In second day of hearing, Joshua Kezer says he never heard of murder victim before her death

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The first time Joshua C. Kezer laid eyes on the 19-year-old girl he was convicted of killing 14 years ago was when his attorney sent him an obituary with her picture while he was awaiting trial, Kezer told a courtroom Wednesday morning.

Kezer was one of the last witnesses to testify in a two-day hearing challenging his 1994 second-degree murder and armed criminal action conviction. The hearing was expected to end Wednesday, but defense witness David Rosener -- one of Kezer's original defense attorneys -- was unable to attend. The hearing will be continued Dec. 11.

Kezer testified that when he was arrested in March 1993 at his father's home in Kankakee, Ill., where he was living at the time, he hadn't heard of Angela Mischelle Lawless.

Kezer, now 33, has served 14 years of a 60-year sentence for the Lawless murder. Lawless was found shot to death and beaten in her car Nov. 8, 1992, near the off-ramp of northbound Interstate 55 in Benton, Mo.

This week's hearing is a civil case challenging the evidence used to convict him. His attorneys have also found documents that were never given to his original defense attorneys.

ELIZABETH DODD ~ edodd@semissourian.comMarvin Lawless, the father of Angela Mischelle Lawless, and his wife listen to testimony by Joshua C. Kezer in a Wednesday hearing at the Cole County Courthouse in Jefferson City.

Kezer testified Wednesday that he didn't find out he was charged with the murder until after two investigators transported him to the Scott County Sheriff's Department on assault charges.

There, former Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell accused him of "killing his little girl," Kezer testified.

Kezer said he instantly burst into tears. "It became very clear to me that they were going to make sure I went to prison for this -- I was terrified," Kezer said.

Kezer was convicted June 17, 1994. Already this week, a key trial witness -- Chantelle Crider, now Chantelle Carlisle -- has said her original testimony was wrong.

Carlisle was a surprise witness who during the trial said she recognized Kezer as the man who argued with Lawless at a Halloween party a week before her death.

On Tuesday, Carlisle testified that she was mistaken. She said she knows now it was Todd Mayberry, a local teen at the time. She met Mayberry a short time after Kezer's trial, she testified, and realized her mistake.

"I regret it horribly. It affects me every day," Carlisle said.

The jury verdict was a crushing blow, Kezer said Wednesday. "I remember it felt like the air got sucked out of the room."

He didn't hear his mother screaming, he said, and felt numb as he was led to a nearby room to tell his family good-bye.

"Everybody was crying, we didn't know what went wrong," Kezer said, his voice breaking.

"How do you fix that? I was just a kid, and they wanted to put me in prison for the rest of my life," Kezer said.

The packed Cole County courtroom was silent except for the muffled crying of Joan Kezer, Joshua Kezer's mother, as he testified.

Marvin Lawless, father of Angela Mischelle Lawless, seated in the front row, kept his head bowed and broad shoulders lowered, his daughter's image emblazoned on a button pinned to his black jacket.

"I don't want her to get lost in all this. She was murdered, and justice needs to be done," Marvin Lawless said after the hearing.

Kezer testified he was in Kankakee when he learned at 11:30 p.m. Nov. 7, 1992, that a cousin had been in a car accident. He went to check on the cousin, he said. Lawless was shot and killed shortly after 1 a.m. Nov. 8, 1992, in Benton, 350 miles from Kankakee.

Cross-examination

During cross-examination, Michael Spillane, assistant with the Missouri attorney general's office, highlighted an inconsistency between the trial testimony of a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigator and Kezer's testimony Wednesday.

Kezer said he had never fired a gun. He did admit to being a member of the Latin Kings street gang in Kankakee.

Trooper Don Windham, who drove Kezer from Kankakee to Scott County, testified at the 1994 trial that Kezer told him he was a "good shot."

Kezer denied having made the statement, saying he said he had access to guns as a Latin King but never fired one.

Bill Bohnert, a Cape Girardeau detective, testified Wednesday morning that in 1996, he'd gone to the Perry County Jail because Mark T. Abbott, then in federal custody on methamphetamine charges, wanted to talk to him.

Abbott was a key witness in Kezer's trial and testified he saw Kezer at a closed gas station as Abbott was calling 911 to report finding Lawless' body.

Abbott testified at the murder trial that he didn't know Kezer before picking him out of a photo lineup.

Bohnert testified that Abbott told him he'd seen Lawless the night she was killed when he and a friend, Kevin Williams, had followed her to the Benton exit.

Abbott said he remained in the car but heard Williams argue with Lawless, followed by gunshots, Bohnert said.

Bohnert said he turned the information over to Windham, the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigator who worked on Kezer's case, on the advice of Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle.

Windham replied that there was already a conviction in the case and declined to pursue the statement, Bohnert testified.

Abbott, incarcerated in a federal prison in Wisconsin, denied making the statement.

Terri Williams, wife of Kevin Williams, testified Tuesday that her husband was with her at a party the night Lawless was killed.

Another witness, Ron Burton, testified Wednesday that he was on a fishing trip several years ago with Abbott when the subject of Abbott's testimony in the Kezer case came up. "Mark snickered and said, 'Well, they got the wrong guy in prison," Burton testified.

When Abbott went on to say he "took care" of Lawless, Burton, a longtime friend of the Lawless family, said he was in shock.

At issue in the hearing, in addition to Kezer's argument of "actual innocence," is whether Kezer was denied due process because a statement Abbott made to a police officer 10 days after the murder violated disclosure rules.

The police report shows Abbott named the person he saw near the crime scene as someone he knew, someone other than Kezer, but Al Lowes, Kezer's trial lawyer, testified the defense never knew the report existed.

At some point after the conclusion of the hearing Dec. 11, Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan will rule on whether to grant a new trial, uphold the conviction or exonerate Kezer.

Callahan asked both Spillane and Charles Weiss, attorney for Kezer, to prepare proposed judgments expressing how they believe he should rule and their desired outcome.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

388-3635

Day two of Kezer hearing

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