Pblcintrst lifewithout by Sharon Sanders

W W W. S E M I S S O U R I A N . CO M

ESTABLISHED 1904, CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO. $2.00 GOOD TIMES / 1C

LEADER OF THE BAND Cape Girardeau Municipal

Band director Ron Nall honored for 25 years of leadership

Sunday July 16, 2017

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

Jackson school district reviews updates to its strategic plan

LIFE WITHOUT: SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

LYING POLICE? MISSING FILES LOST EVIDENCE

NEWSPAPER INVESTIGATION REVEALS GLARING DETAILS AND MISHANDLING OF RECORDS IN DAVID ROBINSON CASE BY BOB MILLER

AND TYLER GRAEF

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN

I believe after the actual conviction, yes ma’am. ... That would have been followed up on if we would have received that information.”

An extensive examination of public records relating to the investigation of a 2000 Sikeston, Missouri, murder has revealed potential perjury by a detective; missing evidence from state prosecutors’ files; missing investigative documents from police archives; and a police department’s nonexistent investigation into a suspect who later confessed to the murder of Sheila Box. Following the Southeast Missourian’s series of stories on David Robinson’s claim of innocence in December, the newspaper continued its examination of the case. The initial series detailed the testimony of two witnesses, their eventual recantations and the taped confession of the crime by Romanze Mosby, who committed suicide in prison before he could be called to testify under oath. See ROBINSON, Page 7A

INFOGRAPHIC PAGES 8A-9A Detailed timeline reveals contradictions in parallel investigations

— Sikeston Detective John Blakely

We [Blakely and other detectives] sat and talked … but we discussed the whole thing as far as what I was told and what all I had found out since then.” — then-Scott County deputy Bobby Sullivan

One of the additions is encouraging good citizenship by its students BY MARYBETH NIEDERKORN

The three-year plan differs from the comprehensive school improvement One year of planning plan, or CSIP, Link said. by 150 people brought the The summary page of the Jackson School District a plan may be viewed online comprehensive strategic at jacksonr2schools.com/ plan last year, and D i s t ri c t / S t ra t e updates to it were gic-Plan/. reviewed at Tues“The strategic day’s board meetplan, we put toing. gether starting last Superintendent year. It’s a more John Link said the robust plan,” Link review and plansaid. “The CSIP ning processes dealt more with were the best way John Link meeting criteria for him, as an infor the Missouri coming superintendent in School Improvement plan, July 2015, to hear directly which was more geared from employees, parents toward college and career and residents exactly what readiness, academics and the district’s focus needs See JACKSON, Page 6A to be.

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN

McConnell delays action on health-care measure after McCain’s surgery ASSOCIATED PRESS

ONLINE

See our special web section about the series at semissourian.com/lifewithout

WEB:

PHOENIX — Sen. John McCain’s absence from the Senate as he recovers from surgery for a blood clot has led the GOP leadership to postpone consideration of health-care legislation already on the brink. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sat-

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INDEX

Classified......................1D Crossword ................... 3C Daily Record ...............4A

Strange but true

Eels from overturned truck slime road

See our latest sports images — including Rylee Mills of Jackson practicing his roping skills — at semoball. com/photos.

Opinion ..................... 12A Real Estate ................... 1E Speak Out ................. 12A

See DELAY, Page 6A

WEATHER

Sports galleries

Dear Abby ................... 6B Good Times ................. 1C Obituaries....................4A

urday night he was deferring action on the measure as McCain recovers at his home in Arizona. Surgeons in Phoenix removed a blood clot from above McCain’s left eye Friday. The 80-year-old Senate veteran was advised by doctors to remain in Arizona this week, his

Sports............................ 1B TV listings .................... 6B

DEPOE BAY, Ore. — A truck hauling eels overturned on a highway, turning a coastal road into a slimy mess. Oregon State Police on Thursday posted a photo that showed damaged cars and Highway 101 covered by the gooey eels. Police said Salvatore Tragale was driving north with 13 containers holding 7,500 pounds of hagfish, known as slime eels. As Tragale approached road construction and tried to stop, one container flew off the truck bed and the other containers spilled onto the highway, police said. — Associated Press

Volume 113 • Issue 239

FROM PAGE ONE

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Robinson From Page 1A No physical evidence linked Robinson to the crime. Robinson, serving life in prison without parole, has admitted he had several run-ins with the police before his murder conviction. He has said he was guilty of several crimes over the years, but is innocent of the Box murder. He said he believes he was targeted for the murder because of his longstanding adversarial relationship with police. Transcripts examined before the newspaper’s original series showed the lead detective in the case, John Blakely, testified he did not know Mosby was a suspect until after Robinson’s trial, even though records show a tip came to law enforcement nearly four months before trial in August 2001 and prompted two searches for the murder weapon by the Missouri Water Patrol at a local lake. Mosby confessed to Box’s murder in a taped recording to public-defense investigator Butch Johnson in 2004. All told, he eventually would confess the crime to six people, Robinson’s attorneys say. But back in May 2001, then-Scott County sheriff’s deputy Bobby Sullivan received a tip alleging Mosby, not Robinson, shot Box. Sullivan testified at trial he told Sikeston detectives about the tip, but they didn’t follow up on it, so he did. After the newspaper’s original series of stories, the newspaper filed 19 open-records requests from 10 public institutions to examine how Mosby was investigated in the Box murder and — given the conflicting statements by Sullivan and Blakely at trial — whether there were documents showing the Sikeston Department of Public Safety knew Mosby to be a suspect. The files, most of which had not been examined by journalists, revealed an undercurrent of inflammatory accusations by witnesses against police, including claims of threats made by Blakely to secure or prevent testimony against Robinson. Blakely denied in court he threatened witnesses. He and other police and city officials declined multiple interview requests for them to respond to the newspaper’s findings. Many records sought by the newspaper have been lost, destroyed or withheld, even though state law requires them to be stored permanently. (See related stories, coming Tuesday and Wednesday.) Among the missing materials are the only tape recordings of interviews known to exist in the case. They were pretrial recordings of interviews between Scott County sheriff’s deputy Sullivan and Mosby, the suspect, as well as interviews with two other men who are said to have heard Mosby confess or were told by those close to Mosby he committed the crime. Also missing are documents from another Mosby shooting, including evi-

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

David Robinson poses for a portrait in the visiting area inside Jefferson City Correctional Center in September 2016. Read the original series about Robinson at semissourian.com/lifewithout. dence documents and interview reports that could shed light on whether Mosby was being investigated for the Box shooting and whether the gun Mosby turned in to police was used in any of the shootings to which he confessed. One of the most troubling records concerning the credibility of the investigation obtained by the Southeast Missourian is a pretrial deposition in which Sullivan offers details about sharing the Mosby tip with the Sikeston detectives. He testified he believed Robinson was not guilty of the murder and was leaning toward Mosby as the killer. He also testified he believed the Sikeston detectives had developed “tunnel vision” in the case. Sullivan now is employed with the Sikeston DPS. He expressed clearly at the time that Blakely was informed about the tip. Blakely’s knowledge of Mosby as a suspect in the Box case is important because Blakely, in 2000 and 2001, investigated Romanze Mosby and his brother, Louis, in four shootings that included five victims. He had inside knowledge of Mosby’s involvement in these crimes, as well as the suspect’s associates, and could have made connections and cross-checked evidence in the Box case. But records show Blakely did not do so until years after Robinson was convicted. Documents show Blakely knew Romanze Mosby had access to a 9 mm gun, the same caliber of gun used in the Box shooting. He knew Mosby had a violent history. Documents also show a stolen car connected to a Mosby-involved shooting was found at 845 Ruth St., the same location where Mosby told sheriff’s deputy Sullivan that Box was shot (though Mosby blamed his cousin during that interview). Blakely also might have discovered that a victim in one of the Mosby-related shootings was Box’s stepson, a fact Robinson’s

defense learned while investigating Mosby before trial and later confirmed by the Southeast Missourian during an interview with the victim. In a pretrial deposition in the Box case, James Beck’s father, L.A. Thompson, testified that his son was “getting wind of what was going on” and warned him to “quit snooping around. He was going to wind up getting himself killed.” Beck was later shot in a shooting where Mosby was a suspect. The Southeast Missourian could not find any record indicating that Blakely, who worked both cases, pursued a connection between the Box murder and the Beck shooting.

Brooks shooting Because of the missing documents, it’s impossible to examine the investigation and cross-reference the evidence in the only shooting for which Romanze Mosby received a conviction, the shooting of a man named Larry Brooks. It is unknown why no bullets from that shooting were submitted to the SEMO Crime Lab. Ballistics records provided by the Missouri State Highway Patrol show the only evidence from the Nov. 1, 2000, shooting given to the crime lab was a .32 revolver Mosby voluntarily gave to Blakely as part of a plea deal. The other Mosby-related shootings all involved 9 mm bullets. Interview requests to Blakely, Sullivan and DPS chief Mike Williams were declined, as were requests for interviews to Sikeston Mayor Steve Burch and city manager J.D. Douglass. Sullivan’s specific testimony also raises questions about whether Blakely gave false testimony under oath. Sullivan was deposed pretrial, Aug. 13, 2001, just two weeks before Robinson was to face trial. Jurors never heard Sullivan’s testimony about the Mosby tip at trial, as his testimony was

deemed hearsay.

Sullivan’s deposition Sullivan testified in the pretrial deposition he would rather not have investigated the tip, but Sikeston detectives didn’t want to pursue it. “So my understanding, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that your conversation with Detective [Mike] Williams is that he wanted you to check it out?” asked assistant attorney general Elizabeth Bock, who prosecuted the case for the state. “Basically, I got it, so it was pretty much generally if it was going to get done, you know, I needed to take care of it,” Sullivan said. Later, Sullivan said, “Basically it’s their case. I mean, the least amount of investigators you have involved in it, you know, the better off you are going to be. For example, if I’m investigating something from the start of it, which I believe Blakely was the original investigator on this, I’m sure he could sit down here with us and answer any questions we might have, for the most part. You know, now that I was involved in it, the only thing I can answer is what I’ve been told from here, you know... “[Blakely] knew what I received, but as far as him saying, ‘Let me look into it,’ anything like that, no, it didn’t happen.” Sullivan went further when questioned by defense attorney Chris Davis, who asked the deputy whether he notified Blakely, and if so, why Blakely hadn’t followed up on the investigation. “To me, I just felt like they got — once this all came up I mean, I feel like they just got tunnel vision on it and went with it, which it can happen. ...” Sullivan said. “So you felt like Detective Blakely didn’t really care about what you had to say about this, that he felt like it was an open-and-shut case?” the defense attorney asked. “I mean, not so much him, but I mean, I got that impression from all the in-

vestigators,” Sullivan said. He then described sitting down with several Sikeston detectives to discuss “the whole thing,” including the Mosby tips and the work he’d done on the Mosby angle. “Me, Detective Williams, Blakely was there, [Dan] Armour was there and I believe Detective [Flint] Dees. ... “ ... Something about this whole thing (Robinson case), it’s funny, I just felt like it (the tip) had to be followed up on to the point to where it felt like it couldn’t go anywhere else. For them to be able to say a lot of the same things, that’s what still strikes me as odd as far as wondering if there is some doubt there as far as did David actually do it or did Romanze do it.”

