A killer was caught after 26 years thanks to his estranged husband.
Timothy Stephenson's life came crashing down after police found new essential information that helped them work out what happened back in 1998 in Kansas City. Stephenson has this month been sentenced to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. He admitted killing a man he met at a bar in Kansas City.
His life started falling apart back in 2021, a year after his husband filed for divorce and as the couple were in the middle of a legal battle over custody for their children. It was that December he was arrested by police on murder charges, with the information coming from his estranged husband.
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His sentencing comes ten years after he told his husband Joseph Ginejko about the killing he had committed. According to a probable cause statement obtained by CNN, Stephenson told his husband in 2014 that he met the man, Randall Oliphant, at a gay bar in January 1998 and they drove to Stephenson’s house in Kansas City, where he shot him twice in the bathroom.
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Stephenson said that OIiphant pleaded for his life after being shot for the first time, with the probable cause statement not mentioning a motive. Oliphant's body was not found until two months later in some woods in rural Benton County, Missouri, about 100 miles southeast of Kansas City.
Stephenson knew the area as his father and grandmother lived nearby, according to Missouri State Police, and he had been there many times. It has been alleged he confessed to his husband that he had redone the bathroom to hide the crime.
He was interviewed by investigators back in 1998, when he said he had taken an "unknown male" to his home in Kansas City, but adding he gave the man a ride afterwards and dropped him off at a different bar. Investigators said Stephenson's phone records showed roaming charges from a cellular tower near where the body was found.
Back in 1998, police also found the person who had bought Stephenson's Jeep Wrangler four months after the murder. The new owner said parts of the carpet were missing, with police saying blood traces were found in the Jeep but that the DNA evidence was inconclusive.
Stephenson and Ginejko married in 2008 and were living with their daughters in a San Francisco suburb that was one named the safest in California. Court records show Ginejko filed for divorce in January 2020, six years after his husband's confession.
Ginejko told police he had tried to find out more about the killing but that he hadn't been able to find out more online. However, at some point between early 2020 and April 2021, the estranged husband approached police and gave them details that had never been made public before, the probable cause statement said.
In the probable cause statement, investigators said an undercover operation was staged in April 2021, when a meeting between the pair was secretly captured on audio and video. During the conversation, which included them talking about their children, Ginejko brought up the confession.
According to the court document, Stephenson’s demeanor changed and he “became paranoid", asking his husband if he was recording the conversation, and even frisked him — also examining his wallet, phone and coffee cup.
Ginejko repeatedly asked Stephenson why he killed Oliphant, to which he gave conflicting answers. Stephenson eventually admitted that he had confessed years ago to the killing, the court document said, but claimed he had said that to scare him into staying with him.
Stephenson’s 16-year sentence includes credit for time served.
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