- 2 weeks ago
See No Evil - Season 14 - Episode 02: Cul-De-Sac
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TVTranscript
00:13I just couldn't understand why somebody would do that.
00:18There's someone going out and killing people.
00:22We don't know what the circumstances are.
00:25We were able to review surveillance videos
00:28that show this white SUV heading towards our crime scene.
00:33We needed to interview these three people
00:36and see where they were on the night of the murder.
00:39Let me tell you this, okay?
00:41I've got you on video. We've got you on video.
00:58Let me tell you.
01:12Uncle Johnny, he had come by our house.
01:17I have gifts for my birthday girls and he had brought some birthday gifts for our daughter
01:27and for my wife who have a birthday within seven days of each other
01:33uncle Johnny was a very fun guy to be around he was very welcoming very warm and very kind
01:42here you go we lived about an hour and 30 minutes from my mother's house in Mobile Alabama where my
01:52uncle Johnny my mother and my grandmother lived my uncle Johnny started working as a flight attendant
02:01when he lived in Venezuela he loved to travel around the world and he got to meet a lot of
02:09people
02:11after my uncle Johnny stopped being a flight attendant he moved to the United States
02:16and started working in the airspace company as an interior mechanic he was very social he was going
02:25on dates but he didn't have a longtime partner at the time finally found Mr. Wright no but hope
02:36spring's eternal Johnny was looking for Mr. Wright if you will maybe yeah he has so much to offer
02:46and I think he wanted to share that with someone you have a great birthday
02:54take care good see Charlie got to go play all right bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye
03:02bye bye
03:03bye bye bye bye bye bye
03:14meville county sheriff's office there's a cul-de-sac off of boiler road I believe I've seen a dead person
03:21laying there okay their face looks all beat up and they're laying there on their back I'm pretty sure
03:29it's a human I didn't get out to look it was freaking out a little bit all right um we'll
03:34get a deputy
03:34to meet you there okay thank you ma'am
03:43it took 20 to 30 minutes to get to the scene I was the commander over criminal investigations division
03:52it was in a remote area so it was clearly a dump job it was in a dead end of
04:01a what was going to be a
04:03residential area that never really got developed so there were no cameras or anything in the immediate
04:09scene patrol officers secure the location before the investigators arrive
04:22what do we have here detective gizir was the lead investigator assigned to this case
04:30ems arrived with patrol officers and they checked the vitals of the victim and he was pronounced deceased on the
04:36scene
04:40there was lividity and rigor mortis setting in um so we we knew that he had been expired for at
04:49least a few hours
04:51the trauma appeared to be a gunshot wound above his right eye there was apparent blunt force trauma
04:58to his face with teeth missing his pants pockets had been turned inside out
05:08there was loose change on the ground
05:14looking around further we found the tooth and a tooth bridge we looked for a cell phone
05:22and a wallet and could not find one
05:26there was a debit card lying near the body which allowed us to quickly identify the victim
05:42we were able to take the name off of the ATM debit card uh mr. johnny so keys and put
05:49it into our system
05:51uh was able to pull the driver's license picture up and identify him
05:58contact the bank with the bank transaction records
06:02our next move was to make contact with mr. so keys his family
06:08johnny's address was about six miles away from the crime scene
06:21my grandmother called me
06:25very frantically that morning the cops knocked on her door and my grandmother doesn't speak any english
06:36so she gave the investigator the phone
06:39how can i help
06:40they told me that my uncle had been murdered
06:49i'll be right there
06:54when i arrived at the house
06:57the investigators were there as well as my husband
07:06and then my mother got home
07:09mommy
07:10mommy
07:10mommy
07:11mom
07:15when are you
07:16johnny
07:17no
07:18no
07:19I died
07:21it was very very difficult
07:23very painful
07:24very painful
07:25i was watching
07:27johnny
07:27his brother
07:30we hugged
07:31and we smiled
07:35and we were able so
07:42There's a language barrier with Inui, so Donnie was our translator.
07:46Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt Johnny?
07:52Johnny had no enemies. I don't know of anyone that Johnny disagreed with.
07:59Was he in a relationship?