Blakely’s denial But in a post-trial appeals deposition in 2015, Blakely emphatically contradicted Sullivan’s testimony, denying multiple times that he knew Mosby was a suspect in the Box murder. “Did the name Romanze Mosby ever come up during your investigation of this murder back in 2000, 2001?” assistant attorney general Katharine Dolin asked. “After the — I believe after the actual conviction, yes ma’am,” Blakely said. “So to your recollection, you don’t remember investigating Romanze Mosby during the initial investigation of the murder?” “No. That would have been followed up on if we would have received that information.” “Do you recall though?” “No.” “You don’t recall?” “I don’t recall.” Interviewed by phone, Butch Johnson, an investigator with the Missouri Public Defender’s office who worked on the Robinson case, said it’s unbelievable Sullivan pursued Mosby as a suspect without Blakely’s knowledge. “No. Blakely knew about Mosby,” Johnson said, later

adding, “I have no doubts whatsoever Blakely knew about Romanze.” In response to a Sunshine Law request about investigative materials connected to the Box case — in particular, any investigation into Mosby as a suspect — the Sikeston DPS offered many reports and memos from the Robinson case, but no records regarding any investigation of Mosby and no reports or memos regarding the Missouri Water Patrol’s report on a dive for the weapon, which was spurred by the Mosby tip. Robinson still is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The Attorney General’s Office has defended the conviction, claiming the recantations were not credible; Mosby’s confession was inadmissible because he refused to sign an affidavit to certify it; Robinson’s alibi witnesses contradicted each other at trial; Johnson, the public-defense investigator, was overly aggressive in his pursuit of a recantation from one of the witnesses; and other legal technicalities. Robinson has six days of hearings scheduled in August before a Special Master appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court. He is hoping for an exoneration or retrial. The Southeast Missourian’s special report will resume with more stories in the coming days: Monday: Witnesses say police used illegal tampering techniques to intimidate witnesses and secure testimony. Tuesday: Many records once known to exist are missing from the Sikeston Department of Public Safety. Wednesday: Evidence from pretrial interviews are missing from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, and Robinson’s lead attorney said he never has seen the evidence in the defense file. bmiller@semissourian.com (573) 388-3625 tgraef@semissourian.com (573) 388-3627

Sunday July 16 Page 8A & 9A

CMYK

INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

Sunday, July 16, 2017

INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

PARALLEL INVESTIGATIONS

2000 SHEILA BOX IS MURDERED

AUG. 5: Sheila Box is shot in her SUV and crashes into the Tradewinds store. She is pronounced dead at a hospital. Sikeston Department of Public Safety detective John Blakely processes evidence at the scene.

David Robinson was convicted of a 2000 murder that another man later confessed to committing. That man, Romanze Mosby, emerged as a suspect months before Robinson was to face trial. The lead detective on the case did not investigate Mosby; instead that investigation was done by a deputy with the Scott County Sheriff’s Department, who now works at the Sikeston DPS.

According to trial transcripts, David Robinson says he takes his car to be repaired by a friend, and spends much of the evening at a fish fry with friends and family, many of whom would testify to that later. He says he goes with friends to a wedding party and to a hotel room later that night to party before returning home.

REPORT BY BOB MILLER AND TYLER GRAEF

Confidential informant tells police that he heard that David Robinson shot Sheila Box. AUG. 6: Police question David Robinson’s girlfriend Natalia Lawrence. She tells Blakely that Robinson left her house at around 9 p.m. to take her car to get repaired at Brian Keith West’s house and was going to the Manhattan Room with a friend named Steve Lott. She states he had not returned with the car by 11. At 2 a.m., police are waiting for Robinson at his house when he arrives home driving his friend’s car. A joint is found in the car. Robinson is taken in for questioning and tested for drugs; the test came back negative. Blakely takes several pieces of evidence to the 1 crime lab, and is told the bullet that killed Box was possibly a .38 or 9mm and “the number of lands and grooves are 6.” Romanze Mosby tells his cousin and close friend Carlos Jones that he shot Box. This would be revealed months later by then-informant Dion Savage. AUG. 9: According to the investigative report, Blakely calls “a member of the probation and parole office” and explains to them “the things Mr. Robinson was believed to be involved in and the drugs that were located in a vehicle and no bond warrant was issued for him, but he was released 08/09/00 Wednesday just 14:00 hours pending drug treatment.” After questioning, Robinson is released from jail. AUG. 11: Informant says Albert Baker was in the vicinity of the shooting the night of the Box murder. Investigative report signed by Blakely says that he took Robinson’s clothes for evidence to be checked by the crime lab. Brian Keith West, the first person Blakely talks to, says Robinson was with him around 10:30 and there for 45 minutes as West worked on his car. AUG. 15: Baker is arrested on stealing charges AUG. 18: Baker tells police he saw Robinson shoot Box at a pay phone at the corner of Osage Street and Malone Avenue. AUG. 28: Baker takes a polygraph conducted by Missouri State Highway Patrol, answers four questions and passes. AUG. 30: Robinson is arrested for murder

INVESTIGATIVE TIMELINE KEY RED: The red throughout the graphic indicates details about the investigation and trial of David Robinson, who was convicted of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Sheila Box on Aug. 5, 2000. BLUE: # The blue throughout the graphic indicates details about the investigation of Romanze Mosby, who emerged as a suspect a few months before Robinson’s trial and later confessed to committing the murder. Some of the entries marked by blue text or shapes are about Mosby’s involvement in other shootings. ORANGE: Orange text and dates indicate where the Mosby and Robinson investigations connect or intersect.

SEPT. 13: Scott County Jail inmate Jason Richison tells police he overheard Robinson bragging of shooting a white woman in jail. He says Robinson brags of stealing a wad of cash and says Robinson said he was wearing all white clothes.

FIRST MOSBY SUSPECTED IN SHOOTING

SEPT. 16: A man named Gerald Walker is shot in the hip. Published reports at the time said that a juvenile was taken into custody. Several other public documents show that Louis Mosby, Romanze Mosby’s younger brother, was the suspect in the shooting and was later certified as an adult. OCT. 7: Two men are shot during a robbery while in their car. The victims are later identified as Christopher Babb and James Beck. Carlos Jones is taken into custody, and police announce that Romanze Mosby is a suspect after both victims initially identify Mosby out of a lineup provided by police. Beck is Sheila Box’s stepson. 2

After obtaining a search warrant for Mosby’s mother’s property, police find several stolen items in a shed (including a violin and a cello), which Romanze later tells police his brother Louis is responsible for. Police also find a 9mm magazine under Romanze Mosby’s bed. Romanze Mosby tells police the magazine is also his brother’s. One reason police obtained a warrant because Blakely said he believed a “black 9mm semi-automatic pistol” was believed to be the same weapon that Louis Mosby had used in the Gerald Walker shooting. The gun was not found. OCT. 10: Police say that Mosby is no longer a suspect in the Babb/Beck shootings, that another man, Edward M. Armstrong was identified by Jones and another witness, Latonia Townsend, as the shooter in that robbery. Townsend is identified by Blakely as Romanze Mosby’s girlfriend. The victims were shot with 9mm bullets. 3

NOV. 1: Larry Brooks is shot while walking down the 4 street with Gerald Walker. Romanze Mosby is taken into custody shortly after. He later confesses to shooting Brooks while aiming for Walker and leads Blakely to a .32 revolver he claims he used. Romanze tells Blakely he wanted to prevent Walker from testifying against his brother. Blakely seizes the .32 as evidence. NOV. 17: Ronnie Coleman, friend of Albert Baker, says Baker called him and told him that he did not see Robinson shoot Box, but he was working a deal with police for leniency, according to a deposition from 2004. Baker tells Coleman he was in Milwaukee on witness protection. Coleman said he was angry that Baker gave a statement against Coleman to police on a drug violation. 5

DEC. 28: According to an email, the prosecutor sets up 6 a meeting with detectives to discuss the Robinson case. No records of the meeting exist in the case files.

2001 MARCH 13: Louis Mosby robs a locksmith, then in 7 the course of a struggle, shoots the locksmith and leaves the scene. The victim calls 911; police arrive. Louis Mosby is arrested. A Lorcher brand 9mm Luger is seized.

John Blakely, Sikeston DPS detective

David Robinson, Sentenced to life

Bobby Sullivan, Former Scott County Deputy

Sikeston Detective John Blakely, left, was the lead investigator on the Sheila Box murder. He, along with other detectives in Sikeston including current chief Mike Williams and Dan Armour, investigated the crime, interviewed several witnesses and came to the conclusion that Robinson, right, was the murderer.

David Robinson is serving a sentence of life without parole for the conviction of the 2000 murder of Sheila Box. He is set for a hearing before the Missouri Supreme Court in August, which he hopes will result in an exoneration or a retrial. Please see our previous coverage at www. semissourian. com/lifewithout

I believe after the actual conviction, yes 24 ma’am. ... That would have been followed up on if we would have received that information.” — Sikeston Det. John Blakely, answering questions about his knowledge of Mosby being a suspect in the Box murder during a deposition in 2015

Romanze Mosby, Confessed to killing Sheila Box

Bobby Sullivan, then-Scott County deputy, received a tip months before Robinson went to trial that Romanze Mosby had said he’d killed Box. Sullivan later stated he believed Robinson was innocent and that Mosby was the killer (though he could not prove it), adding he thought the investigators in Sikeston had “tunnel vision.”

He (Blakely) knew what I received, but as far 10 as him saying, ‘Let me look into it,’ anything like that, no it didn’t happen. ... I got that impression from all the investigators. One night before our search warrant, we sat and talked -- I don’t remember when it was, but we discussed the whole thing as far as what I was told and what all I had found out since then.” — Bobby Sullivan, former Scott County Deputy, pretrial deposition

LARGE CIRCLES: Circles with numbers denote cross referenced information in larger circles in the middle of the page.

AUG. 31: Robinson is tested for gun residue. Only two of the three elements needed to confirm gun residue were found on Robinson’s arm. Two others who were tested were also missing one of the three elements needed to show gun residue. AUG. 31: Robinson and Brian Keith West are both named as suspects on a document.

HOW THIS TIMELINE WAS REPORTED

INVESTIGATING MOSBY

INVESTIGATING ROBINSON

BULLET EVIDENCE Sheila Box was shot with a bullet that was possibly a .38 or a 9mm, according to a crime lab technician. The .38 and 9mm bullets have the same diameter at the base of the bullets, but are different weights and lengths and can be shot from the same gun.

FIRST CLUE THAT BAKER MAY BE LYING

9MM BULLETS 9mm bullets were collected as evidence in at least two shootings involving Romanze or Louis Mosby. Det. John Blakely was involved in those investigations, but he didn’t investigate Romanze Mosby as a suspect in the Box case.

The fact that Ronald Coleman was subpoenaed means that the defense and possibly the prosecution had reason to suspect Albert Baker was lying about Robinson before the trial, and 12 years before Baker would recant under oath.

19 20

WITNESS ACCUSATIONS Two witness claim they were threatened with drug charges to either provide or suppress testimony that would have helped Robinson’s defense. These court statements allege criminal wrongdoing by Blakely. Please see our story on this topic, coming Monday.

The Southeast Missourian compiled this timeline via public records requests from the Sikeston Department of Public Safety, the Missouri Highway Patrol, the Missouri Department of Corrections, the Scott County and Mississippi County court clerks, the Scott County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, Scott County Sheriff’s Department and the Missouri Attorney General’s office. Documents include trial transcripts, pre-trial and postconviction deposition transcripts, investigative, forensic and interview reports. Old newspaper reports were also used. Items that were obtained via recent interviews are noted within the detail of the text. In many cases, spellings of names were inconsistent in documents. Spellings that were used most often throughout the documents were used in the timeline.

