baby boy," she said, blaming him for being unfaithful.

She said she suffocated the boy, put the body in a diaper bag and dumped it in the trash.

Johnson's grandfather, Bob Johnson, said McQueary must have given the tape to KPHO.

Elizabeth Johnson took the baby to Texas after McQueary won custody. The 24-year-old woman is now in jail charged with custodial interference and kidnapping.

[NM]

http://www.kpho.com/news/26137317/detail.html

Recorded Jail Call Pits Gabriel's Mother Against Woman Who Sought Adoption
Pat McReynolds
Reporter, KPHO.com

POSTED: 9:06 pm MST December 14, 2010
UPDATED: 11:04 am MST December 15, 2010


PHOENIX -- CBS 5 News has learned that prosecutors met with Elizabeth Johnson in the Estrella Jail to convince her to confront by telephone Tammi Smith, a co-defendant in the case of missing baby Gabriel Johnson.

Johnson, Gabriel's mother, had told investigators that Smith was behind arrangements in Texas to hand Gabriel to an anonymous couple. Prosecutors attempted to set up a sting to get Smith to incriminate herself over the phone.

In the recording, Johnson assured Smith the call was not being recorded. She then confronted Smith about statements she had made during television interviews.

"Needless to say, I am very very upset at you," Johnson said shortly after Smith answered her phone. "I can't hide all of this anymore. Your involvement in all of it. All the plans that you made and you are completely denying all of it."

"Wait. Wait, what plans did I make? What are you talking about?" said Smith.

"You wanted the baby and you had a million plans how to get the baby," answered Johnson.

During the call, Johnson accused Smith of calling friends in Texas and arranging for a couple to meet Johnson and Gabriel in a park for the hand-off. But because Smith never told Johnson the names of the couple, Johnson couldn't help investigators find him.

"I never called them. You called them! It was all set up by you. I did everything you told me to do," Johnson said.

"You are a liar! A liar!" said Smith.

"No, you are," said Johnson.

"Either that, or you are psychotic," said Smith.

"I've seen all of the interviews and everything you've been saying and doing, throwing people under the bus, and you've thrown me under the bus," said Johnson.

"Elizabeth, you belong under the bus. You gave your baby away," said Smith.

"To you! To you!" exclaims Johnson.

"You said you killed him! You said you killed the baby. So you know what America believes? Is that you killed the baby," said Smith.

"Yeah, I bet you're loving that, huh?" asks Johnson.

"We're loving that?" said Smith.

"Because it makes you look so innocent," said Johnson.

At one point in the call, Johnson asks Smith to call the couple and have them drop Gabriel off at a church.

But Smith turns the spotlight back on the baby's mother.

"Can you think of anything about these people, anything that could help find them? Did they mention anything? Did you really give them the baby?" asked Smith.

"Cut it, OK?" said Johnson

"Huh?" asked Smith.

"Cut the crap," demanded Johnson.

"Cut the crap?" said Smith.

"Yes," answered Johnson.

"(Laughs) What do you mean cut the crap?" asked Smith.

"You know what I mean," said Johnson.

Finally, when it is clear their alliance is through, Smith warns Johnson to watch was she says.

"Imagine this scenario Elizabeth. What if these people get found?," Smith said.

"Or they're scared that they're gonna get found and what if they decide, 'You know what, let's kill Gabriel the way Elizabeth said she killed him. Let's put him in a bag and suffocate him, put him in a diaper bag and throw him in a Dumpster. Nobody will ever know that it will be us,'" Smith said.

"They'll find the baby dead and they'll think Elizabeth did what she did. If I were you, I would think really, really hard about where that baby is and who you gave that baby to," said Smith.

Both women face conspiracy to commit custodial interference charges. At this point, Johnson is the only one with the added charge of kidnapping.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/12/16/20101216baby-gabriel-says-ex-attorneys-imperiled-case.html
by Laurie Merrill - Dec. 16, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Baby Gabriel Johnson's mother claims in a seven-page letter that her former defense attorneys dropped the ball on a motion to dismiss charges in her case, putting her case in peril.

"They shouldn't be allowed to start something this monumental and not finish it," Johnson said in the Nov. 20 letter to the court about her former attorney, Nick Alcock, and one of his associates, Adam Feldman.