08:01I immediately told them about the dating app and the social media accounts.
08:08Johnny was using the apps to look for relationships and love.
08:13Do you know when he left?
08:17Inui stated she went to bed around 10 p.m. and Johnny was still watching television.
08:23Around 7 a.m. when she woke up, she found Johnny's bedroom door open and the front door unlocked.
08:31We asked Inui if Johnny had left in his vehicle and she said no, that the car was still there.
08:38She stated that Johnny had to have left with a friend or someone he knew.
08:43A search of his room and the residence revealed that there was no wallet or cell phone of Mr. Sokes
08:49found at his house.
08:50Thank you very much for your help.
09:06Meantime, investigators receive a list of Johnny's bank transactions.
09:11We made contact with Wells Fargo and they provided us with Johnny's last transaction, which was a withdrawal from an
09:17ATM about 10 minutes away from Johnny's house that was made at 325 a.m. on the morning.
09:23Johnny was killed.
09:26We also found out that the ATM had surveillance and they advised they would be sending us those surveillance shots
09:33the next morning.
09:36Investigators searched Johnny's neighborhood for home security cameras that might reveal when he left home to go to the ATM.
09:45We observed some cameras on a house about three houses east of Johnny's residence.
09:53We made contact with that resident.
09:56Hey, I'm Deputy Cazier.
09:58Can we take a look at the footage from the camera?
10:06We knew Johnny was at the ATM at 325.
10:10So we started looking at their surveillance footage starting at 3 a.m.
10:18She tells us that it's motion activated and that it only picks up when motion such as a vehicle or
10:24someone walks by in front of the residence.
10:31Play that part again.
10:34At 315, we observed a white, mid-sized SUV traveling towards Johnny Sokey's house.
10:43It's behind the wheel.
10:56It didn't show the SUV physically at Mr. Sokey's house.
11:00But at that particular time, at 315 in the morning, most people are asleep.
11:06This was the only vehicle in the area.
11:09How's it there?
11:12The camera captures the partial roadway.
11:17Zoom in there.
11:19We attempted to zoom in to get a description of the driver and the license plate.
11:25But it was just too distorted.
11:28We're not able to make out a specific make and model.
11:32We can just get the color of the vehicle and that it was a white SUV.
11:38Play it.
11:41This is the residence with the surveillance.
11:43It's three houses down and just on the opposite side of the street.
11:47So we believe as it gets off of the camera angle, it stops at Johnny's residence, picks him up, and
11:53then they leave that location.
11:56We knew that he had gotten a ride from someone because we think he's minutes later at the ATM.
12:04And this clearly validates that, that he did leave with another person.
12:11Thanks, man.
12:17Investigators review the information from local traffic cameras to try to identify the SUV.
12:24So we gathered data from a tag reader that we have located at Schillinger's and Airport near the ATM.
12:30The tag reader had picked up a vehicle matching the description from the surveillance camera.
12:36This time of morning, that was the only vehicle that passed through the intersection.
12:43We ran the vehicle's license plate to figure out who the registered owner was.
12:53Located that vehicle at an apartment complex.
12:57Followed that vehicle from the apartment complex to the airport and then made an investigative stop.
13:05I was notified and then I responded out.
13:11There was just one occupant in the vehicle, which was the driver.
13:15So I interviewed that individual on the scene at the airport.
13:21The driver was identified and he worked for Allied Taxi Service.
13:26I'd asked him if he'd picked Johnny up and he said no.
13:30He stated he'd picked up a couple of fares in the area.
13:34I asked him what time.
13:37He said he'd picked up a fare from a hotel and then was at the airport at around 325.
13:45I went to the airport to gather surveillance footage.
13:52Let's start from 325.
14:08There it is.
14:13Zoom in there.
14:17The footage showed the taxi driver at the airport at 325 dropping fares off.
14:23And we knew that at 325, Johnny Sokeys and another white SUV were at the Wells Fargo bank withdrawing money.
14:33So the taxi driver was telling the truth about what he had done and where he had been.
14:39His story was corroborated with video evidence.
14:56The next morning, Johnny's family are still coming to terms with what's happened.