32mmVS 9mm

ARROWS: Indicate a pattern or connection from multiple events. : Same day events

12 13

WITNESSES: A .32 ... ... A 9MM ... Korenzo Hill told Sullivan that Jones told him a 9mm was used in the murder. (Mosby told Sullivan that Hill heard Jones say he killed Box. When Hill was questioned, he actually stated he heard Mosby did it with a 9mm)

... AND A .380 Dion Savage told Sullivan that Mosby had used a .380, and that was what the divers were looking for in Upper Big Lake.

Over the course of the Romanze Mosby investigation into the Box murder, several guns were mentioned by witnesses connected to Mosby. Mosby said Carlos Jones said he shot Box with a .32, which is the caliber of weapon Mosby turned in for the shooting of Larry Brooks.

NOT CHECKED FOR MATCH

WITNESS LATONIA TOWNSEND

Even though Blakely investigated at least three shootings (and possibly four) involving Romanze and Louis Mosby, he did not ask for the bullets in those crimes to be compared to the bullet that killed Box. Blakely testified he didn’t know Mosby was a suspect in the Box case.

Mosby’s girlfriend identified the suspect in the Beck shooting and helped clear Mosby as a suspect. Mosby also said he was with her the night Box was killed. No documents obtained by the newspaper showed that Mosby’s alibi was checked in the Box murder.

16 21

14 22

.32 TURNED IN

WHY CHECK A .32?

As part of plea deal, Mosby turns in the weapon he says he used to shoot Larry Brooks to Blakely. The gun taken into custody is a .32 revolver. No bullet was submitted to the SEMO Crime Lab from the Brooks shooting. The Sikeston DPS said it could not locate evidence records dealing with the case.

It is unknown why Blakely would have had a .32 revolver sent to the crime lab to be checked against the Box bullet, which was either a 9mm or a .380.

OTHER GUNS CHECKED FOR FAMILY LINK Blakely filed two reports on gun forensics seeking to tie David Robinson to the Box murder via his next of kin. In one, Blakely had a gun tested that was obtained in a shooting in which Robinson’s brother Justin was implicated. In the other ...

12 13

MISSING TAPES At least three documents reference tapes from interviews conducted by Sullivan and another investigator from the AG’s office. These tapes are now missing. Robinson’s defense said they don’t believe they have them. The AG’s office said they could not confirm having ever had them.

CONFESSIONS Six people have told defense attorneys that Mosby confessed to shooting Box. The courts didn’t accept the hearsay testimony. The audio confession was not validated by Mosby’s signature, although a notary testified later that Mosby verbally confirmed to her that the confession was true.

While a .380 and a 9mm bullet can be shot from the same gun, a .32 and a 9mm have different diameters and cannot be shot from the same gun. Pictured left is a .32 round; a 9mm bullet is pictured at right. (Not printed as actual size)

MAY 15: Sullivan questions Mosby. Sullivan records the 9 interview, unlike any of the interviews conducted by the Sikeston detectives. This tape is now missing. JUNE 6: Defense attorney Chris Davis writes in a memo that Sullivan said he “knows David Robinson didn’t do it.” And that he would be searching for the gun where the informant said it was thrown. JUNE 11: The Missouri Highway Patrol searches a nearby lake for the gun, based on the informant’s tip. No gun is found. “We did not find the .380 pistol,” the report states. JUNE 25: Sullivan provides statements and supplements to the Missouri Attorney General’s office, which is prosecuting the case. The Sikeston DPS could offer no such correspondence to the Southeast Missourian via a response to an open records request pertaining to all materials regarding the Box investigation, particularly pertaining to the Mosby investigation.

JUNE 29: Crime lab report received on David Robinson’s clothing. A blood spot found on his hat is determined to be his own blood. AUG. 8: Following up on the Mosby tip, AG office investigator Sarene Deeds interviews another witness, who mentions a .32-caliber weapon was used by Mosby to kill Box. AUG. 13: At a pretrial deposition, Sullivan testifies that 10 he believes Robinson is innocent and that he thinks Mosby is the killer, though he does not have proof. He states that he believes the Sikeston detectives have “tunnel vision” and that he told the investigators, including Blakely, about the tip and asked them how to approach Mosby. He said that he didn’t necessarily want to follow up on the tip, but got the indication that if it was going to get done, it would have to be him who followed up on it. AUG. 14: Ronnie Coleman, who says he took a phone call in November from Albert Baker saying he lied about seeing Robinson shoot Box, is arrested on a pending drug charge. He said later he told Det. Chris Rataj about the phone call. He recalls he was released five hours later. AUG. 14: A caseworker interviews Mosby, who talks about a hidden .32-caliber weapon.

AUG. 15: Deeds, the AG investigator, interviews Dion Savage at his home in Sikeston. Sullivan questions Mosby, who says that Carlos Jones told him he shot Box at Ruth and Branum streets, which is a different location than Baker’s testimony (Osage and Malone). Mosby said he was with his girlfriend, Latonia Townsend, the night of the Box murder. 11

Stephen White, Carlos Jones’ brother, said he originally heard that David Robinson killed Box, but had recently heard some people say Carlos Jones had shot and killed her. Stephen White said he does not believe this, but also heard rumors that Antonio Johnson killed Box. He said he had heard that police had heard that Dion Savage had thrown the gun. AUG. 17: Sullivan, along with Deeds, questions Mosby on tape again, this time at Boonville Prison, who again points the finger at Carlos Jones. He said Jones used a .32 revolver, which was thrown into a ditch at Upper Big Lake. He said Korenzo Hill told him Carlos Jones had killed Box. Mosby refuses a polygraph. When questioned about Mosby’s accusations, Jones asks for an attorney. The tapes from these interviews are now missing. 12

AUG. 31: Robinson is found guilty of murder. He is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. SEPT. 24: Sikeston DPS receives a letter from the State of Missouri Department of Public Safety to Blakely. The letter addresses witness protection funds, and says that requests for receipts after June 2001 are denied. “DPS cannot pay more than original amount requested after deadline. Extension should have been submitted.” NOV. 28: Mosby pleads guilty to shooting Brooks. As 16 part of the plea deal, according to the probable cause statement, Mosby takes Blakely to the gun and other evidence, including the glove he was wearing when he shot Brooks. The gun that was taken into custody was a .32 revolver.

APPEALS BEGIN

2002 DEC. 12: Robinson’s first appeal is denied.

2003 JUNE 13: Robinson’s defense files a motion to vacate. 17 Robinson’s new public defender, Karl Hinkebein, provides a document to the court that one or more of the bullets used in three of the Mosby shootings are a match with the bullet that killed Box. Hinkebein also states that three victims are willing to testify that they were shot by either Romanze or Louis Mosby. That includes James Beck, who was also shot in the incident that Armstrong pleaded guilty to. The judge later denies the motion; the evidence and testimony were never presented again. Records obtained by the Southeast Missourian from the Missouri Highway Patrol show Hinkebein’s statement to be false, however. The bullets provided to the SEMO Crime lab in the Mosby related shootings were “right twist” bullets, while the bullet found in Box was a left twist.

2004 AUG. 9: Romanze Mosby confesses on audio tape to 18 public defense capital investigator Butch Johnson that he killed Sheila Box on Ruth and Branum streets, firing a single shot at her when he saw a gun in her lap and she reached for it during a drug buy. Mosby declines to sign an affidavit with the recording, saying his voice should be enough. Johnson would later testify Mosby sobbed for nearly 20 minutes before collecting himself enough to confess on tape. AUG. 10: Ronnie Coleman gives a deposition, claim19 ing that he was called by Blakely and threatened with charges if he showed up to court. SEPT. 30: Albert Baker admits to Johnson that his testimony about David Robinson was false. OCT. 18: Jason Richison, who testified that David 20 Robinson bragged of shooting Box in jail, recants his testimony. He says detectives, including Blakely, brought a quarter-gram of “dope” into jail and threatened additional drug charges if he did not cooperate. He also states police fed him the details he used in his testimony. OCT. 22: Blakely sends a fax to the AG’s office , com21 menting on a “lab report on gun Romanze Mosby used a few months after the murder of Ms. Box.” The gun is eliminated as the firearm used to shoot Box. NOV. 5, 2004: Baker is subpoenaed to recant, but instead sticks to his original testimony. He later said in the days before he was scheduled for his deposition to recant, he felt threatened by police when he was approached by an officer from a different town where he lived at the time who handed him a cell phone with Blakely on the line, reminding him how he testified. Robinson’s appeal is later denied.

2006 DEC. 28: Blakely files a memo to the AG’s office, say22 ing he believes he found the Box murder weapon, a .38 Smith & Wesson. The memo states it could be the same gun used in a murder that David Robinson’s brother Justin was implicated in but later cleared of. The report states “disputes Moseby’s [sic] story.”

NO MATCH TO BOX ... an investigative report, Blakely claimed Robinson’s son Christopher Jackson “got the gun” for Romanze Mosby. Neither gun came back as a match to the Box bullet. Jackson was not charged in the case.

Information graphics: Bob Miller and Nadir Hussein. Images: Archive and file photos

MAY 2: Scott County Deputy Bobby Sullivan receives a 8 tip from confidential informant (later learned to be Dion Savage, who was in Mosby’s inner circle) that Jones told him that Mosby killed Box in a drug deal gone bad. It’s later stated that Savage gave the tip in hopes to work a deal to avoid jail time on a driving while revoked charge.

Sunday, July 16, 2017

ROBINSON’S TRIAL BEGINS

AUG. 29: Robinson’s trial begins. Public defense investigator Linda Bollinger searches for Ronnie Coleman, who does not show up to court, but she cannot find him. It is revealed in court that Sikeston DPS pays about $1,500 for witness protection to Baker for his testimony, including travel to Milwaukee and later an apartment in Perryville.

AUG. 20: Korenzo Hill tells Sullivan in a taped interview 13 that Carlos Jones told him Mosby shot Box and that Mosby shot her with a 9mm. The tape from this interview is now missing.

2007 MAY 5: A bullet comparison report from the Trevor Neal shooting that David Robinson’s brother Justin was implicated in but later cleared of. The bullets do not match, according to the report.

2009 JUNE 20: After reading a newspaper story that the Bryan Cave Law Firm in St. Louis, the same firm who helped exonerate Josh Kezer in a Scott County case, was taking on Robinson’s case, Mosby confesses one last time to his step-father, who was also was in prison with him. That night, Mosby hangs himself in his cell. Mosby was weeks away from finishing his prison sentence. In the article, Capt. Mark Crocker of the Sikeston DPS said “We’re certain that we put the right person in jail.”

2010 FEB. 22: Robinson’s habeas petition is denied.

2012

AUG. 21: Blakely files an investigative report in the Brooks shooting implying that David Robinson’s son Christopher Jackson “got the gun for Romanze Mosbey [sic].” Blakely makes no mention that Romanze Mosby is a suspect in the Box case. Jackson told the Southeast Missourian he did not provide a gun to Romanze Mosby, but he did know Mosby and was friends with him. Jackson was not charged.

JULY 14: Albert Baker recants on video to an attorney from the Bryan Cave Law Firm.

AUG. 28: Romanze Mosby is formally charged with shooting Larry Brooks.

24 MAY 15: Blakely testifies in a deposition that he was unaware that Mosby was a suspect in the Box case until after Robinson’s trial, saying they would have followed up on that if they had that information.

Ronnie Coleman receives a phone call, he would later testify, from Blakely. He alleges that Blakely threatens to arrest him if he obeys a subpoena to testify for Robinson that Baker is lying about seeing Robinson shoot Box. Coleman later would say Blakely told him he would not be charged if he did not show up for trial. He later would tell the Southeast Missourian he did not fear charges for disobeying a subpoena because it was police telling him not to show and that the prosecution was on their side. He was not charged with disobeying the subpoena. 15

2015 23 MAY 8: Baker recants under oath.