• Year-old tape reveals Baby Gabriel's mother confessing  http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2010/12/14/20101214baby-gabriel-mother-elizabeth-johnson1215.html

The motion, she said, was eight months in the works. Johnson believed that Nov. 22, when the motion at one point was to be argued, was supposed to be "my day."

She was convinced the Maricopa County Superior Court judge would grant the motion, and she would go home, said her grandfather, Bob Johnson.

Instead, Johnson said, after she withdrew a bar complaint, Alcock and Feldman withdrew as her lawyers.

It was the issue at the heart of the motion to dismiss - the jailhouse visit to Johnson by a San Antonio detective - that caused Alcock to withdraw, he said.

Alcock's motion claims her rights were violated by a three-hour talk without her attorneys. The detective, Alcock said, told her not to trust her attorneys.

"We felt the attorney-client privilege had degraded to the point where we had to withdraw," Alcock said Wednesday. "That is not Mrs. Johnson's fault. We believe it had to do with what the detective did."

Gabriel Johnson, missing since last Dec. 26, was last seen alive in San Antonio. Johnson fled there after the baby's father, Logan McQueary, was awarded custody of Gabriel. Johnson said she put the boy in a diaper bag and threw him in the trash. She then recanted, saying she gave the baby to a couple she did not know in a San Antonio park.

Johnson, 24, of Tempe, is held without bond at the Estrella Jail on charges of kidnapping, child abuse, conspiracy to commit custodial interference and custodial interference.

Tammi Smith, 38, of Scottsdale, accused of trying many measures to gain custody of Gabriel, is free on bond on charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference. A recent court filing says Smith went as far as to suggest to the judge in the custody case that Baby Gabriel would return "safe" if the judge granted custody to the Smiths.

Johnson's case is now in the hands of attorneys Daniel Raynak and Marci Kratter, her third set of defenders since October. They plan to depose the detective who questioned Johnson in Texas, since he refuses to come to Arizona for a hearing.

 

[Northern Rose]

Audio: Baby Gabriel's Mom Details Last Days (at link)
Jailed Mother Details Who Helped Her Give Her Boy Away

PHOENIX -- Elizabeth Johnson told investigators that Tammi Smith was trying to adopt her baby, Gabriel, and pressured her so much she had to get out of town.

"I just freaked out. I felt like I was being trapped and I think Tammi picked up on that and she was like, 'Well, if you don't want to come back, there's other options. We're going to help you no matter what,'" said Johnson.

Gabriel was last seen with Elizabeth Johnson in San Antonio, Texas, on Dec. 26. Johnson sits in a Maricopa County jail on charges of kidnapping and custodial interference.

Smith previously had offered Elizabeth money and forged court documents, according to police. And according to a newly obtained taped interview with investigators, Johnson said that was just the beginning of Smith's schemes.

"She said that her adoption lawyer in Tennessee could get a birth certificate saying she gave birth to the baby," Johnson said. "She said she had 30 days to be able to turn that in, saying it was a home birth and that she, you know, no one would know the couple months difference, and you know, in a few years, no one would know what the baby looked like."

When Johnson, on a whim, went to Texas instead of Tennessee, she said Smith had another plan to wrestle Gabriel from the custody of his father, Logan McQueary.

"She said she wanted to put an ad in the newspaper for 60 days, and...if Logan did not come forward to claim the baby through the newspaper article, then she would have the baby just like that. And I thought it was like, 'Really? Just like that? That seems a little crazy,' and she said, 'No. We've done it before.' She told me that's how she did it with her 3-year-old," said Johnson.

The biological father of Hannah, the Smith's adopted daughter, told CBS5 News that's exactly what they did to steal custody away from him.

But that idea was too complicated for Johnson and didn't fit with her plans, she said.

"I decided by myself to go to Florida and just disappear, basically, was my plan and I don't know, start my life over and I knew I couldn't do that with the baby," said Johnson.

So Johnson told investigators that Tammi and Jack Smith called a friend of theirs in San Antonio, picked a park near Johnson's hotel, and arranged for an anonymous couple to meet Johnson and take her boy.

"She gave me a basic description and said, 'They will be expecting you and they'll know your name and Gabriel's name and they'll have one car seat."

