Sydney man admits gay hate murder of American 32 years ago
SYDNEY (AP) — An Australian man has pleaded guilty to murdering an American mathematician who fell from a Sydney cliff in 1988 in a gay hate crime that was dismissed by police at the time as suicide. Scott White was charged in 2020 with murdering 27-year-old Los Angeles-born Scott Johnson, whose naked body was found at the base of a cliff in 1988. White yelled repeatedly in court during a pre-trial hearing on Monday that he was guilty. A state Supreme Court judge on Thursday accepted the guilty plea, dismissing the objections of White’s lawyers. White is to be sentenced in May and could face life in prison.
