Wrongful conviction case headed to southeast Missouri

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Lawyers seeking to overturn a southeast Missouri man's conviction in a 2000 killing have finished making their case for their client's innocence during a special evidentiary hearing.

The recent hearing in Hillsboro is part of a Missouri Supreme Court review of 49-year-old David Robinson's first-degree murder conviction in the shooting death of Sheila Box in Sikeston, the Southeast Missourian reported.

Robinson is serving a life sentence, though the two state eyewitnesses in the case have recanted, and another man, Romanze Mosby, confessed. The Missourian wrote a series of stories in July detailing missing evidence and the lack of an investigation into Mosby. No physical evidence ties Robinson to the murder.

The Supreme Court has appointed Judge Darrell Missey to hear evidence and make a recommendation, which is expected in February. It's unclear how long it will take the Supreme Court to rule.

Mosby's confession was recorded in 2004, but it was ruled invalid in previous appeals, because he refused to authorize it formally and killed himself in prison in 2009 after reading in a newspaper article Robinson had obtained a new legal team. No court had considered the confession until Missey listened to it during a hearing in August. Other Mosby acquaintances said Mosby had confessed to shooting Box, but their testimony was ruled hearsay.

Among the witnesses to testify this week was Sikeston Police Chief Mike Williams whose two interviews of Robinson were used during the original trial to help obtain a conviction. Robinson contends Williams and others framed him. Robinson said he believes he was targeted, because he had several other run-ins with law enforcement before Box's killing.

During Williams' interrogation of Robinson in 2001, Robinson became angry he was being considered a suspect and asked Williams whether they had checked out his alibis.