Kezer says he never met Angela Mischelle Lawless

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 for her murder, 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 today, but defense witness David Rosener — one of Kezer's original defense attorneys — was unable to attend. Now the hearing will be continued on Dec. 11.

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

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

Kezer testified Wednesday at a hearing arguing his innocence in the crime 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.

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

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

He instantly burst into tears, he said.

"It became very clear to me that they were going to make sure I went to prison for this — I was terrified," Kezer said.

During cross examination, Michael Spillane, assistant with the Missouri Attorney General's Office, highlighted an inconsistancy between the trial testimony of a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigator and Kezer's testimony during Wednesday's direct examination.

Kezer testified that he had never fired a gun, although he admitted to being a member of the Latin Kings in Kankakee Ill.

The state trooper who transported Kezer from Kankakee to Scott County testified at his trial in 1994 that Kezer told him he was a "good shot."

Kezer denied having made the statement.

The attorney general's office will present one witness this afternoon, and then the case will be postponed until a later date because one of the witnesses for Kezer had a family emergency and was unable to testify.