Thomas Sophonow: A Long Road to Innocence
| Author | G. Greg Brodsky |
| Pages | 51-63 |
Thomas
Sophonow:
A
Long
Road
to
Innocence
G.
GREG
BRODSKY,
QC
1989
On
December
23,
1981, Barbara Stoppel,
a
pretty sixteen-year-old girl work-
ing
alone
in a
donut
shop
in
Winnipeg,
was
strangled
to
death.
One
year later,
on
December
12,
1982, Thomas Sophonow
was
arrested
for her
murder.
Sophonow,
a
door attendant
from
the
Laugheed Hotel
in
Vancouver,
was
placed
in a
line-up
and
positively identified
by
eight eyewitnesses.
He
made
two
incriminating statements
to
police, saying
he was the
only
one who had
the
opportunity
to be the
killer.
He
also made some remarks
to an
undercov-
er
police
officer
about
the
inside
of the
donut shop, points that could
be
known only
to the
killer.
In the
course
of his
third trial,
he
made
a
number
of
positively
incriminating statements
to
some
fellow
jailhouse residents.
In
addition, Sophonow
had a
unique kind
of
twine,
a
twine made
by
only
one
company
in the
world,
in his
car.
The
same twine
was
found around Barbara
Stoppel's neck. Sophonow
had the
motive
to
commit
the
crime, according
to
the
police, because
he had
just
had a
dispute
with
his
wife,
was
angry,
and
wanted
to
dispense this passion
in
some strange way. Finally,
he had the
opportunity.
He
came
to
Winnipeg
en
route
to a
holiday
in
Mexico. Right
after
the
killing
he
went back
to
Vancouver.
Given
all
this incriminating evidence,
the
case
was
difficult.
It
would
challenge
the
ingenuity,
the
perspicacity,
and the
stamina
of any
defence
counsel.
Before
it was
over,
it
would leave
a
history
of a
mistrial
at
first
trial,
51
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