PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The petition lays out, in 85 pages of meticulous detail, the case for Erickson’s release. It alleges that Erickson is innocent and that police and prosecutors took advantage of his mental health, poor memory and addiction issues to persuade him that he’d committed murder. It cites new evidence that has surfaced since his 2004 guilty plea. Heitholt, 48, was found beaten and strangled near his car in the parking lot of the Tribune in November 2001. One of the prosecution’s key witnesses, Tribune janitor Jerry Trump, recanted his testimony given during Ferguson’s trial that he saw Ferguson and Erickson in the Tribune parking lot. The petition also cites the complete lack of physical evidence tying Erickson to the crime scene, as did Ferguson’s legal efforts to be released. But the Columbia Police Department and Boone County prosecutors took a “no-holds-barred approach” to get Erickson to confess to the crime, the petition alleges, citing numerous instances where the prosecutor’s office made no records of contradictory statements from witnesses. “They withheld evidence. They fabricated evidence. And they unconstitutionally coerced Charles to falsely confess and plead guilty,” the petition states."
---------------------------------------------------------------
STORY: "And now it is Charles' turn': Filing seeks release of Erickson for Heitholt murder, by reporter Tynan Stewart, published by the Columbia Missourian on December 15, 2018.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Charles Erickson enters the Cole County Circuit Court during the third day of an evidentiary hearing for former convicted murder defendant Ryan Ferguson on April 18, 2012, in Jefferson City. Ferguson was sentenced to 40 years after his 2005 conviction for second-degree murder and robbery in the death of Columbia Daily Tribune editor Kent Heitholt four years earlier, but was exonerated in 2013. Erickson received a 25-year sentence as part of a plea bargain for implicating his Rock Bridge High School classmate."
GIST: "Charles
Erickson, who told police in 2004 that he and Ryan Ferguson killed
Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt, is seeking to be
released from prison where he has served nearly 15 years of a 25-year
sentence for the murder. On
Tuesday, Erickson’s Kansas City-based attorney, Landon Magnusson, filed a
petition for writ of habeas corpus, a civil action that asks the court
to determine whether a petitioner’s imprisonment is lawful. The petition
was filed in Pike County Circuit Court because the prison where
Erickson is incarcerated, Northeast Correctional Center, is in that
county. Erickson was 20 years
old when he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree robbery
and armed criminal action in November 2004. Ryan Ferguson, also 20 at
the time, pleaded not guilty to the same charges and was convicted by a
jury on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery October
2017. After
a lengthy legal fight in several courts, Ferguson’s convictions were
vacated in November 2013, and he was released from prison almost
immediately. He’d served almost a decade in prison. “Charlie
has had many days and nights of hopelessness,” said Marianne Erickson,
his mother, in a phone interview. “This petition brings back hope — hope
that he can be free and live a good life and come home.” The
petition lays out, in 85 pages of meticulous detail, the case for
Erickson’s release. It alleges that Erickson is innocent and that police
and prosecutors took advantage of his mental health, poor memory and
addiction issues to persuade him that he’d committed murder. It cites
new evidence that has surfaced since his 2004 guilty plea.
Heitholt,
48, was found beaten and strangled near his car in the parking lot of
the Tribune in November 2001. One of the prosecution’s key witnesses,
Tribune janitor Jerry Trump, recanted his testimony given during Ferguson’s trial that he saw Ferguson and Erickson in the Tribune parking lot.
The
petition also cites the complete lack of physical evidence tying
Erickson to the crime scene, as did Ferguson’s legal efforts to be
released. But the Columbia
Police Department and Boone County prosecutors took a “no-holds-barred
approach” to get Erickson to confess to the crime, the petition alleges,
citing numerous instances where the prosecutor’s office made no records
of contradictory statements from witnesses. “They
withheld evidence. They fabricated evidence. And they
unconstitutionally coerced Charles to falsely confess and plead guilty,”
the petition states.