MAY 15: Robinson’s second habeas petition denied.

2017 AUGUST 2017: Robinson will have a six-day hearing before the Missouri Supreme Court. He is hoping for an exoneration or retrial.

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LIFE WITHOUT: INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

Witnesses claim officer corruption in Robinson murder case BY BOB MILLER AND TYLER GRAEF LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

Nathan Pierce smiles as he holds a model of his proposed downtown sculpture using the old trolley-car rails Tuesday in Cape Girardeau.

UPCYCLED ART

Rails once served trolley line; money sought for eventual downtown sculpture BY MARK BLISS

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN

culptor Nathan Pierce wants to fashion art from old trolley rails that were a part of downtown Cape Girardeau’s history. The local artist said he came up with the idea after seeing the rusted steel, which construction crews dug up and removed as part of recent Main Street improvements. “They are rusted and pitted up,” he said as he looked over a stack of the bent and cut up rails which have been stockpiled near the downtown floodwall. But after sanding and cleaning, the trolley rails — which were buried in con-

Submitted

A rendering of how sculptor Nathan Pierce’s proposed art piece made of old trolley rails would look in downtown Cape Girardeau. crete and mud for nearly a century — would be perfect for a sculpture, he said. “My proposal is to design a historical, public-art monument that will com-

memorate and preserve the old downtown trolley rail and create a sense of place for Cape Girardeau residents and downtown visitors,” Pierce wrote in a

plan he shared with Cape Girardeau Mayor Harry Rediger in March. Pierce’s plan calls for a 6,000-pound sculpture that would tie together six to eight sections of rail, 18 to 20 feet tall, erected upright. It would be lighted from the ground on the interior and exterior with a color-changing, LED lighting system. He has titled the piece, “Time Tracks.” Pierce has proposed erecting the sculpture on the southeast corner of the Main and Independence streets intersection, insisting it would provide the best lines of sight for the artwork. See RAILS, Page 5A

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN David Robinson is now into his 17th year of incarceration for a murder to which another man confessed on tape in 2004. Robinson was convicted almost exclusively on the testimony of two jailhouse informants, men who were admitted drug addicts and had an incentive — whether perceived or real — to testify in exchange for prison leniency. Both of those witnesses eventually recanted under oath, against their own interests, knowing they could face more time in prison by admitting they had lied in a murder trial. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office continues to stand by the conviction and fight against Robinson’s case for exoneration, despite these men’s recantations, their admitted drug abuse at the time of their testimony, the taped confession of Romanze Mosby and the absence of physical evidence linking Robinson to the murder. The AG’s office has argued these men’s original statements are credible,

ONLINE Special section See our special web section about this series at semissourian.com/lifewithout. Robinson’s alibis gave conflicting testimonies, and Mosby’s confession did not meet legal standards. The AG’s office also argued the public-defense investigator, Butch Johnson, Robinson’s longest-standing legal advocate, was overly aggressive with his tone in a letter he sent to a witness as he sought a recantation, which they said was out of the normal process. Meanwhile, three witnesses in the Sheila Box murder case — including the two who testified against Robinson — over the years have made accusations of police corruption. See ROBINSON, Page 4A

Official: Fruitland may begin sewer-system project by early 2018 BY MARYBETH NIEDERKORN

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN

Fruitland’s planned sewer system is moving right along and may begin construction by early 2018, the village’s water district president said. Fruitland, an unincorporated community near Jackson, doesn’t have a central sewer system to serve its population. Instead, its approximately 800 residents, two schools

WEB:

and 38 businesses rely on individual septic systems and lagoons. In 1997, voters approved the creation of a special sewer district for Fruitland, which in 2014 was reorganized as the Cape Girardeau County Reorganized Common Sewer District. Joe Tousignant, now president of the district board, said he’s optimistic about beginning construction within the next several months.

Initially, the district suffered from a lack of funding, Tousignant told the Southeast Missourian in 2016, but in April that year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved $14.4 million in funding, including a $5 million grant and a $9.4 million, low-interest loan, to be paid off through sewer fees, Tousignant said. Septic systems fall under state and federal regulations, which make their

use increasingly difficult, Tousignant told the Southeast Missourian in 2016. Also, when septic systems fail, replacement costs often run into the thousands of dollars. The sewer-system project is moving along, Tousignant wrote in an email last Monday, but each household and business that would be added to the sewer system must grant an easement to the district to allow

pipes to be installed. “I don’t have the latest percentage of easements, as they continue to trickle in,” Tousignant wrote. “I suspect within the 65 percent-plus range.” Tousignant said he’s optimistic the remainder of the easements will be approved within the next few months. “I hadn’t realized how exhaustive the process is to get every last easement and have every ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’

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INDEX

Classified...................... 5B Comics .......................... 4B Crossword ................... 4B

Strange but true

Wedding set to occur during total eclipse

Did you and your pooch make it to the Bow Wow Luau on Saturday in Cape Girardeau? Find a gallery of images from the event at semissourian.com.

Daily Record ...............6A Dear Abby ................ 12A Entertainment ........ 12A

Obituaries....................6A Opinion ........................8A Speak Out ....................8A

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crossed on the engineering, but we are getting there and pretty much on schedule,” Tousignant wrote. Brian Strickland of Strickland Engineering is working on the design and said he plans to submit it to the Department of Natural Resources for final approval within the next week. “It’s a very, very large project,” Strickland said.

Sports............................ 1B TV listings ................. 12A

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An astronomy buff and her fiance want to make sure nothing eclipses their wedding. Samantha Adams said her fascination with the stars prompted her to schedule the ceremony for 12:30 p.m. Aug. 21, during a rare total solar eclipse. The couple’s ceremony in St. Joseph, Missouri, will have an eclipse theme, and every guest will be provided with a pair of solar glasses. During the wedding, the couple plan to watch the eclipse with guests before taking their vows. — Associated Press

Volume 113 • Issue 240

FROM PAGE ONE

Monday, July 17, 2017

Robinson From Page 1A

Another victim in a related crime involving Mosby told the Southeast Missourian in an interview the investigation into that crime was “crooked.” The accusations are inflammatory, made by individuals with criminal records and dubious credibility, but two of the accusations come from the same people who put Robinson in prison, people the state trusts to hold together Robinson’s conviction. After its initial series focusing on Robinson’s claim of innocence in December, the Southeast Missourian examined hundreds of pages of documents to study how police investigated Mosby. The lead detective in the case from the Sikeston, Missouri, Department of Public Safety, John Blakely, testified in a 2015 appeal he did not know Mosby was a suspect until after the conviction, adding had the department known, he would have followed up on the tip. That testimony contradicts what another officer from the Scott County Sheriff’s Department, deputy Bobby Sullivan, testified to at trial and in a pretrial deposition, a transcript of which was obtained in a recent open-records request. Sullivan said he told Sikeston detectives about the tip, but they didn’t follow up on it, and he subsequently handled it even though he was not assigned to the case. The newspaper requested 19 records from 10 jurisdictions. Those records revealed criminal accusations by witnesses in the case. While there is no way of knowing which, if any, of the accusations are true, three of the accusations were made under oath; another came via an interview while researching a related case. Each of the accusations came from witnesses with varying degrees of credibility. None of the witnesses had an obvious incentive to lie about the accusations, and at least two offered their accounts at personal risk. None of them has close ties to Robinson. In a case where no physical evidence exists to implicate Robinson and in which witnesses recanted, these accusations shed more light on the questions surrounding Robinson’s conviction and whether Robinson was treated fairly during the investigation and court process. They also support several other sources from Sikeston who claim police and detectives often have cut corners and behaved unethically in cases unrelated to Robinson. Blakely denied two of the most serious accusations in court, the most damning of which was made by a man named Ronnie Coleman. Coleman claimed Blakely called him the night before trial and told him if he testified for Robinson’s defense, officers would arrest him on pending drug charges. If he did not show, he would not be charged, Coleman claimed.

Coleman’s claim With no physical evidence against Robinson, the state’s case rested almost squarely on the testimony of a man named Albert Baker. Baker was living in a trailer on Coleman’s property before police arrested Baker on charges of trying to steal an

air conditioner and took him to the Scott County Jail. In an interview with the Southeast Missourian, Coleman said Baker was homeless, and Coleman let Baker live on his property in exchange for yard work such as mowing and cleaning dog kennels. Days after denying he knew anything about the Box murder, Baker summoned police and told them he saw Robinson shoot Box. He passed a polygraph bolstering this testimony, which prompted the prosecuting attorney’s office to formally charge Robinson with Box’s murder. Police released Baker on an own-recognizance bond and gave him a bus ticket to Milwaukee, placing him in a witness-protection program — the first and only time Blakely would do that, he later testified in court. Coleman claimed a few weeks after Baker arrived in Milwaukee in November 2000, Baker called him. Coleman didn’t recognize the number at first; it had a Wisconsin prefix. Coleman told the newspaper he and Baker were “tight” friends before Baker was arrested. Coleman said he got the word that at some point, Baker had given a statement to police against him concerning drugs. In 2004, according to a deposition obtained in a records request to the Attorney General’s Office, Baker told Coleman over the phone he never saw Robinson shoot Box, and he was testifying only to get a deal with police to get out of jail. “We … kind of got in a little heated argument over the phone,” Coleman said of Baker during his deposition. “I asked him why is he making statements against me and also David Robinson, you know what I’m saying, when, you know, actually he didn’t see him.” When pressed by an attorney for more details about that conversation, Coleman said, “He told me that he didn’t see David shoot [Sheila Box]. ... And he said the only reason he did it was because he has pending charges and David took some money from him awhile back, you know what I’m saying, supposedly, and then robbed him out of some money and didn’t do nothing. So, I guess this is the only way he could get David back. … “That’s what he told me over the phone. He didn’t see David shoot the lady and that was it, and I was asking him why he was going through all this. I mean, why is he doing this over a burglary charge? … He just said he couldn’t go to jail.” Coleman said he divulged this information to Robinson’s defense team, and public-defense investigator Linda Bollinger later subpoenaed Coleman to testify. Coleman had no obvious incentive at the time to reveal this information. At that time, he was not in police custody. He did, however, have problems with the law. Coleman told the Southeast Missourian he was dealing with ongoing cyclical drug charges and investigations. He said he would be charged and bond out, only to have the charges dropped. He said this happened several times. But he said he had every intention of testifying in court that Baker was lying about his testimony. The following August,

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They had a bag of dope on them, a quarter grams. I was addicted to methamphetamines really bad. And they told me, if I don’t do this, they were going to charge me with that, with having it in the county jail, and it was going to be a worse charge than I already had.” JASON RICHISON witness, in a deposition claiming police threatened him to get him to testify against David Robinson about nine months after Baker’s phone call and about two weeks before Robinson’s trial, Coleman was arrested on pending drug charges. He was taken to the Scott County Jail. He said he told Sikeston detective Chris Rataj about the phone call he got from Baker. Several hours later, he was released, not to hear from police again until the night before Robinson’s trial, he said, when Blakely called him at home, according to a court deposition taken in 2004. “What were you told would happen if you did show up for David’s trial?” Robinson’s public-defense attorney asked Coleman. “That my drug charges would be filed against me, and I will be arrested.” “You’d be arrested after you testified?” the attorney asked. “No, that the drug charges would be dropped if I didn’t show.” “OK, but if you showed, you’d be ...” “I’d be arrested.” The attorney asked Coleman whether he would have testified if not for the “threat.” “Yes, I would have.” In a post-conviction hearing, Blakely denied the accusation. In a recent interview with the Southeast Missourian, Coleman said he stood by his court statement. He said he didn’t worry about picking up charges for blowing off a subpoena because the prosecution was on the side of the police, who were making the threat/offer. He said he was right; he was not charged for disobeying a subpoena. He said Robinson’s family was upset with him when he did not testify. He said he told them why he didn’t testify. David Robinson’s brother, Justin Robinson, confirmed the family was upset, especially when they learned Coleman’s reason for not showing up to trial. Justin Robinson said he approached Coleman just a few hours after the jury’s verdict. He said he asked Coleman why he didn’t testify, and Coleman told him about the threat. Several months after Robinson’s trial, in December, Coleman was arrested on drug charges and received a two-year sentence. Coleman told the Southeast Missourian that Baker “told me straight out of his mouth” police “offered a deal” that if he testified against David, they would drop his charges and give him a ticket out of town. They made a deal with him. Coleman’s recollection of that call with Baker refutes testimony given by Blakely and Baker. They testified nothing was promised in exchange for Baker’s testimony against Robinson. The defense questioned at trial why Baker was released on an own-recognizance bond when he was facing burglary charges if nothing had been promised. The prosecution later argued this was done to put Baker in a witness-protection program, because they feared

