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| “ | I loved her. She loved me. | „ |
| ~ Stivers' delusion about the woman he murdered. |
John "Johnny" Stivers is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Atonement". He is a limousine driver who reluctantly murders a fashion model he had unrequited feelings for on the orders of the drug lord he works for.
He was portrayed by Michael Imperioli, who also portrayed Frankie in Shark Tale, Uriel in Lucifer, and Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos.
Early life[]
Stivers was a limousine driver who worked for drug lord Frederick Scannel whose job consisted mostly of transporting his boss' cocaine in the limo's trunk and driving model Sharon Lasko to and from nightclubs and photo shoots.
Stivers, a socially inept loner who was especially awkward with women, harbored romantic feelings for Lasko, but she barely noticed he existed. Nevertheless, when she signed an autograph for him one night out of pity, he believed that she returned his affection, and started planning ways to impress her, even asking his sister for tips on asking Lasko out.
One night, while driving Lasko to a club, he offered to get her cocaine and showed her Scannel's latest shipment, hoping to impress her. Later that night, Lasko drunkenly tells Scannel about Stivers showing her the cocaine. Enraged, Scannel ordered Stivers to kill her, threatening to kill him and hurt his family if he refused. Terrified, Stivers kills Lasko by striking her over the head with a champagne bottle.
"Atonement"[]
After Lasko's purse is found by police officers arresting a pickpocket, NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Rey Curtis investigate her disappearance and briefly talk to Stivers, who tells them he dropped her off after she went clubbing with pro basketball player Ken Soames, her on-again, off-again boyfriend.
Upon finding Lasko's body, Briscoe and Curtis again question Soames, who says that Stivers offered to get her cocaine the night she died. They search his limo and find broken glass and Lasko's blood in the backseat, so they arrest him for murder; while taking him into custody, they find several pictures of Lasko on Stivers' wall.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy and Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid offer Stivers a plea bargain in which he would serve 20 years to life in prison, but he refuses, insisting that he Lasko were in love. His lawyer, Deirdre Powell, enters an insanity plea on his behalf, arguing that he was acting out of an extreme emotional disturbance.
Kincaid talks to Stivers' sister and a coworker, who both say that he talked about Lasko nonstop but lacked the confidence to ask her out. Lasko's friends, meanwhile, say that she had no interest in him, but flirted with him occasionally so he would get her free cocaine.
During the trial, Soames testifies that Lasko knew about Stivers' feelings for her and laughed at him behind his back. Powell cross-examines him and gets him to admit that he and Lasko once had sex in the backseat of the limo while Stivers was driving. Stivers, meanwhile, testifies that he and Lasko were in love, and that he killed her in a fit of rage after she refused his sexual advances.
While trying to prove that Stivers was stalking Lasko, Kincaid talks to the limo company and finds out that Scannel booked several "dummy runs" with Stivers in which there was no actual passengers. Further investigation reveals that Scannel had been at the party where Lasko was murdered. Briscoe and Curtis interrogate Soames, who tells them about Lasko's encounter with Scannel.
McCoy and Kincaid charge Stivers with first-degree murder, accusing him of murdering Lasko because she was a witness to Scannel's criminal activities. They bring him in to a meeting with Scannel, and he tells them how the drug lord ordered him to kill Lasko after he showed her the cocaine. Scannel is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, while Stivers pleads guilty to second-degree murder and is sentenced to 30 years in prison.
External links[]
- Johnny Stivers on the Law & Order Wiki