15:17It was very sad and quiet.
15:19He was always the loud one and not having him there and knowing what happened was,
15:26it was really hard for all of us.
15:32Seeing his bedroom off the corner of the living room.
15:38Knowing that he's never going to walk through the door again was the hardest part.
15:48So on October 26th, the day after Johnny Sokeys' murder,
15:54I received the footage from Wells Fargo of Mr. Sokeys' transaction.
16:00I got images from the bank.
16:03So we're expecting, you know, a full motion video.
16:07But this was just still shots of the transaction.
16:12Show me the first one.
16:17That's Johnny.
16:19We see Johnny standing at the ATM holding his phone and his wallet.
16:23He's wearing a red shirt, the same red shirt that we found him in at the crime scene.
16:28Show me the next image.
16:32Zoom in on the background.
16:35And then we also see this white SUV in the background that matched the description of the surveillance that we
16:42had captured from Johnny's neighborhood.
16:47This is big.
16:49At this point, we knew Johnny had his wallet and his phone on him.
16:52And then this also confirms the vehicle that we observed in Johnny's neighborhood as being the vehicle that picked him
16:59up.
17:01I think I recognize him on him.
17:03We was able to key in on a feature on that vehicle.
17:09There was a light that was located underneath the side view mirror.
17:13So it appeared to be a Lincoln Aviator.
17:20Go to the next one.
17:26Who's that?
17:34We can see Johnny's hokeys in the video with an unknown black male standing behind him.
17:42And the white SUV in the background behind that male.
17:51This didn't seem right.
17:52This individual standing behind Johnny.
17:54Can you clean it up?
17:57This is the best I can get.
17:59We knew that we needed to find out who this individual was.
18:04We want to track where this vehicle came from to look for other video where we could get a visual
18:10of the driver of the vehicle.
18:14So at this point, we've established Johnny was picked up at his residence.
18:19He had made the withdrawal at the ATM, and then we established the crime scene where Johnny's body was located.
18:30We were able to pull up an aerial map of the subdivision.
18:33There's only two points of entrance and exit to this neighborhood, and that helped you determine where to canvas for
18:44surveillance video.
18:50Deputies search for security cameras along the route between Johnny's house, the ATM, and the crime scene.
19:00We were able to retrieve surveillance videos from multiple businesses with several different cameras.
19:08Play it.
19:12Palmer's Airport Toyota has a surveillance camera that captures the ATM across the street.
19:25Play that part again.
19:30Zoom in there.
19:34There goes the Lincoln.
19:38At 324, I see the white Lincoln aviator pull up across the street at the Wells Fargo ATM.
19:52And we can see Johnny walk to the ATM.
19:59He goes back to the car.
20:02Once he leaves the ATM, we need to see which route he took to get to Linda Court.
20:10Bring up the next camera.
20:12We're able to almost a lot of times see the progression of where this vehicle goes.
20:21At 327 a.m., the food mart on Dolls Road captures the white Lincoln aviator traveling southwest, which is about
20:29a mile from the ATM.
20:32Pause it there and punch it on the plate.
20:36We were unable to get a tag number off of the white Lincoln aviator.
20:43What else we got?
20:49At 331, we observed the white Lincoln aviator pass in front of Pete's place, which is about 1.5 miles
20:57from Dolls Food Mart.
20:59The vehicle was traveling southwest toward Linda's Court, where Johnny's body was found.
21:06So at this point, we have a clear direction of travel.
21:11And we believe Johnny's in the vehicle, who is being driven by a male with a blue shirt, who could
21:16be Johnny's killer.
21:20Investigators received the report from Johnny's autopsy.
21:24Thanks.
21:25The autopsy report said that Johnny suffered a gunshot wound above his right eye, and there was a .44 Magnum
21:33projectile retrieved from his jaw.
21:37He was also beaten so badly, his dental bridge broke.
21:43Next day, investigators received the report on the GPS data from Johnny's cell.
21:50Give me those locations.
21:52Johnny's first cell phone ping was at 321, which tied into the neighbor's surveillance video across the street of him
22:01leaving his neighborhood.