ST. LOUIS

Robinson or one of his associates might do harm to him, though Sikeston was not consistent with this type of protection in a related case in which Romanze Mosby tried to shoot a man who was going to testify against his brother. Two others confirmed to the Southeast Missourian that Coleman told them of the Blakely phone call shortly after it happened. Coleman’s ex-wife, Angella Coleman, remembered Ronald Coleman saying, “That’s the detective, and he said, ‘I wanna go (and testify), but if I go, they gonna try to hit me with some gun and drug charges.’” Additionally, Angella Coleman said she talked to Baker at some point before the trial. “I asked Al, was he gonna do that?” she said. “Was he gonna testify against David? Say he did that and he didn’t see it? I think he and David had some kind of conflict before all this happened.” She said he explained the conflict, “And I was like, well that ain’t no reason to take nobody whole life, but he told me, you know I won’t never see him no more, won’t nobody ever see him (Baker) again. Because they had him put in witness protection, and once he testified, he was gone, won’t nobody ever see him again. That’s the last I ever seen him.” Ronald Coleman’s brotherin-law, Lonell Bratcher, told the Southeast Missourian he saw Coleman the day of Robinson’s trial, and Coleman told him about being threatened by a detective. Bratcher said he was on Lee Avenue, about 1 1/2 miles from Coleman’s residence, when he spoke with Coleman. Bratcher recalled Coleman saying he wasn’t going to testify because Blakely threatened him with drug charges. “He (Coleman) is telling the truth,” Bratcher said. Coleman’s anticipated testimony about the prosecution’s star witness was so important, Robinson’s defense attorney Chris Davis mentioned it in his opening statement to jurors the day of the trial. So when Coleman disobeyed the subpoena, Davis sent public-defense investigator Linda Bollinger to find him. “I think [Coleman’s testimony] would have been very important,” Bollinger told the Southeast Missourian in a phone interview. But despite searching for much of the two days of the trial, she was unable to find Coleman. After the trial, however, she said he reached out to explain his absence. “[Coleman] said, ‘Miss Linda, I knew you were looking for me.’ He said, ‘We were even at the same stop light.’ And he said, ‘I hid from you because I was told I best not come to court,’” Bollinger said. Missouri law prohibits the use of threats and offers of benefits to get a prospective witness to disobey a subpoena. Tampering with a witness in a felony case is a Class D felony, according to the same statute. Baker could not be reached for comment. The Southeast Missourian interviewed him last fall, but he since has been arrested on drug-distribution charges and is in St. Francois County Jail on a $150,000 bond, online records show. The Southeast Missourian made multiple attempts to seek comment from Blakely, current chief Mike Williams, Sullivan, Mayor Steven Burch and city manager J.D. Douglass. Williams said all questions regarding the Box case would need to go to the Attorney General’s Office. When informed several of the Southeast Missourian’s questions were about cases involving Mosby and police practices in general, Williams didn’t respond. The rest of the sources from Sikeston did not respond to messages unless to respond officially to a Sunshine Law request, as required by law.

Second accusation

Coleman is not the only witness who claimed police threatened him with drug charges in the Robinson case. Jason Richison, who originally testified he overheard Robinson boast of shooting Box in Scott County Jail, later recanted and claimed he was threatened by police with additional drug charges. Richison, who volunteered his statement of perjury to jail officials in Wisconsin, said in a deposition that at the time of his 2000 incarceration in Scott County, he was addicted to methamphetamine and also had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression. According to the deposition transcript, Blakely and other officers “took and told me they were going to give a dope case. ... They had a bag of dope on them, a quarter grams. I was addicted to methamphetamines really bad. And they told me, if I don’t do this, they were going to charge me with that, with having it in the county jail, and it was going to be a worse charge than I already had.” Richison claimed out of desperation, he later cut open his wrists in an attempt to get out of jail “so I wouldn’t have to worry about the problem they were threatening me with. And they took me to a mental hospital.” Richison claimed police “told me the details. He schooled me on what to say and how to say it.” In correspondence before the Southeast Missourian’s initial series on the case that ran in December, Richison declined to elaborate but said he stood by his recantation. In the deposition and other documents, Richison said he feared returning to Missouri. “I thought he had gotten out,” Richison told the newspaper last fall. “He should have been out.” Richison was caught lying on the stand with one statement at the original trial, saying he spent days in a cell with Robinson, but jail records showed that to be untrue. Blakely denied in post-conviction testimony that he threatened Richison. Richison was deemed to be a credible source for the prosecution at trial, and the state defended his credibility despite his lie about being in a cell with Robinson. But the state claimed Richison was lying when he recanted against his own interest, and Blakely testified Richison was lying about the “dope” threat. Blakely’s credibility was brought into question, however, when in 2015, he contradicted then-sheriff’s deputy Bobby Sullivan when he testified under oath he was not aware Mosby was a suspect in the Box case. Sullivan and Blakely now serve at the Sikeston DPS.

Pills, polygraph Ultimately, Albert Baker recanted. He officially did so under oath in 2015. Baker testified during his recantation he believed Blakely and detective Dan Armour knew he was lying. Baker said Sikeston detectives had doubts about his testimony and decided to have him take a polygraph. “Do you remember passing a polygraph test in this case?” asked assistant Attorney General Katharine Dolin, a prosecutor, during the recantation deposition. “Yeah,” Baker said. Robinson’s attorney, James Wyrsch, objected because polygraphs are inadmissible as evidence in court. “You can answer,” Dolin said. “How’d you pass the polygraph?” “Well, Blakely had gave me a couple of aspirins — I guess they was aspirins — earlier that morning before I went to take it; blue, shaped football.” “The police officer gave you aspirin?” “That I know of, yeah. See, I’m allergic to aspirin. I had no reaction, so I don’t know

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what happened and ibuprofen, so I’m allergic to those, so whatever he gave me I guess it just kept me mellow.” Baker recanted his testimony against Robinson under intense warnings from Dolin, the prosecutor. The attorney warned him each count of perjury in a murder case carries with it a sentence of up to 10 years. She reminded him if he recanted his original testimony, he essentially would be admitting he had perjured himself under oath three times in the Box case. Baker still recanted. Regardless, the state continues to argue his original testimony was true. Blakely was not asked about the pill reference in court.

Another accusation Robinson was arrested in August 2000 and went to trial in August 2001. During that year, while Robinson was awaiting trial, Blakely and other detectives were investigating Romanze Mosby and his brother Louis for four shootings that injured five people. In one of those cases, Romanze Mosby was a suspect, but another man ended up receiving a conviction for it, due largely to eyewitnesses who pointed out another man. One of those witnesses, one of the two victims in the shooting, told the Southeast Missourian the investigation was “crooked,” and an officer, who was not Blakely, pointed to the image of the man they believed had done the shooting during a photo lineup. James Beck was one of two men shot in a case for which Edward Armstong was convicted. Romanze Mosby was originally the suspect in the case, but two people close to Mosby, including a cousin who was involved in the robbery but did not shoot, said Armstrong was the shooter. Mosby and his girlfriend said they witnessed the crime from Mosby’s bedroom window, and Armstrong ran to Mosby’s house, put on a jacket Mosby was wearing and fled. Both victims originally picked Mosby out of a lineup, but later, they picked out Armstrong. In an interview with the Southeast Missourian, Beck, who was shot in the leg, stated an officer helped him pick Armstrong out of a lineup. “Crooked all together, that’s all I can say,” Beck said. “When you walk in with a picture and you got your finger pointed to a picture without saying words, that’s pretty well indicating to the person in front of you, ‘This is the guy,’ right?” Beck now believes Mosby likely shot him, not Armstrong, although he said he couldn’t prove such. In what could be coincidence or something else, Beck is Sheila Box’s stepson. Beck denied knowing Mosby or having sought out his assailants the day he was shot. But L.A. Thompson, whom Beck said was his father, testified at Robinson’s trial he warned Beck against trying to find Box’s killer. “He was getting wind of what was going on,” Thompson said of Beck, who at the time lived near the area Box was shot. “I kept telling him to quit snooping around. He was going to wind up getting himself killed.” Beck, who has had some convictions, but not a long or violent criminal history, told the Southeast Missourian police had an unethical culture when Robinson and Mosby were being investigated. Beck said police were “notorious down here for that, for going around and putting cases on people and locking them up; John Blakely is notorious for it. “John Blakely was planting a lot of drugs on people back in those days is all I can say. Trying to make a name for himself.” Beck said Blakely deserved credit, however, for cleaning up a bad part of town. The Missouri Supreme Court will hear Robinson’s case in August, following an extensive review by a Special Master appointed by the jurists to the case. Robinson hopes the court will grant him an exoneration or retrial. bmiller@semissourian.com (573) 388-3625 tgraef@semissourian.com (573) 388-3627

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Greitens orders drug-monitoring program But area lawmakers say it won’t solve the opioid-addiction epidemic that killed more than 900 people statewide last year BY MARK BLISS

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN Calling it “a modern plague,” Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens implemented a prescription-drug monitoring program by executive order Monday, bypassing the legislative process. The order aims to help address the opioid epidem-

ic that killed more than 900 Missourians last year. The monitoring program could be operating within a month, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services director Randall Williams told The Associated Press. State Rep. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, called it “really innovative,” but added it

won’t replace the need for a comprehensive drug monitoring program such as the one she has proposed. Rehder said the governor’s program will analyze prescription and dispensing data but will not provide a database doctors can check to see whether patients are “pill shopping” and have obtained prescrip-

tion painkillers from several doctors. Doctors need to see a patient’s narcotics history to combat addiction as with other states, she said. Rehder said the governor’s program also will not replace the St. Louis County-directed monitoring program that has been joined by several other counties

and cities. That program provides a prescription database that encompasses about 60 percent of Missouri’s population, Rehder said. Greitens signed the order after a news conference at Express Scripts, the St. Louis-based online pharmacy benefits manager that will help provide data analytics,

The AP reported. According to a news release from the governor’s office, the Health and Senior Services department will use the analyses to identify whether controlled substances are being inappropriately prescribed, dispensed or obtained. See DRUGS, Page 5A

LIFE WITHOUT: INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

CODE CAMP

Children program robots by learning computer coding during Marquette Techfest

Detective’s files about murder suspect Mosby are missing from Sikeston DPS BY TYLER GRAEF AND BOB MILLER

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN

ANDREW J. WHITAKER ~ awhitaker@semissourian.com

Instructor Andrea Cox helps Stratton Williams, left, Nathan Harris, Grady Warren and Mason Hanners with their robot, The Finch, during the Code Camp: Coding with The Finch with the Marquette Technology Institute on Monday in Cape Girardeau.

