VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A judge said Monday he would listen to 19 hours of evidence before deciding whether some or all of it should be suppressed in the murder trial of Lamont Johnson.
The focus of that evidence is Johnson's confession to killing Bellamy Gamboa in 2018. Johnson was Gamboa's ex-boyfriend at the time of her death and the father of two of her children.
Gamboa’s family said they are still waiting for justice, three years later.
“We were hoping a trial will happen sometime this year," said Charisse Gamboa, Bellamy’s sister. “Consider 2020 not counted, but 2 years I hear is average.”
Police said Johnson, who faces a charge of Second-degree Murder, made his confession after his arrest. They said he admitted to investigators that he pushed Gamboa down a set of stairs, then fell on top of her. He said after they fell, they got into a fight, and he strangled her. He told officers her body was put into a bag and left in a dumpster in Chesapeake.
Gamboa's body was never found.
Her sister, Charisse, said she wants to make clear that her sister and Johnson were not fighting about paying rent for their apartment.
"I want to clear that up, my sister and Lamont were co-parenting their twins, not in a relationship and not arguing about rent," she said. "In fact, she texted her best friend joking about rent, rent wasn't an issue, I just have to clear that up because the media is making it seem she wasn't paying her portion."
She also wanted to add that she believes her sister’s first thought was not to leave the house with her twins but to grab her phone and call 911. She said she had an opportunity to save her own life after she landed on the stair landing. She said her sister was concerned Johnson was planning on changing the locks or removing her off of the lease.
A Virginia Beach police detective testified as to what Johnson said in his confession when she took the stand at a motion to suppress evidence hearing Monday.
Det. Lanis Geluso said for three days, police and volunteers spent more than 3,000 hours searching for Gamboa.
She also said investigators searched Johnson’s phone and found Google searches for "Where does your garbage go?" Geluso said he looked at Chesapeake and Suffolk Waste Management.
Geluso said she and detectives searched nine dumpsters, as well as the Suffolk landfill, with their bare hands. On July 10, detectives said they found her car keys in one of the dumpsters.
Geluso said Johnson did nothing to look for Gamboa. He told detectives he didn't know where to look.
When Johnson confessed to detectives, Geluso said he claimed to have pushed her down the stairs, and he tripped over the hamper and fell with one of the twins in his hands. Johnson allegedly told police he choked Gamboa until she stopped breathing, then put smaller trash bags over her head and tied her with ethernet cable cords. Geluso said he told her he carried Gamboa sideways and put her in trunk of car -- then put her in a dumpster on South Military Highway in Chesapeake.
Johnson's lawyer told the judge that at some point when Johnson talked to investigators, Johnson told them he was done and had nothing else to tell them, but they continued the conversation. He said it was after Johnson indicated he was done that he made the confession.
The lawyer argued that investigators should have stopped prior to the confession, and for that reason, it should be suppressed. They also said there was a coercive environment from law enforcement that led to the confession.
The prosecution said that police were within the law and that the confession should remain in evidence.
Because of the length of the evidence that needed to be considered, the judge said he would listen to it on his own time.
He set a date of August 4 for the next step in the motion to suppress. At that time, he should have a ruling.
All parties agreed on Monday to meet within a few days to set a trial date for Johnson.