22:03The phone continued to ping toward the ATM and then along the route that the white SUV took to the
22:11crime scene.
22:12At 338 a.m., Johnny's phone pings at Linda Court, where the 911 caller finds his body eight hours later.
22:22But this is not the last ping.
22:25At 420 a.m., there's one final ping.
22:29Johnny Sokey's phone was powered off at 420 around Carroll Plantation and Old Pascagoula Road, which is about 10 to
22:3815 miles from Linda Court, where Johnny Sokey's body was discovered.
22:44We believe that this is where the suspect could have went after the crime.
22:49Thanks.
22:52Leap?
22:52I've got to leave.
22:54Let's go.
22:58Investigators zero in on the precise location of the final phone ping.
23:04On October 29th, I was in the area of Old Pascagoula and Carroll Plantation Road attempting to locate Johnny Sokey's
23:12cell phone.
23:16When I observed a white Lincoln aviator parked outside some apartments and was able to observe a tag number on
23:24the vehicle.
23:29I watched a black male and a white female enter the white Lincoln aviator, at which point they exit the
23:40apartment complex and travel west on Old Pascagoula Road.
23:47I stayed at the apartment.
23:49Other investigators were able to catch up with the vehicle on Old Pascagoula Road.
23:58It pulls into a local convenience store.
24:03821 clear.
24:05814 clear.
24:06The female gets out.
24:08The driver remains in the car, drives away from the business, gets back on Old Pascagoula Road.
24:15Investigators were on the aviator's license plate.
24:18The vehicle is registered to a Kenzie Fisher.
24:21She is the passenger inside the vehicle that detectives are surveilling.
24:27We were able to find a relationship to that passenger of a black male with the name of Sobronte Rhodes.
24:38And we was able to identify the driver being Sobronte Rhodes.
24:43With that information, we were also able to ascertain that he had some active warrants on him.
24:51So as I'm observing the apartment complex, the white Lincoln aviator returns.
25:00Minutes later, a car pulls up next to the Lincoln aviator.
25:10White male gets out of the car, goes over to the vehicle, gets into the passenger side of the aviator.
25:21The white Lincoln aviator drives out of the apartment block.
25:31They then observe traveling just down the street to a business complex where they park in front of a business.
25:38So we conducted a traffic stop on that vehicle.
25:48We remove Sobronte from the driver's side.
25:52And we removed the white male from the passenger side.
25:56We detained the two.
25:59From that point, we sealed the vehicle and we have it towed and impounded.
26:05We sent another unit to the convenience store and they detained the female passenger that was dropped off.
26:13We needed to interview these three people to find out on their whereabouts on the night of the murder.
26:24We interviewed the passenger of the white Lincoln aviator, Connor Moretti.
26:31We asked Connor Moretti who Sobronte Rhodes was to him and how we knew him.
26:51It's interesting to see this guy had met Sobronte Rhodes on a dating app, just like Johnny Sokes did.
26:58We asked Connor Moretti if he knew Johnny Sokes.
27:18After a search of Connor Moretti's cell phone, we observed there was no communication between him
27:28and Johnny Sokes on the night of the murder.
27:31This gentleman had no involvement in the murder of Johnny Sokes.
27:38So we was able to mark him off the suspect list.
27:44Next, investigators interview Sobronte's girlfriend, Kenzie Fisher.
27:50We asked her where she was on the night of October 24th.
27:55She said she was home at her apartment.
28:08She'd woken up around 2 a.m. and realized Sobronte was gone.
28:21She texted him at the time to see where he was.
28:24He says, on my way.
28:25This is at 221.
28:28Some time lapse, and he was still out.
28:32At 3.53 a.m., she texts Sobronte again.
28:35So when you sent this message at 3.53, he's not home yet?
28:38Mm-hmm.
28:40I asked her if she suspected him of messing around outside their relationship.
28:45I do.
28:46What's your suspicions of that?
28:48I'm having a different female.
28:50Why do you think that?
28:51Because he disappears in the middle of the night.
28:54I asked her if Sobronte was seeing men outside of their relationship.
29:09She was quite surprised.
