Lawyer from firm that helped free Joshua Kezer takes on case of man convicted of 2000 Sikeston murder

The same month that a St. Louis law firm won an actual-innocence motion in a Missouri court exonerating Joshua C. Kezer of a Benton, Mo., homicide, another lawyer at the firm began examining another Scott County murder case.

David Robinson, now 41, was convicted in September 2001 for the shooting death of 36-year-old Sheila Box in Sikeston, Mo.

Since Robinson's conviction, another man has confessed to committing the shooting, and a jailhouse informant who testified he heard Robinson confess to the killing has recanted his story, saying it was coerced.

The new evidence was rejected as sufficient grounds for tossing the conviction when presented at a hearing in 2004.

Box was found in her Chevrolet Suburban after apparently crashing on West Malone Avenue late on Aug. 5, 2000. She had suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest, and a chrome-plated pistol was found in the car.

Robinson was questioned in connection with the shooting the next day, released, then arrested again 24 days later and charged with the murder, based on statements from a man who said he witnessed the crime.

Robinson is incarcerated at South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Mo., serving life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Kenneth Lee Marshall, a lawyer at Bryan Cave law firm in St. Louis, said he got wind of Robinson's case in February. Marshall had been searching for a potential actual-innocence case to use in the appellate litigation class he teaches at Washington University School of Law, he said.

Rulings of actual innocence are rarely given in Missouri courts. Such a ruling means that evidence not available to the defense at trial is strong enough for a judge to determine the jury may have reached an incorrect verdict. Aside from Kezer's case, a Missouri judge has issued an actual innocence ruling in just one other case, that of death row inmate Joseph Amrine in 2003.

Marshall said Robinson's case was referred to him by the state public defender's office in St. Louis.

"They're seriously undermanned and thought this case deserved a bit more attention," Marshall said.

Both Marshall and the Sikeston Department of Public Safety, the arresting agency, declined to discuss specific issues in the case because it might affect further legal proceedings.

Marshall, a specialist in the field of appellate law, agreed to represent Robinson at no cost, he said, with a handful of law students assisting, and said more investigation in the case is necessary.

"My confidence went through the roof when I got the call that they'd taken the case," Robinson said in an interview last month at South Central prison.

Like the case against Kezer, physical evidence did not link Robinson to the homicide and the state relied heavily on eyewitness and informant testimony.

"No evidence linked me to this crime other than two men," Robinson said.

Robinson admitted he is "no saint," acknowledging past drug activity and prison time, but denied any involvement in the killing.

Capt. Mark Crocker of Sikeston Department of Public Safety said, "We're certain that we put the right person in jail."

The trial

At a three-day trial in Scott County before New Madrid County Circuit Judge Fred Copeland, the state presented its eyewitness, a Sikeston man named Albert Baker.

Baker testified that on Aug. 5, 2000, he'd gone over to an area of Sikeston known as "the Bottoms" to buy some crack cocaine and was crossing Malone Avenue at Branum Street when he saw Robinson, whom he knew.

Baker testified that Robinson ran up to a Suburban parked near a pay phone and shot through the open window at a woman matching Box's description.

Twelve days after the shooting, Baker was interviewed by a Sikeston detective while in the Scott County Jail on a burglary charge. He said he wanted to talk about the murder because it was keeping him up at night, according to trial transcripts.

Because his name was released to the media through court documents, Sikeston police had Baker placed in the state witness protection program, though he remained in Sikeston, according to trial testimony.

A witness for the defense testified he had been living with Baker while he'd been under protection and that Baker admitted he didn't see Robinson shoot Box.

Among the state's 12 witnesses was Jason Richison, who testified that while in a cell in the Scott County Jail with Robinson, the other man confessed to killing Box and taking her cash.

Richison and Robinson were never cellmates, though they were housed in the same cellblock, according to jail records.

Three defense witnesses testified that Robinson had been at a family gathering, a fish fry, in Sikeston the night of the homicide and had gone on to a club in Portageville, Mo.

The jury deliberated about four hours before issuing a guilty verdict.

A confession

At Robinson's trial, Copeland ruled to exclude testimony indicating another man, Romanze D. Mosby, had confessed to the shooting.

An appellate court upheld the decision to keep the jury from hearing testimony from those witnesses because it was hearsay and not credible, and therefore inadmissible.

Prosecutors argued the testimony was not credible because the witness testified Mosby had thrown the gun into Big Lake in Charleston, Mo., yet repeated searches by the Missouri State Water Patrol failed to turn it up.

Mosby later confessed to committing the shooting in a recorded statement given to Butch Johnson of Columbia, an investigator with the state public defender's office.

Mosby had been trying to sell drugs to Box in Sikeston and approached her truck, he said in the statement.

"I was telling her, throw the money, throw the money, I'll throw the dope," he said in the taped confession.

When Box raised her arm and he realized she had a gun, he said, he fired his own weapon.

"I guess she thought I was going to rob her or something," Mosby said.

Mosby was unwilling to sign a statement written by Johnson, Johnson said.

The taped confession was presented at the 2004 hearing, and Richison testified that he had lied when he said he heard Robinson confess to the murder. The motion to vacate the conviction was denied.

Robinson has a similar motion at the federal level pending a decision, Marshall said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

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