Conviction from 1992 killing in Poplar Bluff overturned by court

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A state appeals court has overturned a man's conviction for the 1992 strangulation death of Southeast Missouri woman, citing insufficient evidence.

Samuel Andrew Freeman, 41, of Jefferson City, Mo., was convicted in 2006 of killing Laura Ann Wynn, 31, of Poplar Bluff.

But in a ruling Wednesday, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Southern District threw out the conviction. The state will appeal, said John Fougere, a spokesman for Attorney General Jay Nixon.

Freeman's attorney, Steve Walsh, said he was "ecstatic" over the ruling.

"We believed in his innocence from the beginning," Walsh said.

Wynn's body was found May 7, 1992, inside her apartment.

Authorities alleged that Freeman was embarrassed when Wynn confronted him in front of other patrons at a Poplar Bluff bar. Police believe Freeman went to the apartment and waited for her to return, then used one of her nylon stockings to strangle her.

DNA evidence from the stocking and from a tissue near Wynn's body was used to convict him. Personnel from the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab said the chance of the killer being someone other than Freeman was 1 in 6.1 quadrillion.

In addition to DNA evidence, the state cited Freeman's possession of a bottle hours before Wynn was killed, a bottle the state said could have been used to strike Wynn on the head and sodomize her.

But Chief Judge Gary Lynch said the presence of DNA and Freeman's possession of the bottle as he left the bar, "seven or eight blocks removed from the crime scene, is not sufficient evidence from which a reasonable juror could reasonably and logically infer that [he] caused [Wynn[']s] death."