Johnson detailed the event: "I see some, a couple sitting on a bench and I approach them and they say, 'Elizabeth?' And I say, 'Yeah?' And they say, 'Hi, we're Tammi's friends,' and I said, 'OK.' They asked how I'm doing and I said, 'Alright,' and, 'Is the baby, everything OK with him?' And I just kind of said goodbye to Gabriel and put him in the car seat for them. And after that, they say, I say, 'OK bye,' and you know they say 'OK, the baby's going to be taken care of and everything,' and I say, 'I know,' and I walk away and I leave."

The plan, according to Johnson, was for she and Smith to cut off all communication.

Johnson said she had already told Smith that she could live with never calling any of her family members again.

But when investigators showed up at the Smiths' door looking for Gabriel, that code of silence went out the window.

According to Johnson, the Smiths started calling and texting her to try to get all of their stories straight.

http://www.kpho.com/valleynews/26154024/detail.html

[Northern Rose]

Baby Gabriel Update: Mother Points Finger at Co-Defendent

PHOENIX (CBS/KPHO) Elizabeth Johnson still isn't talking about the whereabouts of her son Gabriel, but she has apparently been pointing fingers at her co-defendent Tammi Smith.


PICTURES: Baby Gabriel Johnson Missing


Johnson disappeared with Gabriel Dec. 26, 2009, but when police picked her up Dec. 30 in Miami, Gabriel was nowhere to be found.


The 23-year-old mother told police she gave the child away to strangers in San Antonio, where her car was found. But police say she told a different story to the baby's father, Logan McQueary, in a text message, saying she had killed the baby. She said she would tell him where to find Gabriel's "little blue body" when she was "safe" adding "if the garbage don't [sic] come first."

CBS affiliate KPHO has uncovered a new version of the story that Johnson is apparently telling prosecutors: Smith set the whole exchange up.

Prosecutors reportedly met with Johnson in the Estrella County Jail recently and she said that Smith was behind arrangements in Texas to hand Gabriel to an anonymous couple. Prosecutors then convinced her to confront Smith by telephone and attempted to set up a sting to get Smith to incriminate herself, KPHO reports.

MORE....

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20025792-504083.html

[Northern Rose]

Baby Gabriel Case Gets Even More Bizarre. Actual Mom and Would-be Mom Point Fingers

Two days after airing a phone conversation between Elizabeth Johnson, the mother of missing baby Gabriel Johnson, and the boy's father -- in which Johnson says she suffocated Gabriel and threw him into a dumpster (a claim she later denied) -- KPHO aired another tape last night that makes the whole case even more bizarre.

In a phone call between Johnson and Tammi Smith -- the would-be adoptive mother of Gabriel -- arranged by prosecutors to try and get Smith to incriminate herself, the two women seem to point the finger at each other for the boy's disappearance. At the end, it seems, Smith even threatens Johnson.

From KPHO:


"Imagine this scenario Elizabeth. What if these people get found?," Smith said. "Or they're scared that they're gonna get found and what if they decide, 'You know what, let's kill Gabriel the way Elizabeth said she killed him. Let's put him in a bag and suffocate him, put him in a diaper bag and throw him in a Dumpster. Nobody will ever know that it will be us,'" Smith said.

"They'll find the baby dead and they'll think Elizabeth did what she did. If I were you, I would think really, really hard about where that baby is and who you gave that baby to," said Smith.


Prior to his disappearance, Smith was trying to adopt Gabriel, but Logan McQueary, the boy's father, refused to give up custody. The rest of the conversation between Smith and Johnson seems to suggest Smith possibly arranged for Johnson to give the baby to people in San Antonio, Texas -- or that Johnson's completely nuts, which, given her behavior since arrest, isn't outside the realm of possibility.


"Needless to say, I am very very upset at you," Johnson said. "I can't hide all of this anymore. Your involvement in all of it. All the plans that you made and you are completely denying all of it."

"Wait. Wait, what plans did I make? What are you talking about?" said Smith.

"You wanted the baby and you had a million plans how to get the baby," answered Johnson.

During the call, Johnson accused Smith of calling friends in Texas and arranging for a couple to meet Johnson and Gabriel in a park for the hand-off. But because Smith never told Johnson the names of the couple, Johnson couldn't help investigators find him.