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BY TYLER GRAEF

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN

Photo Gallery

he first step of Codefi’s coding camp was for campers to name their robots. The bots themselves were little white shells on wheels, called Finches, specially designed for classroom use, and the third- through sixth-grade students named them creatively. One group went with Destroyer of Finches; another was White Blob that Moves. One was called Jeff. But all of them performed the same functions, taking rudimentary commands and showing the students how keystrokes can make technology dance.

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Find more photos from Codefi’s coding camp in a gallery at semissourian.com.

ANDREW J. WHITAKER ~ awhitaker@semissourian.com

Creighton Edmundson, left, and his brother Wiley Edmundson go over functions Monday for their robot. The 20 children who began Monday were the second class of the camp’s inaugural session; 18 campers went to the same camp

last week. Andrea Cox, who teaches fourth grade at Jefferson Elementary School, led the camp and said the

children usually are quick to grasp the underlying principles. “By Thursday, they’re all on their own,” she said, adding each team will tackle a coding challenge to end the weeklong camp. The camp is part of Marquette Techfest, and the teams whose robots perform best are scheduled to be part of the July 27 Techfest celebration. See CAMP, Page 5A

Interview summaries, evidence reports and an unknown quantity of other documents involving Romanze Mosby, who was a suspect in the 2000 murder of Sheila Box, are missing, lost or being withheld by the Sikeston, Missouri, Department of Public Safety. Mosby was one of a handful of suspects in the Box case and the only person to have confessed to the crime, but David Robinson was convicted of the homicide. The missing records raise more questions around a case in which Mosby’s confession and the recantations of the state’s two witnesses already have laid the groundwork for Robinson’s ongoing fight for exoneration. Robinson’s lawyers will take the case to a Special Master, appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court, in August. The Southeast Missourian has been studying Robinson’s case closely for more than a year. After an in-depth series that examined the evidence in the case that was published in December, the newspaper has taken a deeper look into how Mosby was investigated as a suspect, especially in light of testimo-

semissourian.com

Breaking news

INDEX

Classified...................... 5B Comics .......................... 4B Crossword ................... 4B

Opinion ........................8A Speak Out ....................8A Sports............................ 1B

ny by the lead detective, who said he was unaware Mosby was a suspect in the Box murder until after Robinson was convicted. All told, the newspaper has made 19 public-records requests to 10 public institutions, seeking information about Mosby. While Robinson was awaiting trial, Mosby and his brother Louis were investigated in four shootings that injured five people. Romanze Mosby also was cited as a juvenile for an unlawful use of a weapon charge, in which a gun was seized by police in Charleston, Missouri. But records regarding the only shooting of which Mosby was convicted could not be found and produced by the Sikeston Department of Public Safety. The Sikeston DPS could not find original paper files of records, though they were known to exist at one time. See FILES, Page 5A

Strange but true

Dorm director teaches dog to whisper

Folk singer Jeannie Hinck wrote a song about farmer Wayne Cryts in 1982. Read about her and her music in Fred Lynch’s latest blog at semissourian.com/blogs.

Daily Record ...............6A Dear Abby ................ 12A Obituaries....................6A

Special section See our special web section about this series at semissourian.com/lifewithout.

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f/8 and Be There blog

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TV listings ................. 12A

GREENVILLE, Ill. — A resident director who lives in a dorm at a college in Southern Illinois taught his dog to bark in a whisper. Brian Gertler lives in an apartment with his wife and 1-year-old dog, Dudley, in a freshman dorm at Greenville University. Gertler found Dudley’s excited barking when they played together woke up students at night. Gertler said he slowly trained the dog to bark in a whisper. That means they can play in a much quieter way. — Associated Press

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Partly sunny, hot, humid

FROM PAGE ONE / NATION

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Files

From Page 1A

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE ~ Associated Press

Ann Coulter gestures while speaking at the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington. Delta pushed back at Coulter after the conservative commentator berated the carrier on Twitter over a changed seat assignment for a Saturday flight from New York to West Palm Beach, Florida.

Delta tells Ann Coulter her insults are ‘unacceptable’ ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — Delta Air Lines has pushed back at Ann Coulter after the conservative commentator berated the carrier on Twitter over a changed seat assignment. Coulter began tweeting about the episode Saturday in which she said the airline gave away an “extra room seat” she reserved before a flight from New York to Florida departed. Coulter had booked an aisle seat but got a window seat. She joked Delta hires people who seek to be prison guards, animal handlers or East German police. She also tweeted a photo of a woman she said took the seat she booked and labeled her “dachshund-legged.” Delta responded to Coulter on Twitter on Sunday night it was refunding

Drugs

From Page 1A The agency will investigate such activity and make referrals to “appropriate government officials including law enforcement and professional licensing boards.” For many years, Missouri has been the lone holdout without a statewide program that tracks prescription drug scripts. The announcement surprised lawmakers who failed to send the governor legislation this year to implement such a program. Democrats questioned whether the order goes far enough, while some Republicans expressed concerns about privacy, according to The AP. State Reps. Kathy Swan and Donna Lichtenegger also questioned the governor’s action. Every other state in the nation has a statewide prescription drug database, but that has not stopped the drug epidemic in those states, Lichtenegger, R-Jackson, said. Lichtenegger voiced concern about creating another government program, suggesting she would prefer to let pharmacy associations police the matter. “I am all about smaller government,” she said. She blamed insurance policies for part of the opioid problem, contending such policies often lead doctors to prescribe painkillers for a longer period of time than they otherwise would. Swan, R-Cape Girardeau, said a prescription database “has its limitations.” It may prevent some people from obtaining addict-

her the extra $30 she paid for her preferred seat. It added, “Your insults about our other customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary.” In a separate statement on its website, the company called Coulter’s comments “derogatory and slanderous.” Coulter was moved to a window seat at the time of boarding as the airline was “working to accommodate several passengers with seating requests,” Delta said in the statement. Delta said during some confusion over the assignments, a flight attendant asked everyone to move to the seats listed on their tickets. Coulter and the other passengers complied, according to the airline, and the flight departed. Coulter continued her online rant against Delta on Monday.

It is strictly a tool, but a tool without action.” REP. KATHY SWAN R-Cape Girardeau, on Gov. Eric Greitens’ drug-monitoring program ing painkillers, but in doing so, it will lead to more addicts using heroin, Swan said. “It is strictly a tool, but a tool without action,” Swan said of the governor’s proposal to establish a database. Swan said she has pushed for several years now for the state to adequately fund the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs to enforce existing drug laws. About 30,000 pharmacists, veterinarians and doctors who deal with prescription narcotics pay an annual fee designed to fund the bureau, she said. The state collects $870,000 a year from the fee, Swan said. But the bureau has seen its number of investigators decrease from nine to two and its budget drop to $200,000, she said. Swan said she doesn’t know what the rest of the fee revenue is spent on. Swan said she has been pushing to strengthen the bureau for two or three years, without success. Reducing the supply and demand for addicting painkillers is essential to addressing the opioid problem, Swan said. mbliss@semissourian.com (573) 388-3641

Covering the bases We cover the news that’s important in your community, from the opening of water slides to tax-increment financing.

The records also are missing from an electronic records-management system used by the department. On Nov. 1, 2000, Romanze Mosby shot a man named Larry Brooks who was walking with a man named Gerald Walker in Sikeston. Mosby, who was a suspect in the Box murder months before Robinson’s trial, confessed to shooting Brooks the day after the crime, according to a probable-cause affidavit written Nov. 3, 2000, by Sikeston detective John Blakely. Mosby, who eventually would plead guilty to the crime, said shooting Brooks was an accident. His plan had been to shoot Walker to prevent him from testifying against his younger brother, Louis Mosby, who shot Walker two months before, Blakely wrote. Mosby spoke with Blakely for an hour, confessed to the shooting and later “took [Blakely] to the location of the gun and glove he said he used during the shooting,” Blakely wrote. The Southeast Missourian obtained Blakely’s affidavit from the Scott County Circuit Court where it was included in court documents, but the affidavit was not part of the records provided by Sikeston DPS in response to the newspaper’s request seeking all materials related to the Brooks shooting. Blakely’s probable-cause affidavit and interview reports are missing. The DPS did not provide any evidence reports initially. Sikeston DPS custodian of records Capt. Bill Mygatt said the original hard copy of the file exists but cannot be located. The department instead provided screenshots from an electronic records-management system detailing the Brooks shooting and subsequent investigation. It remains unclear what the missing hard copy may contain. Mygatt said the screenshots represent “the complete file” regarding the Brooks shooting and subsequent investigation, but the screenshots provided do not include the materials known to exist.

No Blakely records While the records provided showed investigative reports filed by responding officers Nov. 2 and 3, 2000, there was none filed by Blakely, whose affidavit filed with the circuit court was signed the same day, Nov. 3, 2000. A separate Sunshine Law request submitted to the Missouri State Highway Patrol confirmed Blakely seized a .32 revolver Nov.

Camp

From Page 1A “Some [teams’ robots] were playing ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’ ‘Ode to Joy.’ They were getting pretty crafty,” Cox said. By entering values into the coding software, students could make the robots chirp, flash, motor around and hopefully spark an interest in tech. “It’s a lot of logistical thinking and application,” Cox said. ”It’s a great way to get them to think outside the box.” Cox said the concepts and modes of thinking learned in the camp can be applied in any science, technology, engineering and mathematics class. And many likely will use it in coding classes as the skill becomes more prevalent in K-12 education. One student, 11-yearold Jacob Funk, said he’d used similar coding

ANDREW J. WHITAKER ~ awhitaker@semissourian.com

This photo shows documents known to have been produced by Sikeston police, based on records requests from other jurisdictions, that could not be produced by the Sikeston Department of Public Safety. 2, 2000, and submitted it for testing by the Southeast Missouri Regional Crime Lab two days later on Nov. 4. A chain-of-custody log shows now-director Mike Williams signed the gun back into evidence in Sikeston on Nov. 7, 2000. In addition to the chain-of-custody logs, the highway-patrol records include copies of the Sikeston DPS’ own evidence receipts, also signed by Blakely, Williams and other officers, but there is no mention in the records provided by the DPS that a gun, shell casings or bullets were entered into evidence. The highway-patrol records also show no bullets from the Brooks case were sent to the crime lab. The lab test results determined only the characteristics of the weapon and that it was operable Another Sunshine Law request for evidence receipts from the month the gun was seized did not return records for the .32 revolver allegedly used in the Brooks shooting. Mygatt said in an email the gun and its evidence receipt were destroyed after lab testing determined the gun did not “match up to any case.” The Brooks shooting was a Class A felony, meaning the records are supposed to be retained permanently, according to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office. A judge would have approved getting rid of the gun, Mygatt said, because it was not used in a murder and thus “had no evidentiary value.” Mygatt did not specify which judge or court authorized the gun’s destruction. The records provided by the Sikeston DPS do not mention the man who was convicted of the crime. “We cannot find any report showing that Romanze Mosby was involved with or arrested for the shooting of Larry Brooks,” Mygatt later said via email. “The name search for Mosby

software in a class at Jackson middle school before coming to the camp. His brother, 9-year-old Joshua, hadn’t coded before but said he was sold on the robots halfway through the first day. “I’d like to find the price and buy one,” he said. “When I was growing up, my parents were programmers,” Cox said. “But I didn’t have a robot.” Cox said coding is a way for kids to prepare for a quickly shifting job market. Once someone knows how to code, she said, problem-solving skills can be more attractive to employers than a college degree. Plus the camp teaches the children to work together as a team. “They learn how to compromise,” Cox said. “That’s a life skill itself.”

