Judge appointed to study evidence in David Robinson case for state Supreme Court

The Missouri Supreme Court appointed a judge to study the evidence in the case of David Robinson v. Jay Cassady and make a recommendation to the court.

Robinson, 48, of Sikeston has been in prison for the past 16 years, serving in Jefferson City Correctional Center.

Robinson was convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of Sheila Box in 2001, but another man confessed to the crime, and the state’s primary witnesses have recanted their testimonies.

Chief Justice Patricia Breckenridge signed the order Feb. 10 to appoint 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Darrell Missey of Jefferson County the master in the case.

Missey’s duties include conducting pretrial conferences, taking evidence on the issues raised in pleadings, compelling the production of documents, compelling the attendance of witnesses and hearing and determining all objections to testimony in the same manner as a trial judge.

Missey then will file a report of his findings of fact and conclusions of law.

“The essential thing that the master does is that he holds an evidentiary hearing,” former master Michael Manners said.

Manners, a former circuit judge for the 16th Circuit in Independence, Missouri, served as master in the 2015 Missouri Supreme Court case Reginald Clemons v. Steve Larken.

Manners found, and four of seven Supreme Court Justices agreed, there was a Brady violation committed against Reginald Clemons that influenced the jury’s decision.

Clemons was accused of raping and participating in the murder of Julie and Robin Kerry on April 5, 1991, at the old Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis, according to the Supreme Court’s opinion.

On April 7, 1991, Clemons confessed to St. Louis police he raped one of the girls and was on the platform of the bridge when one of three accomplices pushed Julie and Robin Kerry into the Mississippi River, according to the opinion.

Clemons filed a complaint with St. Louis police’s internal-investigation division, and Clemons told the investigator detectives forced him to sit on his hands while they slammed his head into a wall, choked him and hit him in the chest, according to the opinion.

Warren Weeks worked as a bail investigator for the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole, and he examined Clemons on April 8, according to the opinion.

Weeks noted Clemons’ injuries in a report but later found that section had been blacked out when it was presented at trial, according to the opinion.

Weeks later testified to this fact and to his observation Clemons sustained those injuries during a police interrogation, according to the opinion.

Manners said if the judge considering a motion to suppress evidence by Clemons’ lawyer had Weeks’ full report available, the judge would have denied the confession from being included as evidence.

“The master issued his report, in which he concluded that the state had violated Mr. Clemons’ constitutional rights under Brady by suppressing material inculpatory evidence corroborating Mr. Clemons’ claim that his confession was coerced by the police,” Breckenridge wrote in the majority opinion.

“Based on his finding that Mr. Weeks’ testimony was credible, the master concluded that the state had deliberately concealed Mr. Weeks’ observation of Mr. Clemons’ injury and suppressed the information he recorded in the pretrial release form by altering Mr. Weeks’ record of his observation.”

Manners said the Clemons case was the most difficult case he handled.

His work included reviewing transcripts from Clemons’ trial and other hearings; the transcript from the trial of Marlin Gray, Clemons’ accomplice, because that was essential to understanding Clemons’ case; and reviewing the entire statute about post-conviction relief.

He said the Brady vs. United States precedent is complex. Manners was sure of his findings Clemons’ confession was influenced by being beaten by police.

Manners also admired the dissenting opinion of Justice Paul Wilson, who argued the revelation in Weeks’ document would not have changed the jury’s decision.

The Supreme Court does not have the ability to call witnesses or compel documents and can review evidence only as it exists, Manners said.

One of the justices in the majority on Clemons’ case was Richard Teitelman, who died in November.

A replacement for Teitelman has not been selected, but 31 candidates will be interviewed Feb. 28, including current 33rd Circuit Judge David Dolin, who made a judgment on one of Robinson’s post-conviction appeals.

Robinson’s case contains complicated elements. The court will have to determine whether Robinson’s case fits with the Amrine precedent, Missouri’s

actual-innocence precedent.

Robinson’s lawyer also is arguing the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which has handled the case from the beginning, committed a Giglio violation — prosecutors should have known at least one of the witnesses was lying.

In a response to the writ of habeas corpus filed by Robinson’s lawyers Feb. 9, the attorney general’s office argued the testimonies of Albert Baker and Jason Richison were more credible than later recantations.

They also argued all of the depositions from witnesses supporting Robinson’s innocence are not credible.

Missey previously has run for office as a Republican, but he was quoted in 2011 in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as saying he would prefer if judges were a non-partisan position.

“People assume things about me because there’s an ‘R’ after my name,” Missey said. “For a judge, that makes things difficult.”

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address: 207 W. High St., Jefferson City, MO