Witness who identified Joshua Kezer in 1992 murder case says he could be wrong

In 1994, Mark T. Abbott testified that he'd identified Joshua C. Kezer from a lineup as the man he'd seen at a Cut-Mart convenience store near where police found Angela Mischelle Lawless' body.

Abbott's testimony provided the sole evidence in the case linking Kezer to the scene of the murder, which occurred on the Benton, Mo., exit ramp of Interstate 55.

Now, in a recent letter to the Southeast Missourian, Abbott, incarcerated in a federal prison, said he believes it's possible he could have been wrong.

"I ask myself, could I be wrong about him, and the answer is yes. At that time, I believed it was him." Abbott wrote.

His letter, along with questions raised by the attorney general's office about a key document in the case, represent the latest in a procession of evidence disputing Kezer's conviction, most of which has been unearthed since 2006 when Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter reopened the murder investigation and attorney Charles Weiss took on Kezer's case.

Abbott wrote that when he identified Kezer and a white Plymouth Duster as the person and vehicle he saw Nov. 8, 1992, when Lawless was killed, Scott County officers "looked like they hit the lottery."

He said in his letter he was surprised to learn that Kezer's photo in the lineup was the only one to contain a placard with the words "police department" and that he hadn't realized that at the time.

AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com Attorneys Steve Snodgrass and Charles Weiss of the Bryan Cave Law Firm are representing Joshua Kezer.

A hearing in that case is scheduled for June 9 in Cole County, where Judge Richard G. Callahan is expected to receive the state's answer to Weiss' 63-page motion citing new evidence showing Kezer's innocence.

Abbott's testimony not only placed Kezer near the crime scene but identified the Plymouth, which belonged to an acquaintance of Kezer's who testified she'd let Kezer drive it once or twice while she was in the car.

The interior of the car that Abbott identified was tested for traces of blood by spraying it with Luminol. U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, at the time special prosecutor appointed by the Missouri attorney general's office, said during the trial it "glowed like a Christmas tree."

Tests did not prove the substance that reacted to the Luminol was Lawless' blood, and more recently, newer technology shows the substance on the inside of the car was not blood at all.

AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com Joshua Kezer laid out pictures of himself with family and friends during an interview Thursday at the Jefferson City Correctional Facility.

"Abbott provided the link for all of that," Weiss said.

According to police reports, when investigators originally questioned Abbott, he described the man he'd seen at the convenience store as having a dark complexion.

The day after the murder, Abbott told police he saw a Hispanic man in a white car and couldn't tell how many other people were in the vehicle. Several other witnesses gave statements indicating Abbott's story changed, at one point saying he hadn't been able to see who was in the car at all because it was too dark.

In his letter, Abbott denied changing his statement. "They changed it," he said, referring to law enforcement.

Hulshof told the Southeast Missourian the prosecution knew Abbott's credibility would be an issue during the trial and said he and an investigator grilled Abbott intensely during interviews.

His story held up, Hulshof said.

Abbott did not identify Kezer or the white Plymouth until he was presented with the photo lineup several months after the murder. He previously identified several other makes and models of vehicles as the car he'd seen.

Abbott says he believes things he heard from other people during the time of Kezer's trial may have influenced his identification.

"I asked myself a million times, if I could have been wrong," Abbott wrote. "... And today, I really believe it could have been possible."

Wooten's report

What may turn out to be the most crucial piece of evidence in the case is a report by Scott City officer Bobby Wooten that includes a statement he took from Abbott on Nov. 18, 1992, 10 days after the murder.

In that conversation, Abbott said he was going to Scott City because he did not trust the Scott County investigators and that they were trying to implicate him in the crime.

He then named the man he'd seen at the convenience store as someone he knew from Sikeston, Mo.

The statement was never seen by Kezer's trial attorney and did not surface until 2006, when detective Branden Caid, conducting a new investigation, said he found the report clipped to a deputy's notebook.

Caid was hired to look into the case in the beginning of 2006 after Sheriff Rick Walter reopened the investigation, unconvinced the right man had been convicted.

The attorney general's office has vigorously questioned the time and authenticity of the report, Weiss said.

Caid said an investigator with the attorney general's office conducted a thorough interview with him on Wooten's report and requested a handwriting analysis be performed on the document to authenticate Wooten's signature.

"I believe the information was accurate, I took it for what it was worth, and I asked Wooten, and he said he remembered it," Caid said.

Wooten signed a declaration for Weiss on Jan. 31, saying he recalled taking the statement from Abbott and turning it over to Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell "within a day or two after Nov. 18, 1992."

The day after Wooten's report is dated, Ferrell and another investigator interviewed the Sikeston man Abbott named in the report, according to police reports, indicating they may have acted on information in Wooten's report. He gave statements about his whereabouts the night before and morning of the homicide, and whether he knew Lawless and Abbott, all things mentioned in the statement Abbott gave Wooten. He also supplied a blood sample, which was submitted to the Southeast Missouri State Regional Crime Lab for testing.

It was the first time his name was mentioned in the police reports.

The statement Abbott gave Wooten, combined with Wooten's declaration saying he remembered turning it over to Ferrell and the Nov. 19 interview of the person Abbott named, show that Scott County officials had the report long before the case went to trial, Weiss said.

"They had it before trial, and they didn't turn it over to the defense. It's as simple as that," Weiss said.

The issue of when the report was given to Scott County investigators could show that Kezer was denied due process if the prosecution failed to disclose the report, which contained statements casting doubt on Abbott's identification of Kezer, to the defense.

The Brady rule

According to the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case that governs disclosure, Brady v. Maryland, both sides of a court case are barred from suppressing any evidence favorable to the other side, regardless of whether the suppression occurred intentionally or by accident. Failure to disclose such evidence could result in a new trial being granted.

"That report contains exculpatory evidence. If it wasn't turned over to the defense, it presents a clear Brady violation, and that's why they're spending so much time trying to attack it," Weiss said.

Hulshof said he was unaware of the statement Abbott made to Wooten until it was mentioned in an April Southeast Missourian article.

The attorney general's office declined to comment on either Abbott's letter or the issue of Wooten's report on the grounds that the case is still pending, said John Fougere, spokesman for the attorney general's office.

Kezer, who has maintained his innocence since his 1993 arrest, said he doesn't have any expectations about the initial hearing coming up.

"I'm just trying to wrap my head around the fact that this is happening," Kezer said of the possibility of a new trial.

Kezer received a 60-year sentence for the murder conviction and was eligible for parole last August. The parole was denied after a hearing in which he was asked by parole board officials if he'd always maintained his innocence.

"I said yes, they said OK, and that was that," Kezer said.

The anger and sadness comes and goes but doesn't stick, Kezer said.

He acknowledges that he's no longer the same person he was 15 years ago.

"I'm no longer some child running the streets, I'm a man who's been educated by hard knocks, by the gospel of Christ, by both healthy and unhealthy relationships," he said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245r