29:11So I showed her the surveillance footage from the ATM.
29:15Just tell us if you recognize the person in that picture, what his name is.
29:20It looks like Sobronte, but I can't make it out.
29:23Yeah, see the vehicle?
29:25Yeah, I do see the vehicle, and that does look like my vehicle.
29:29I felt that she was up front about her story and where she was that night.
29:34She showed us the messages that she was sending Sobronte that night, asking his whereabouts.
29:39So that confirmed her alibi.
29:41Her messages also confirmed that Sobronte Rhodes was not home on the night of the murder.
29:47Investigators released Sobronte's girlfriend without charge.
29:53Later that day, I interviewed Sobronte Rhodes.
30:00I'll relate to your warrant.
30:01We want to talk to you about another case we've been investigating.
30:03Were you willing to talk to us?
30:05Yeah, I would.
30:06Okay.
30:06Okay, okay.
30:08We confronted Sobronte about these dating apps.
30:11At first, he was standoffish.
30:13Are you bisexual?
30:15Honestly.
30:16I'm not bisexual.
30:18I have either.
30:20Yes, yeah, I'm bisexual.
30:21Okay.
30:23So I asked Sobronte Rhodes if he met someone by the name of Johnny on the dating app.
30:28I met him on the check for you.
30:30John.
30:31John who?
30:32I don't know his last name.
30:34Big Spanish dude.
30:36So Sobronte told us that he had picked Johnny up from his house.
30:41Where'd you meet him at?
30:42I met him at his house.
30:44Okay.
30:44Did you take him anywhere?
30:46I took him to the ATM machine.
30:47What ATMs I go to?
30:48On Shilin, Fargo.
30:50Wells Fargo.
30:51I took him right back home.
30:53I wasn't gone away from my girl.
30:56No.
30:57So I asked Sobronte the route that they had taken.
31:00When I went home, I went back up airport and I walked on the way up Shilin.
31:04All the way down Shilin?
31:05Yes.
31:06You didn't go nowhere else?
31:06Nowhere else.
31:08You should have been back home around 3.30, you're saying?
31:10Yes.
31:10We knew that Sobronte was not telling the truth because we had got video surveillance from
31:18Johnny's neighbor that shows Sobronte picking Johnny up but never bringing Johnny back home.
31:24So we confronted him with that.
31:26Let me tell you this, okay?
31:28We've got you on video going to get Johnny.
31:31Got you on video at the ATM with Johnny.
31:34Got you on the video leaving the ATM with Johnny.
31:38Y'all didn't go directly back home.
31:40Y'all went down Dolls Road.
31:42No.
31:43I've got you on video.
31:44We've got you on video.
31:46I ain't killed nobody, man.
31:47I swear to God.
31:48Did Johnny kill himself?
31:49Let me ask you.
31:49Did Johnny kill himself?
31:50I don't, I did not kill nobody, man.
31:54I did not take that man nowhere.
31:56Oh, God, no, I want a lawyer, man.
31:59So Sobronte Rhodes, at that point, asked for a lawyer and then we ceased the interview.
32:07So at this point, the interview has stopped.
32:10The investigators have enough.
32:12At which point, our office did approve a murder charge for Sobronte Rhodes.
32:21Investigators inform the family of their progress.
32:30Hi.
32:32The investigators called me and told me that they found a suspect, the suspect that was driving the car that
32:40night.
32:41What's his name?
32:43I had never heard of Sobronte before.
32:59I feel like it was relief for Donnie and her mom and grandmother.
33:11It was a sigh of relief to know that this individual was off the streets.
33:16But there's still a lot of work to do.
33:18We knew Johnny died from a single gunshot wound to the head from the .44 Magnum.
33:23Ideally, you'd have the murder weapon.
33:25You'd have anything that caused the death.
33:28We didn't have a murder weapon in this case.
33:31Finding this weapon was going to be crucial to close in this case.
33:37Sobronte Rhodes is now in jail and he's communicating via email with his girlfriend.
33:44He starts talking about the gun that was used in Johnny's murder and saying that it is in the possession
33:51of someone else.
34:19Sobronte Rhodes is saying that someone else is going to kill someone else.
