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NewsOctober 29, 2013

Ryan Patterson's effort to have his murder conviction overturned now is set for trial in January. Patterson, who is serving three life sentences for the 2009 deaths of a pregnant Cape Girardeau woman and her 15-year-old son, filed a handwritten motion Jan. 10 in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court, seeking the have the judgment against him vacated, set aside or corrected, claiming the case "has many of the hallmarks of wrongful convictions."...

In this file photo, Ryan Patterson is escorted outside the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse Thursday, August 4, 2011 in Jackson after a jury suggested he receive three life sentences without the possibility of parole. Patterson was found guilty of three first-degree murder charges related to the 2009 shooting deaths of Jamie Lynn Orman, her son Derrick and unborn child. (Laura Simon)
In this file photo, Ryan Patterson is escorted outside the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse Thursday, August 4, 2011 in Jackson after a jury suggested he receive three life sentences without the possibility of parole. Patterson was found guilty of three first-degree murder charges related to the 2009 shooting deaths of Jamie Lynn Orman, her son Derrick and unborn child. (Laura Simon)

Jamie Orman, her unborn child and her 15-year-old son, Derrick, were killed Oct. 27, 2009, as part of what prosecutors characterized as a failed scheme to murder Orman's boyfriend and burn his home to collect insurance money.

One day after the four-year anniversary of their deaths, a Cape Girardeau County circuit judge set a date to hear Ryan Patterson's latest effort to have his conviction overturned.

Patterson, who is serving three life sentences for the murders, filed a handwritten motion Jan. 10 in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court, seeking to have the judgment against him vacated, set aside or corrected, claiming the case "has many of the hallmarks of wrongful convictions."

On Monday, Judge William Syler set the case for trial at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 13.

Patterson did not appear in court Monday, but his attorney, Jessica Hathaway, and Julie Hunter, who is representing the state, said they had taken depositions from witnesses in the case, and Hathaway said she and her client were ready to proceed "at the court's earliest convenience."

Hunter asked Syler to set the date for sometime after Christmas so the victims' relatives, who live in Georgia, could make it to the trial.

Syler asked Hathaway to send him the depositions in advance.

In August 2011, a jury from Pemiscot County convicted Patterson of killing the Ormans as part of a plot to murder Jamie Orman's boyfriend, John Lawrence, burn his Missouri Avenue home and collect insurance money.

Online court records show the Eastern District Court of Appeals affirmed Patterson's conviction last October.

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In court documents, Patterson claimed key witnesses lied about him in exchange for lighter sentences; prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence and information that could have undermined witnesses' credibility; and his public defenders provided inadequate representation at both the trial and appellate levels.

At the time of the Ormans' deaths, Patterson lived with Lawrence's estranged wife, Michelle Lawrence, who in 2011 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and testified against Patterson in exchange for a 15-year sentence.

A third suspect, Samuel "Ray Ray" Hughes, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison after testifying in 2010 that he had served as a lookout during the murders but thought Patterson was planning to burglarize John Lawrence's home, not kill anybody.

Patterson has requested DNA testing of blood found on Hughes' socks and boots.

In an affidavit, he also claimed that, among other things, his attorneys did not call a witness who would have placed him somewhere else at the time of the murders and failed to argue that a footprint found at the scene did not belong to him.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

1224 Missouri Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO

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