Gail Shollar

Gail F. Shollar (1957–1992) was a 35-year-old Piscataway, NJ mother who was raped and murdered after being carjacked from a shopping mall in South Plainfield, NJ. She was one of the first people in New Jersey to be a victim of carjacking. The first carjacking in the United States had only occurred the previous year in Detroit with the murder of Ruth Wahl.

Abduction

On the evening of November 3, 1992, Gail Shollar, a mother of three children, was shopping at a mall in South Plainfield with her 3-year-old daughter, Andrea. It is believed that while loading groceries into her minivan, she was abducted. The next morning, her daughter was found cold and crying but physically unharmed in front of a local day-care center. After four days, Gail's partially nude body was found raped and murdered, under leaves in a drainage ditch behind a local lumber yard. She had been stabbed more than 40 times.^[1] As a result of the case, carjacking became a household word and new laws were drafted to deal severely with this type of crime.

Investigation and apprehension of suspect

One day after the abduction, the Shollar minivan was found a few miles from the shopping mall, and the police recovered a palm print, fingerprints and other forensic evidence that was matched to Scott R. Johnson of Plainfield, NJ. The next day a kitchen knife with Mrs. Shollar's blood on it was found in the backyard of Johnson's neighbor. Andrea Shollar described the suspect as a black man wearing black pants and a black shirt. The Piscataway police also obtained a composite sketch from a woman who had reported a suspicious van in the neighborhood after observing a man standing on her front porch. The van was found to be Mrs. Shollar's and her driver's license among other items was found inside it. This same woman later picked out the picture of Scott Johnson in a photo array.^[2]

During other interviews, it was determined that Johnson had previously lived nearby in Piscataway before moving to Plainfield. On Friday, November 6, 1992, Piscataway police questioned Johnson outside his residence and observed a large bandage over a cut on his right hand, which he explained as having happened while he was washing dishes. After learning that the palm print and fingerprints found in the minivan matched Johnson, the Piscataway police arrested him on November 8, 1992.^[3]

Trial, conviction and appeal

Johnson was tried on 13 counts for the carjacking, rape and murder of Gail Shollar. The trial began on January 24, 1995 in New Brunswick, NJ. On February 24, the jury found him guilty on all counts.^[4] During the penalty phase of the trial, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on death by lethal injection, and on May 8, Johnson was sentenced to life imprisonment with 30-year parole ineligibility for the murder and a consecutive 100-year sentence with 50-year parole ineligibility for the other crimes. Johnson appealed, and on March 9, 1998, the appeals court affirmed both the convictions and the sentences.^[2]

Lawsuit

In January 2000, Robert Shollar filed a wrongful-death suit against the shopping mall where Gail Shollar had been abducted. The lawsuit alleged that the mall's managers were aware of numerous previous crimes on their property and did not have adequate security in the parking area. The case was settled for $4.125 million, payable to Gail Shollar's estate.^[5]

References

1. "Life and Breath", Rkvry Quarterly Literary Journal, Summer 2008.
2. "State of New Jersey v. Scott Johnson", Superior Court of New Jersey, March 9, 1998.
3. "Fingerprints Lead to Suspect in N.J. Kidnaping, Slaying", Associated Press, November 9, 1992.
4. "Man Convicted of Rape-Murder in Carjacking at Shopping Mall", New York Times, February 25, 1995.
5. "$4,125,000 Settlement For Lack Of Security At Shopping Mall, Which Resulted In Rape And Murder Of Mall Shopper", Attorney John Blume, Spring 2000.