Jon Wells - Sniper - The True Story of Anti-Abortion Killer James Kopp

“Loretta,” Jim said. “I want to tell the truth. But I just can’t do it now. If I do, it will destroy you and Dennis. I know what they’ll do, they’ll say you two knew everything and you’ll get slammed.”

“Jim, no, that’s not what will happen. In fact it will send us home. Mehltretter says we’ll get a walk.”

Kopp frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me this right away—that it would benefit you?” he said. He sounded bitter.

“You’re right. But I knew that if I told you about the potential for a walk, you would reflexively sacrifice yourself. I know you, Jim, that’s what you would do. And I don’t want you to lose your life for me.”

Marra left the cell. Barket and Marra asked to meet with Kopp again. His lawyers continued to oppose it. But he met with Loretta a second time. And then a third. He agonized over what to do, still undecided. “When I’m with my lawyers it feels like I’m in hell,” he told her. “I’m fine with them one on one, but when they doubleteam me I can’t stand up to them. If not for you, Loretta, if you hadn’t pushed for the meetings, they wouldn’t have happened. I am just so grateful.”

“Jim,” she said. “You’ve got to fire your lawyers. Can you not see the pattern here? Every time we speak, it’s like things used to be, you are your old self, you’re ready to free your conscience.”

At the fourth meeting, in November, he seemed relaxed, at peace. He was ready to admit to shooting Slepian. It would set Loretta free. But first he wanted to ask the court to let him change the defense team, go with Bruce Barket as his lawyer. And there was one thing that was still bothering him.

“Even if I confess,” he told Loretta, “and they tell you you’re getting a walk, you will still be in danger. I can’t help but think you’re being set up by the government.”

“Bruce says—”

“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is, Loretta. Are you sure they won’t find a way to railroad you?”

“Bruce has an understanding with Kathy Mehltretter. It just needs to be formalized, technicalities worked out. Jim, the government stands to benefit so much from your admission. And what’s the government going to do, stand up in court and try to tell a judge that your admission did not help their case? Bruce has this expression—he said that won’t pass ‘the straight face test.’”

Kopp said she was still in danger. She could be sacrificing her legal interests, and thus the interests of her family, by encouraging him to confess before trial.

“Jim, if I were not positive that your admission will release us, I would beg you to endure your own moral pain and speak after our case was done with.”

Jim Kopp finally had his opportunity to save Loretta. Everything changed after that. He confessed to the Buffalo News reporters, in Barket’s presence. He put it all out there, why he shot Dr. Slepian, how he did it. But Bruce Barket had made a big mistake. He did not yet have a deal finalized with the prosecution that a Kopp confession would automatically release Marra and Malvasi. The Buffalo News waited eight days before splashing “KOPP CONFESSES” on the front page. But Barket still had no signed deal from the prosecution.

James Kopp, Barket’s new client, had figuratively hung himself. And Loretta Marra, his other client, was still in jail with her husband, and would not get a walk as he had promised her. Barket was furious. He felt the Buffalo News had lied to him, thought he had an understanding that the News would wait even longer before running the story. But the newspaper countered that, in fact, Barket had been promised nothing about the publication timetable. News editors said they told Barket that they would need time to write and edit the story, which would give him a bit of time, but there was no deal on how long that would take. Barket had made a major miscalculation. And he knew it.

In November 2002, after Kopp’s confession, Marra and Malvasi were returned to Brooklyn to face trial. In early December they were again denied bail. Loretta Marra had sat in court that day, watched Kathleen Mehltretter recommend to the judge that the couple be kept in custody because they were a flight risk—despite Jim throwing himself on his own sword! They had a deal! Marra seethed, called the prosecutor a “lying bitch.” Turned out Jim had been right all along. It was too good to be true. They had been set up by the government.

Sentencing hearing

Brooklyn Federal Courthouse

August 20, 2003

Judge Carol Amon listened to Loretta Marra’s story. Marra had spoken for a better part of the afternoon, flipping page after page of her speech, and was still not finished. “Ms. Marra, do you think you can summarize your last several pages for the court?”

“Yes, I will try,” she said.

She told the judge the prosecutors had acted in bad faith, had made promises that she and her husband would be released if Kopp confessed—and had then gone back on their word. And now the prosecution was trying to put them away for five years. “I hope you won’t let them get away with it,” she said. “Because Jim would never in a million years have made these admissions prior to the disposition of my case. I beg you, please do not let them get away with this.”

“To summarize, Ms. Marra,” said Amon, “it is your position that Mr. Kopp made these admissions after conversations with you and that the motivating factor for him in making these admissions at the time he did was to benefit you and Mr. Malvasi?”

“Yes.”

Now it was Peter Katz’s turn. The prosecutor argued that in fact there had never been anything on the record, no “direct promise” for the release of Marra and Malvasi. And a newspaper was not the proper forum for Kopp to confess. Barket countered that Marra had been promised “credit” for delivering Kopp’s confession. The fly in the ointment had been when the Buffalo News published the confession story before he had a deal from the prosecution. “The reporters essentially lied to me,” said Barket. “They promised to hold the story.”

Court adjourned until 9:30 the next morning. Judge Amon had come to a decision on the sentence. The government had tried to prove additional criminal conduct to maximize their punishment, to give them nearly three more years in jail. But Amon had decided the prosecution had not proved that sufficiently. “I’m not persuaded that the acts were anything more than harboring.” She looked at Barket. “How much time has been served already?”

“Twenty-nine to 30 months, Your Honor. Since March 29, 2001.”

Amon said that Marra’s words convinced her that she had a role in eliciting Kopp’s confession, and that she deserved some consideration for that. But, the judge continued, the bottom line was that Kopp’s confession, and Loretta Marra’s role in it, was mostly irrelevant. Based on a strict reading of the sentencing guidelines for harboring a fugitive, Marra and Malvasi had already technically exceeded the incarceration guideline for the crime. Barket’s eyes lit up.

“Move time served, Your Honor,” he said.

“Your Honor,” Katz interjected, “if you impose time served, that would not be appropriate.”

“The guideline is low, in light of their conduct,” said the judge. “And Mr. Malvasi has a really disturbing background of violence.” But she decided to release Loretta Marra and Dennis Malvasi. “You are free to return to your children,” the judge said.

In the gallery, friends broke into tears. Amon added a cautionary note. “You helped a man the FBI claimed was a murderer. And he was a murderer. Ms. Marra, in part of your statement you said you will continue to admire Mr. Kopp, and that your moral concern was not centered on his admission of killing, but that he lied to his followers about it. I find that troubling. I hope you will use your considerable intellect to educate your children; don’t poison them with any notion that you were political prisoners of an unfair system, because that was not the case. You are sentenced to time served, plus three years supervised release and a $100 fine. You must reside in the Eastern District of New York.”