34:22He was involved in this and that he did not do it.
34:29Investigators review the case file for the shooting that Sobronte describes in his email.
34:35They discover that Mobile Police Department arrested 20-year-old Cameron Sullivan for an armed assault at an Exxon gas
34:42station.
34:44Eight days after the murder of Johnny Sokes.
34:49I contacted the case agent working the case and he gave me the details and told me that they collected
34:55a .44 Magnum from the shooting.
34:59The gun was then sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences and tested against the bullet that was recovered
35:06from Johnny Sokes.
35:09It turned out that it was a match and that was the gun that was used to kill Johnny Sokes.
35:16Is Sobronte the person that killed Johnny or did Cameron Sullivan be Johnny's killer?
35:25We interviewed Cameron Sullivan.
35:29We asked him about the .44 Magnum.
35:33Cameron Sullivan tells detectives that he purchased the gun recovered from the gas station shooting for $100 on October 26th,
35:40the day after Johnny's murder.
35:42He then indicated that he had purchased the gun from Sobronte Roots.
35:52Cameron Sullivan told us that he was an associate to Sobronte.
35:57We was able to ascertain a phone communication between Cameron Sullivan and Sobronte the day after Johnny Sokes' murder.
36:05Have you run his phone GPS?
36:07The cell phone analysis of Cameron Sullivan's phone showed that he was out of state on the morning of the
36:13murder.
36:14Thanks.
36:16And so we knew he was not the one that killed Johnny Sokes.
36:20Cameron Sullivan is uninvolved in Johnny's murder.
36:25Investigators charge him with no crimes in relation to the killing.
36:31Sobronte Roots is trying to evade responsibility for Johnny's death.
36:36He clearly knows what happened.
36:38He's talking about the gun that was used in the murder.
36:41But now he's trying to put the gun and the shooting of Johnny on someone else.
36:48Sobronte Roots' murder trial begins on May 15th, 2023.
36:54He pleads not guilty.
37:00Prosecutor Lauren Walsh sets out the chain of events that led to Johnny's murder.
37:08I think Sobronte Roots was living a double, if not a triple, life.
37:13He had a girlfriend who did not know where he was a lot of the time.
37:18He was with all kinds of other people she didn't know about.
37:25We know that Johnny and Sobronte were meeting up in the early morning hours of October 25th of 2019.
37:39We know that they went to the Wells Fargo ATM together where they were seen on surveillance and where we
37:46know Johnny Sokes withdrew cash.
37:50Sobronte Roots did not take Johnny home after that.
38:08I believe that he robbed him.
38:12I believe that he stole from him.
38:20And executed him.
38:25Sobronte killed Johnny Sokes for no reason at all.
38:33We believe Sobronte Roots chose Linda Court to dump Johnny's body because it was quiet and secluded with no witnesses.
38:41We know his pockets were empty.
38:43We know his phone and his wallet were taken.
38:47We know that Johnny Sokes' phone, it ultimately last connected where Sobronte Roots lived.
38:57Johnny's cell phone and wallet was never recovered.
39:02We believe when we detained Sobronte and Conor Marate that day, Conor Marate could very well have been his next
39:10victim.
39:11On May 17th, 2023, the jury finds Sobronte Roots guilty of intentional murder.
39:20The judge sentences him to life without parole.
39:26When we got the verdict, I felt immense gratification and relief that we were able to secure that conviction and
39:34get justice as well as ensure safety for our community so that the public never has to worry about Sobronte
39:40Roots offending like that again.
39:43He's a very violent person and he's right where he belongs.
39:49The surveillance footage was immensely important in investigating this case and ultimately securing the conviction of Sobronte Roots.
39:59It led us to understand where Johnny Sokes was, what vehicle he was in, and ultimately who he was with.
40:11I can't understand why, why this happened to him.
40:32Shortly after this tragedy, there was actually some good news.
40:37My wife and I found out we were pregnant too, but we weren't ever able to share that with Johnny.
40:52He was a great person and he did not deserve that at all.
40:58And we miss him very much.
41:26He was a great person and he had in my life.
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