does not show any connection with this case.” Blakely and other officials with the Sikeston DPS declined multiple requests for interviews, so it is unknown why no bullets from the Brooks case were turned over to the crime lab. The records of evidence could confirm the gun Mosby turned over matched the caliber of bullet used to shoot Brooks or could show whether the bullet was a different caliber that could have been used in the Box case. There is no record indicating why Blakely was confident the gun turned in for the Brooks shooting was actually the gun used to commit the crime. The lost records also could reveal whether Blakely was pursuing Mosby as a suspect in the Box case, a claim Blakely has denied in contradiction of testimony by another officer. Mosby was charged with shooting Brooks Aug. 28, 2001; about 10 months after his arrest. The charge came the day before Robinson went to trial and the same day Blakely is alleged to have made a phone call threatening a witness not to testify in Robinson’s defense. Mygatt blamed the difficulty finding the files on the department’s “terrible” filing system, but when the Southeast Missourian requested the case file in another 2000 shooting involving Mosby, the department was able to locate it in a matter of days. That file contained many documents, including investigative reports, evidence documents and interview statements of suspects and witnesses, many signed by Blakely. Asked when the Brooks file’s hard copy may be found, Mygatt said it may surface the next time the department combs its files to see which need to be retained and which can be destroyed, though he said he didn’t know when that

might happen next. Mygatt later indicated Sikeston DPS had given up trying to locate the file, saying via email the department has “given the search its due diligence.” The Southeast Missourian then sent the same records request to Sikeston’s mayor, city manager and city attorney, explaining that records were missing and asking whether the city could provide additional resources to help locate them. The city responded after the legally required 72-hour deadline had expired, offering no additional resources and instead offering a reiteration of Mygatt’s previous response. Mygatt also said the Sikeston DPS has “petitioned the Attorney General’s Office for a copy in their custody.” The Southeast Missourian filed a records request June 29 with the Scott County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, seeking all materials related to the Brooks shooting. The Southeast Missourian filed a Sunshine Law complaint against the city of Sikeston with the Attorney General’s Office, because the department is required to preserve the records, and the records still are said to exist. The Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman would not say whether the office had a conflict of interest, because it would be charged with examining the records complaint for a case file that is connected to the same case the AG’s office is litigating. The AG’s office also could not provide records known to exist, specifically the only recordings of interviews that exist in the case. For more on that story, please see Wednesday’s Southeast Missourian. bmiller@semissourian.com (573) 388-3625 tgraef@semissourian.com (573) 388-3627

No place like home Covering a community is about telling the stories of people who make your hometown special. The Southeast Missourian is your local news source.

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tgraef@semissourian.com (573) 388-3627

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WEDNESDAY

WORLD / 9A

Several chats Trump had second, undisclosed talk with Putin at G20

JULY 19, 2017

SPORTS / 1B

SHUTOUT

Wacha allows just three hits in Cards’ 5-0 win over Mets

St. Louis Cardinals’ Mi-

Republican health plan collapses

OPEN WIDE

Trump says to ‘let Obamacare fail’; McConnell still may seek repeal vote BY ERICA WERNER AND ALAN FRAM

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump declared Tuesday it’s time to “let Obamacare fail” after the latest GOP health-care plan crashed and burned in the Senate, a failure for the president, Republican leader Mitch McConnell and a party that has vowed for years to abolish the law. In a head-spinning series of developments, rankand-file Republican senators turned on McConnell and Trump for the third time in a row, denying the votes to move forward with a plan for a straightup repeal of “Obamacare.” This time, it was three GOP women — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — who delivered the death blow. All had been shut out of McConnell’s initial allmale working group on health care. McConnell, who could afford to lose only two votes in the narrowly divided Senate, had turned to the repeal-only bill after his earlier repeal-and-replace measure was rejected Monday. That had followed the failure of an earlier version of the bill last month. The successive defeats made clear that despite seven years of promises to repeal former president Barack Obama’s Afford-

I think we’re probably in that position where we’ll just let Obamacare fail. We’re not going to own it. I’m not going to own it. We’ll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us, and they’re going to say, ‘How do we fix it?’”

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

Martha Friese applies a fluoride varnish to Irving Fabian’s teeth as his brother Christopher waits in line behind him Tuesday at the Community Caring Council booth during the Back to School Fair at Tiger Field House in Cape Girardeau. The fair offered free dental screenings, immunizations, haircuts and healthinsurance counseling, as well as games, food and school supplies. More images are in a gallery at semissourian.com. Photo Gallery

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP able Care Act, Republicans apparently cannot deliver. Regardless, McConnell insisted he would move forward with a vote on his measure to repeal the law, effective in two years, with a promise to work — along with Democrats — to replace it in the meantime. The vote to move ahead to the bill will take place early next week, McConnell announced late Tuesday. It appears doomed to fail, but GOP leaders want to put lawmakers on record on the issue and move on. At the White House, Trump appeared to recognize defeat, at least for the moment, while insisting he bore none of the blame.

LIFE WITHOUT: INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

Recordings of interviews with murder suspect are missing from AG’s office BY TYLER GRAEF AND BOB MILLER

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN Recordings of interviews in the Sheila Box murder case are missing from the Attorney General’s Office. The recordings are evidence in an ongoing case that will go before the Missouri Supreme Court in August. They are records required for permanent

See HEALTH, Page 4A

safekeeping because they involve a Class A felony conviction, according to the Secretary of State’s policies. Not only could the AG’s office not provide the recordings, a spokeswoman said the office has no record of having had them. But did the defense? That question could play a role in David Robinson’s quest for exoneration. If

the tapes never made their way to Robinson’s defense, as they appear not to have made their way to the Attorney General’s Office, it could constitute a discovery violation and put Robinson’s conviction in jeopardy, but it’s not clear whether the lost tapes contained exculpatory evidence not presented at trial. See ROBINSON, Page 5A

ONLINE Special section See our special web section about this series at semissourian.com/lifewithout.

Cape Girardeau airport board wants air service to Chicago BY MARK BLISS

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN The Cape Girardeau Regional Airport would have flight service to Chicago if the city’s airport board has its way. The board unanimously recommended Tuesday the Cape Girardeau City Council choose the proposal of Utah-

WEB:

based SkyWest Airlines, which would provide two round-trip flights weekdays to Chicago. The airline, which would operate as United Express, would provide one direct flight to Chicago and another flight that would make a stop in Quincy, Illinois. Airport manager Bruce Loy said the airline also

would provide a morning departure on Saturdays and two arrivals and one departure on Sundays. Airport board chairman Robert Cork and vice chairman Justin Albright said they believe the service to Chicago will boost boardings. Cape Girardeau airport officials would like to increase boardings to 10,000 a year,

which would allow the airport to qualify for additional federal grant money. Albright said SkyWest has gone over the 10,000 boardings level at “almost every city” they serve. The city council is expected to vote Monday on making a formal recommendation to the U.S. Department of Transportation, which

will make the final decision under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. The EAS provides federal subsidies to airlines that provide passenger service to Cape Girardeau and other small airports. SkyWest Airlines is seeking an annual $2.98 million federal subsidy to serve Cape Girardeau and another $2.65

semissourian.com

Breaking news

INDEX

Classified...................... 1C Comics .......................... 4B Crossword ................... 4B

Strange but true

Dog rescues fawn from drowning

Johnny Sheffield, who played Tarzan’s adopted son in the movies, came to town to promote war bonds in 1942. Read about it at semissourian.com/blogs.

Daily Record ...............6A Dear Abby ................ 12A Flourish...................... 10A

Obituaries....................6A Opinion ........................8A Sports............................ 1B

See AIRPORT, Page 5A

WEATHER

From the Morgue blog

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million subsidy to service Quincy. Both cities are making their recommendations to DOT, Loy said. SkyWest’s proposal lists an average round-trip fare of $87 to Chicago. If approved, the two-year contract would begin Dec. 1.

TV listings ................. 12A

PORT JEFFERSON, N.Y. — A dog that saw a baby deer in danger of drowning jumped in and dragged it to shore. The rescue in Long Island Sound was caught on video by the dog’s owner, Mark Freeley. He said he was taking the English golden retriever named Storm on a walk Sunday when Storm “just plunged into the water and started swimming out to the fawn, grabbed it by the neck, and started swimming to shore.” The fawn is recovering at an animal-rescue center. — Associated Press

Volume 113 • Issue 242

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FROM PAGE ONE / NATION

Robinson From Page 1A

The prosecution is required to hand over all evidence that is favorable to the defendant and that could affect the outcome of the defendant’s case before trial. This type of evidence commonly is called “Brady material,” referring to the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland. Brady violations are one of the most common reasons convictions are overturned. Charles Weiss, Robinson’s lead attorney from the Bryan Cave Law Firm in St. Louis, said he was not aware of the tapes. “I don’t remember ever seeing anything like that,” Weiss said. “I certainly don’t recall or ever heard any tape recordings. If they are available, they should be turned over to the defense.” The Southeast Missourian contacted Robinson’s attorneys about the recordings after the AG’s office could not provide the tapes. Weiss, when told about the recordings, did not say whether a Brady claim would fit into their strategy in August when Robinson’s case goes before the Missouri Supreme Court, via a Special Master who will report findings to the justices.

Discovery logs Records provided by the Attorney General’s Office include a discovery log that states on July 26, 2001, the prosecution sent Robinson’s public defender, Chris Davis, a letter with “Brady and any discovery that I thought he may not have.” After that letter was sent, Scott County sheriff’s deputy Bobby Sullivan and an investigator with the AG’s office, Sarene Deeds, conducted several more interviews, prompting the prosecution to send the defense more materials Aug. 27, two days before trial. The prosecution “sent to Chris Davis all new statements taken by Sarene Deeds [and] Bobby Sullivan,” according to entries in the discovery log provided by the AG’s office. That log includes a list of individuals Deeds and Sullivan interviewed, in which Korenzo Hill, Maurice Rob-

Airport From Page 1A

SkyWest would replace Cape Air, which has served Cape Girardeau since November 2009. Cape Air provides roundtrip flights to St. Louis, a destination board members view as no longer desirable. Flights to St. Louis had to compete with Interstate 55, Cork said. When fuel prices decreased, more people chose to drive to the St. Louis airport, he added. Cape Air was one of five airlines that submitted pro-

ANDREW J. WHITAKER ~ awhitaker@semissourian.com

Pictured above are documents showing references to recordings of interviews the Missouri Attorney General’s Office could not provide via a Sunshine Law request. The AG’s office said it has no record of ever having the tapes, and an attorney for David Robinson said he doesn’t remember ever seeing any recordings as part of Robinson’s defense file. inson and Romanze Mosby are named, among others. The discovery-log entries do not mention tape recordings, but at least three documents — including one memo from the AG’s office — refer directly to the interview tapes. Washington University law professor Peter Joy told the Southeast Missourian in a phone interview while it is not clear whether a Brady violation transpired, the tapes’ absence is “definitely important.” “I mean the answer is, yes, it could be a Brady violation, but we can’t really tell without the tapes,” he said. The problem is the tapes’ absence make it impossible to know whether exculpatory evidence was overlooked by the investigators conducting the interviews — one who was part of the prosecution and another who later testified he worked the case at arm’s length, separate from the main investigation by the Sikeston, Missouri, Department of Public Safety.