Kevin
Crane, current Boone County Circuit Judge, was the Boone County
prosecutor at the time. Crane was initially named in the $100 million
civil rights lawsuit filed by Ferguson, though he was later dropped from the suit. A $10 million settlement was reached in that lawsuit in July 2017.
The
petition also argues Erickson is entitled to habeas corpus relief
because his guilty plea was not voluntarily and knowingly made. His plea
was coerced under intense interrogation that exploited his
“psychological and cognitive vulnerabilities,” according to the
petition. Among those
vulnerabilities were undiagnosed psychological disorders, including
obsessive-compulsive disorder, the petition states. “The
record is clear — the totality of the circumstances shows Charles’
guilty plea is constitutionally unacceptable,” the petition states. Magnusson,
Erickson’s attorney, said in a phone interview that he believes he has
crafted a strong argument but that success isn’t 100 percent certain.
“A habeas petition is like the ‘Hail Mary’ of getting out of prison,” Magnusson said. While
he is 100 percent confident of Erickson’s innocence, Magnusson said he
and Erickson are working within a system that has already failed
Erickson. The Midwest Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal group that works to overturn wrongful convictions, took on Erickson’s case in 2016. They asked Magnusson to work the case, and he took it on pro bono, he said. Magnusson noted that Ferguson was denied release four times before his second writ of habeas corpus was approved by the Western District Court of Appeals. The filing of the writ of habeas corpus came more than two years after Erickson’s previous attorney told the Missourian he would file it, five years after Ferguson was released and nearly 15 years after Erickson was first sent to prison.
For Marianne Erickson, the wait has been difficult. “For Charlie and
our family — but particularly for Charlie, it’s been excruciatingly
painful and worrisome,” she said. But, after seeing the petition for the
first time Saturday, Marianne Erickson said she’s confident her son
will be exonerated. A hearing in Erickson’s case was scheduled for 2
p.m. Monday in the Pike County Courthouse, according to online court
records."Z"
The entire story can be read at:
The National Register of Exonerations entry on Ryan Ferguson can be read at:
http://www.law.umich.edu/
"At 2:08 a.m. on November 1, 2001, 48-year-old Kent Heitholt, sports
editor of the Columbia Daily Tribune, signed off his computer and left
the newspaper offices. Less than 15 minutes later, two newspaper
custodians saw two white males standing next to the Heitholt’s car in
the Tribune parking lot. One yelled, “Someone’s hurt out here, man,” and
both walked out of the lot. Police were called and arrived within
minutes, but Heitholt was next to his car with severe head wounds. He
had been strangled to death.
Police questioned the two custodians, Shawna Ornt and Jerry Trump.
Ornt was able to work with a sketch artist and provide a composite
drawing of only one of the men, who she said was muscular, with blond
hair and was in his early 20’s. Trump was unable to provide a
description of either man, except to say they were white and in their
20’s. Heitholt’s watch and keys were missing, but his wallet was inside
the car.
The murder remained unsolved for two years. In October 2003, the local newspapers printed articles about the case and the fact that it was still unsolved. Charles Erickson read the articles and began to wonder if he had committed the crime. On the night of the murder, Erickson and his high school classmate, Ryan Ferguson, both 17 years old, were drinking at a tavern called By George, located a few blocks from the Tribune.
Erickson had gotten so drunk that night that he blacked out and
could not remember anything after leaving the bar. But prompted by the
news articles, Erickson told Ferguson in late December 2003 or early
January 2004, that he was having “dream like” memories that he and
Ferguson had murdered Heitholt. Ferguson ridiculed Erickson and said
that was not true, but Erickson told two other friends about his
recovered memories. One of the friends called police.
On March 10, 2004, Columbia police picked up Erickson and after questioning, he confessed that he and Ferguson robbed and killed Heitholt. Ferguson was arrested the same day. He denied any involvement in the crime and said that after he and Erickson left the tavern, he dropped Erickson off at his home and then went to his own home.
Ferguson and Erickson were charged with first degree murder and robbery. In 2004, Erickson pled guilty to murder and robbery, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and agreed to testify against Ferguson.
