(Reuters) – A Missouri man imprisoned for nearly a decade for murdering a newspaper editor walked free on Tuesday evening, a week after a state appeals court found that prosecutors had withheld evidence in his trial and overturned his conviction.
Ryan Ferguson, now 29, was convicted in 2005 of the second-degree murder and first-degree robbery of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt near his car in the newspaper’s parking lot in 2001, according to an opinion filed last week by the Missouri Court of Appeals.
The court found that prosecutors withheld evidence material to the defense that would have affected a state eyewitness’s ability to identify Ferguson as a wrongdoer, and other evidence that could have worked in his favor.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office said Tuesday it would not retry or pursue further action against Ferguson at this time.
“You can lose your life very fast,” Ferguson told a news conference in Columbia, Missouri, about 120 miles west of St. Louis. “I’m ready for anything, really.”
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Ferguson, who had been sentenced to 40 years in prison, has maintained his innocence.
Ferguson and Charles Erickson, two high school juniors at the time, were drinking at a club near the newspaper before Heitholt was killed.
Erickson, who was drunk and blacked out, later told friends he had dream-like memories that the pair may have killed Heitholt. Erickson ultimately confessed to the robbery-murder and implicated Ferguson.
Erickson pleaded guilty to murder, robbery and armed criminal action and agreed to testify against Ferguson in return for a lesser sentence.
He later recanted his confession and trial testimony, as did the other eyewitness, Jerry Trump, a custodian who identified Erickson and Ferguson.
Prosecutors said Ferguson and Erickson were short on drinking money and turned to robbery. However, no physical evidence connected the pair to the crime scene, the opinion said.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by David Bailey)