Joshua Kezer adjusting to life out of prison, reuniting with family

For years, Hadley James said a specific prayer at each family gathering, asking that he would one day get the chance to have all five of his grandchildren together at dinner again.

On July 10, in celebration of James and his wife Jane's 60th wedding anniversary Sunday, the entire family was able to be together for the first time since their grandson, Joshua C. Kezer, was convicted 15 years ago of second-degree murder.

Kezer, now 34, was released from prison in February after a Missouri judge ruled he had been wrongly convicted of the 1992 killing of 19-year-old Angela Mischelle Lawless in Benton, Mo.

"It was a long time coming," Hadley James said of having his extended family together again.

Kathy Smith, aunt of Kezer, was in a Ste. Genevieve County courtroom in June of 1994 when Kezer was convicted, and said she vividly remembers the moment.

Joshua Kezer, center, poses for a photo with family members Rebecca Sherman, left, Kathy Smith and Michael Whisker at a 60th anniversary celebration for Kezer's grandparents Hadley and Jane James on Friday at Dexter BBQ in Cape Girardeau. (Elizabeth Dodd)

"He stayed with me off and on all the time, and then he was just gone," Smith said Friday at a family dinner at Dexter's BBQ in Cape Girardeau.

"Now all of a sudden he's back, it's just unreal, it's like he was never gone."

After almost five months of freedom, Kezer, who recently moved into his own apartment in Columbia, Mo., said he's enjoying the chance to reunite with family members -- including nieces and nephews born during his incarceration -- and old friends.

"I'm enjoying life," Kezer said.

Kezer has been working about 25 to 30 hours a week for a contractor based in Columbia, doing painting and drywalling, and searching for speaking opportunities at public events, he said.

Joshua Kezer, holds his niece Madison Smith, 4, whom he has only seen for the second time at a 60th anniversary celebration for Kezer's grandparents Hadley and Jane James Friday at Dexter Barbeque in Cape Girardeau. (Elizabeth Dodd)

Learning to handle his finances has been difficult, he said, but it's a struggle he doesn't mind having.

"Isn't that everybody else's trouble, too?" Kezer said.

He's also had the opportunity since his release to attend church services with his grandparents, who he says provided the foundation for his faith in God, without which he has said he wouldn't have survived a decade and a half in prison.

"They're the ones that convinced me that Christianity could be real," Kezer said.

"They're the real example of it."

Before the family sat down to eat, Kezer said a prayer thanking God for reuniting them.

Jane James said she still has the gift she received from Kezer for their 50th wedding anniversary, though the then-24-year-old had to have a friend send it by mail.

"I remember Hadley saying, 'I would just like to have all my grandkids around the table one more time,'" she said.

She said she never thought Kezer would remain in prison, and that she prayed repeatedly for his release.

"They never wavered, they paid for my trial lawyers, they wrote me, they never rejected a phone call," Kezer said, calling his grandparents the "bedrock of the family."

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

388-3635

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