"I never called them. You called them! It was all set up by you. I did everything you told me to do," Johnson said.

"You are a liar! A liar!" said Smith.

"No, you are," said Johnson.

"Either that, or you are psychotic," said Smith.

"I've seen all of the interviews and everything you've been saying and doing, throwing people under the bus, and you've thrown me under the bus," said Johnson.

"Elizabeth, you belong under the bus. You gave your baby away," said Smith.

"To you! To you!" exclaims Johnson.

"You said you killed him! You said you killed the baby. So you know what America believes? Is that you killed the baby," said Smith


See the entire interview at the KPHO website.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2010/12/baby_gabriel_case_gets_even_mo.php

[Northern Rose]

New audio recordings released in Baby Gabriel case


In tapes released Thursday, Baby Gabriel's mother accuses Scottsdale resident Tammi Smith of arranging for an unnamed couple to take custody of the child in a San Antonio, Texas, park.

Elizabeth Johnson, 24 of Tempe, tells Smith, 38, of Scottsdale that the back-door adoption was among "1 million" plots Smith concocted to get custody of the baby.

"You wanted the baby and you had a million plans how to get the baby," Johnson tells Smith in the tape-recorded conversation.


The audiotape of an often vicious confrontation between Johnson, Gabriel's mother, and Smith, the woman who tried many ways to adopt him, was one of two the Tempe Police Department released.

In the other audiotape, Johnson is speaking with the baby's father, Logan McQueary, son of retired Phoenix police officer Frank McQueary, about Gabriel's fate.

In the Dec. 27 phone call, the day after then eight-month old Gabriel was last seen alive, Johnson says she smothered Gabriel until he turned blue, put him in a diaper bag, and put the bag in the trash.

"Gabriel is in a dumpster," Johnson says in the phone call McQueary recorded

"No, he's not," McQueary says.

"You want to talk to girls, that's the price you pay," Elizabeth says back.

Johnson recanted those statements almost immediately, saying she gave the baby to a couple she met in a San Antonio park. Her grandfather, Bob Johnson, said the tape merely shows how furious Johnson was with McQueary for cheating on her.

Baby Gabriel, a chubby-cheeked, tow-headed baby, has captured the attention of the nation since his disappearance nearly a year ago.

His mother is being held without bond in Estrella Jail on charges of kidnapping, child abuse, conspiracy to commit custodial interference and custodial interference.

Smith is free on bond on charges of conspiracy to commit custodial interference and forgery.

During the phone call between Smith and Johnson, Johnson accuses the woman who even suggested adopting Johnson as way to get custody of Gabriel of arranging for the San Antonio park hand-off.

"You called them! It was all set up by you. I did everything you told me to do," Johnson said.

Smith yells back, "You are a liar! A liar!"

"No, you are," said Johnson.

Later in the tape, Smith reminds Johnson she told her boyfriend that she murdered their baby.

"You said you killed him! You said you killed the baby. So you know what America believes? Is that you killed the baby," said Smith.

"Yeah, I bet you're loving that, huh?" asks Johnson.

"We're loving that?" asks Smith.

"Because it makes you look so innocent," Johnson said.

Smith at one point says something unmistakably vicious and nearly threatening to Johnson.

"Imagine this scenario Elizabeth. What if these people get found?" said Smith.

"Or they're scared that they're gonna get found and what if they decide, 'You know what, let's kill Gabriel the way Elizabeth said she killed him. Let's put him in a bag and suffocate him, put him in a diaper bag and throw him in a Dumpster. Nobody will ever know that it will be us'," Smith said.

"If I were you," Smith says, "I would think really, really hard about where that baby is and who you gave that baby to."

Arguments on a motion Johnson filed to dismiss her case is scheduled for next month. Both women are scheduled for trials in May.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/12/16/20101216baby-gabriel-elizabeth-johnson1216.html

[LynneinMd.]

If Elizabeth is telling the truth that Tammi had this couple meet her and she turned the baby over to them, then take a polly and prove it once and for all.  This will continue to be a she said she said case if one of them won't prove their story.  I know neither one of their lawyers would never allow this to happen, but it is so maddening to me.