Ferguson went on trial in the fall of 2005 in Boone County Circuit Court before a jury. There was no physical evidence linking him or Erickson to the crime, though the police had recovered fingerprints and footprints from the murder scene. The prosecution claimed that Erickson and Ferguson left the bar intending to rob someone to get money so they could continue drinking—despite the fact that the bar had already closed by the time of the crime and even though Heitholt’s wallet was found in his car.
The prosecution theorized that Ferguson and Erickson walked a few blocks from the bar, happened upon Heitholt and beat and strangled him. A pathologist testified that Heitholt was struck 11 times in the head with what appeared to be a tire iron before being strangled.
The prosecution’s evidence consisted of Erickson’s confession and the testimony of Trump, the newspaper custodian who had initially said he could not identify the men in the parking lot. Trump, a convicted sex offender, testified that he had been arrested on a parole violation in December 2001—not long after the murder—and was in prison in December 2004 when his wife mailed him a copy of a newspaper article about the arrests of Erickson and Ferguson.
Trump claimed that the newspaper was folded in such a way that he saw the photographs of Ferguson and Erickson before he saw the article about their arrest. He testified that he immediately recognized the photographs as the men he saw in the parking lot on the night of Heitholt’s murder. Trump then identified Ferguson in court.
On December 5, 2005, Ferguson was convicted of second degree murder and first degree robbery. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Ferguson’s convictions were upheld on appeal. In November 2009, Erickson reached out to Ferguson’s lawyers and gave a taped statement saying that he alone committed the murder and robbery and that Ferguson was an innocent bystander. The videotape was given to attorney Kathleen Zellner, a Chicago area defense lawyer who had investigated and helped more than a dozen other wrongfully convicted defendants prove their innocence.
A motion for a new trial based on the recantation was filed and denied. In February 2011, Ferguson filed a state petition for a writ of habeas corpus in Cole County, where he was incarcerated. The petition alleged that Trump had recanted his trial testimony that his wife had mailed him the newspaper with the story about the Heitholt murder. In fact, Trump said, the prosecution had reached out to him and showed him the newspaper, and that he falsely identified Ferguson and Erickson so that he would be released from prison. The prosecution denied showing the newspaper to Trump.
In addition, the petition alleged that Erickson had expanded his recantation to say that he was not involved in the murder and neither was Ferguson. Moreover, the petition alleged that the prosecution had interviewed Trump’s wife before Ferguson’s trial and she told them that she had not sent any newspaper articles to Trump.
After a hearing, the petition was denied in October 2012. Ferguson then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Missouri Court of Appeals in January 2012, alleging the same claims—that the prosecution had withheld evidence that would have impeached Trump.
At a hearing on the petition, Trump claimed that the prosecution showed him the newspaper photographs and he decided to falsely implicate Ferguson and Erickson in the hope of future leniency.
On November 5, 2013, the Missouri Court Of Appeals reversed Ferguson’s conviction, ruling that the prosecution had failed to disclose evidence that showed Trump had lied at Ferguson’s trial—that Trump’s wife said she did not mail him the newspaper. The court ordered the prosecution to decide within 15 days whether to retry Ferguson or to appeal the decision granting a new trial.
On November 12, the Boone County District Attorney’s Office said it would not pursue the case any longer and Ferguson was released.
In March 2014, Ferguson filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.
against the city of Columbia; Boone County; Circuit Court Judge Kevin
Crane, who prosecuted Ferguson; several police officers; and other
investigators who worked on the case. Ultimately, all defendants except
for retired Columbia Police Department officers Bryan Liebhart, Jeff
Nichols, Jeff Westbrook, John Short and Lloyd Simons and current Officer
Latisha Stroer were dismissed from the case and the remaining
defendants admitted they were liable for damages. In July 2017, after a
four-hour damages trial without a jury, U.S. District Judge Nanette
Laughrey awarded Ferguson $11 million--$1 million for each of the 10
years he was incarcerated--and $1 million in attorney's fees."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/