Reference to the tapes The Southeast Missourian discovered reference to at least three tapes of interviews conducted by Sullivan among the hundreds of pages of documents requested from 10 public bodies as the

posals, but it was the only one that offered service only to St. Louis, Cork said after the board’s decision. Albright said SkyWest is the largest regional airline in the nation, operating commuter flights under the United, American and Delta brands in different parts of the country. The airline operates 2,000 flights a day, he added. Albright said SkyWest would provide Cape Girardeau with “a real airliner.” Cork and Albright said Chicago O’Hare is a major hub for air service, making it convenient for Cape Gi-

newspaper sought to examine how police investigated suspect Romanze Mosby. Among those documents were three that referenced recordings: A supplementary report signed by Sullivan and dated Aug. 17, 2001, which references a recording of a Mosby interview and an interview with Carlos Jones, Mosby’s first cousin and close friend who is said to have told the original tipster Mosby shot Box. Sullivan wrote in the report “both tapes will be copied and sent to the Attorney General’s office and Public Defenders office.” A supplementary report signed by Sullivan and dated Aug. 20, 2001, that references a recording of an interview with Korenzo Hill. In that statement, Sullivan wrote that Hill “said that he thought that Carlos (Jones) told him that the lady was shot with a 9mm, and at first he thought it was the same gun that was used to shoot Gerald Walker [by Mosby’s brother Louis Mosby], but has learned since then that it was not the same gun ... Copy of tape was sent to Attorney General’s office.” A memorandum of interview with Office of the Missouri Attorney General letterhead. It was not signed, but AG investigator Deeds’

rardeau passengers to connect to United flights and service from other major air carriers to destinations across the nation and the world. Albright said St. Louis can’t offer as many connections. “St. Louis has become a middleman airport,” he said, adding SkyWest’s service will eliminate the middle man. SkyWest would fly passengers on a 50-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft. The others would use turboprop planes that seat eight to nine passengers, Loy said. The jet would have a flight

name is listed as the person doing the interview, along with Sullivan. Following a summary of the interview, the document stated, “For further information refer to the tape of the interview.” According to the document, Sullivan’s interview with Mosby lasted 50 minutes. The summary report was limited to a page-and-a-half statement. Sullivan and Deeds interviewed Mosby and his cousin Jones, with both exchanges being recorded. The exchange with Jones did not last long, as he asked for an attorney as soon as Sullivan informed him Mosby said Jones had shot Box. Weiss, Robinson’s attorney, said in most cases he’s seen, if recordings are not submitted, there is a transcript provided in a Q&A format. “Things can be left out of a summary that could end up being important,” Weiss said. Even though the summary of Mosby’s interview appears consistent with the testimony Mosby later gave during Robinson’s trial, Joy said there are important differences between an interview summary and a more detailed tape or transcript of the same interview. “Since we don’t have the

attendant and a restroom, something none of the other airlines offered in their proposals, board members said. “This is a totally different class of passenger space than we have had here,” Albright said, adding the jet can fly at a speed of 560 miles an hour. Albright said the SkyWest jet will be the largest aircraft to serve Cape Girardeau since federal deregulation of the airlines in 1978 and the departure of Ozark Airlines. “We are pretty excited about it,” Albright said. mbliss@semissourian.com (573) 388-3641

House budget blueprint increases funding for military, cuts food stamps BY ANDREW TAYLOR

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a budget that proposes trillions of dollars in cuts to the social safety net and other domestic programs while boosting military spending, a blueprint that elicited criticism from conservatives and moderates. The GOP plan, written by budget chairman Diane Black, R-Tenn., is critical to GOP hopes to deliver on one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities — a Republican-only effort to overhaul the tax code. Unclear, however, is whether GOP leaders can get the budget measure through the House. Conservatives want a larger package of spending cuts to accompany this fall’s tax overhaul bill, while moderates are concerned cuts to programs such as food stamps could go too far. Black announced a committee vote for today, but action by the entire House

MANUEL BALCE CENETA ~ Associated Press

A U.S. Capitol Police officer gives a warning through a bullhorn to a group of black ministers gathered to protest on Capitol Hill in Washington, demanding Congress reject the “immoral” budget and the health-care bill. could be delayed by the ongoing quarrel between the GOP’s factions. Medicare is the second-largest mandatory program after Social Security, and the House GOP plan again proposes to turn Medicare into a voucher-like program in which future retirees would receive a fixed benefit to purchase health insurance on the open market. Republicans have proposed the idea each year

since taking back the House in 2011, but they never have tried to implement it — and that’s not going to change now, even with a Republican as president. Trump opposes the idea. The plan, in theory at least, promises to balance the budget through unprecedented and politically unworkable cuts across the budget. It calls for turning this year’s projected $700 billion or so deficit into a tiny $9 billion surplus by 2027. It

would do so by slashing $5.4 trillion over the coming decade, including almost $500 billion from Medicare, $1.5 trillion from Medicaid and the Obama health law, along with cuts to benefits such as federal employee pensions, food stamps, and tax credits for the working poor. “The status quo is unsustainable. A mounting national debt and lackluster economic growth will limit opportunity for people all across the country,” Black said. “But we don’t have to accept this reality. We can move forward with an optimistic vision for the future and this budget is the first step in that process. This is the moment to get real results for the American people. The time for talking is over; now is the time for action.” But in the immediate future, the GOP measure is a budget-buster. It would add almost $30 billion to Trump’s $668 billion request for national defense, which exceeds an existing “cap” on spending by $54 billion.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

tapes, we don’t know for sure, and although there are summaries that say what [Mosby] said, I’ve seen instances where the summaries have not been complete or have omitted information,” he said, later adding, “The summaries appear to be very bare bones, so the real concern is: What have the summaries left out? That concern is amplified by the fact that you don’t actually have the tapes to compare with the summaries.” In response to the newspaper’s requests for the recordings, attorney general special counsel Daniel C. Hartman wrote, “We can confirm that all audio recordings in our possession have been previously disclosed [to the newspaper].” The office provided three recordings in response to the paper’s original records request, but those files were all from the defense, including Mosby’s confession; a recording of Mosby’s stepfather, who says Romanze Mosby confessed the Box murder to him before Mosby committed suicide; and the defense’s video interview with Albert Baker, the state’s star witness, when he recanted his testimony that he saw Robinson shoot Box. If the AG’s office never received the tapes from investigators, as their statement implied may have happened, Joy said that still would not absolve the prosecution of their responsibilities under Brady. “The law is fairly clear on this that it’s the obligation of the state to turn over all the exculpatory evidence, and that includes making sure that if investigators, police or other law-enforcement agencies have exculpatory evidence that (it) gets to the prosecutor to be able to turn over,” he said. “Otherwise, if we had a rule that said it only involved the materials the prosecutors have their hands on, then law-enforcement officers could hold onto material, and it would defeat the whole purpose of Brady.” It would be speculation to say why and how the tapes went missing, but Joy said their absence ought to raise red flags. “I would expect any responsible attorney general’s office would be concerned to at least figure out an ex-

planation about what happened to the tapes,” he said, “even if it’s an embarrassing explanation that somebody dropped the ball somehow.” In a statement, the AG office spokeswoman Loree Ann Paradise wrote, “When the Attorney General came to office, he was appalled to observe the poor record retention standards and procedures practiced by past administrations. After a thorough review, he has implemented a new document management system that will ensure this office works efficiently and effectively for Missourians.” The office did not respond to follow-up questions asking whether the current AG questions the overall credibility of prosecutors in previous administrations, or whether the “poor standards and procedures” apply only to keeping track of records. The Box murder case was prosecuted under the Jay Nixon administration, and appeals lasted through the Chris Koster administration. The current administration, under Attorney General Josh Hawley, is scheduled to present the state’s case during six days of hearings in August before a Special Master appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court. The hearings, Robinson hopes, will result in either a retrial or his exoneration. The spokeswoman, who would not comment about who would hold the office accountable for not possessing the files, said the AG’s office was working with local law enforcement in an effort to track down the recordings. Meanwhile, the Sikeston Department of Public Safety has petitioned the Attorney General’s Office, hoping it has files it says are missing from the police department, regarding a separate Sunshine Law request for a different shooting Mosby was involved in. The newspaper filed a Sunshine Law complaint to the Attorney General’s Office, because the Sikeston DPS said the files exist but could not be found, but the DPS had done “due diligence” in searching for the files. bmiller@semissourian.com (573) 388-3625 tgraef@semissourian.com (573) 388-3627

Pavement ends

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AUGUST 3, 2017

SPORTS / 1B

LEGEND DIES

Fighting Irish football coach Ara Parseghian dies at 94

FILE - In this Oct. 31, 1970,

Cape to spend nearly $400K on system The contract with Avolve Software aims to streamline the review of development plans and allow online submissions BY MARK BLISS

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN The city of Cape Girardeau plans to spend nearly $400,000 on a computer system to streamline review of development plans and allow plans to be submitted online. Anna Kangas, the city’s

building and code-enforcement manager, said the system could be in operation in early 2018. “I am pretty excited about it,” she said. The City Council earlier this month approved an agreement with Avolve Software Corp. for the purchase of online plan submittal and

plan-review software. Kangas said the software will cost the city about $250,000. Kangas said city officials decided not to request proposals but negotiate directly with Avolve after discovering the company’s software was the only one that was compatible with the city’s

existing online-data system. New computer software and off-site backup data storage for the plan review program will bring the total cost to more than $392,000, according to Kangas. “Digital plan review software will save in printing costs and delivery of plans to city offices,” Kangas wrote

Two witnesses apologize to Robinson on first day’s hearing

in an agenda report to the council. City staff plans to hold several meetings with developers and design professionals to provide an overview of the software and step-by-step instruction on its use. Kangas wrote, “In lieu of waiting on the postal service, other delivery service,

or their office staff to deliver plans to our offices, the uploading of plans to the website will be instant.” She said the online system will allow developers and design professionals to send plans at any time day or night. See SYSTEM, Page 5A

Cape, Jackson schools prepare freshmen for upcoming year BY MARYBETH NIEDERKORN

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN

Freshman orientation at Cape Girardeau and Jackson public schools saw hundreds of students — and their teachers — gearing up for a new school year set to begin Aug. 10. Christopher Kase, principal at Central High School in Cape Girardeau, said the incoming freshman class has 327 students, which were divided into two groups for orientation. See FRESHMEN, Page 5A

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

Jennett McCaster, center, David Robinson’s mother, along with Robinson’s brother, Justin Robinson, and cousin, Betty Sharp, stand outside the Jefferson County Courthouse after the first of six days of testimony before a special master appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday in Hillsboro, Missouri. David Robinson is serving a life sentence for the August 2000 murder of Sheila Box in Sikeston, Missouri. Robinson is hoping for a new trial or an exoneration. BY TYLER GRAEF

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN HILLSBORO, Mo. — David Robinson shuffled into the Jefferson County courthouse Wednesday morning and waved to his family. They filled half the gallery, many wearing “Justice for David” shirts. Robinson’s shackles jingled as he stooped to wipe his eyes. “I’mma get emotional,” he said quietly, taking his

WEB:

seat at the defendant’s table to wait for Judge Darrell Missey. After 17 years of struggle, Missey represented Robinson’s best hope for freedom. Robinson is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the 2000 murder of Sheila Box in Sikeston, Missouri. He maintains his innocence, but in 2001, he was convicted despite the absence of physical evidence

linking him to the crime. Both jailhouse informants whose testimony helped convict Robinson since have recanted under oath, and another Sikeston man, Romanze Mosby, confessed to killing Box in a taped interview. But all Robinson’s appeals so far have failed. Wednesday’s hearing marked the first of six days of testimony prescribed by the Missouri Supreme Court, which appointed

Missey as special master to review the case. Just after 9 a.m., Missey called for opening statements before the cross-examination of four witnesses. See ROBINSON, Page 5A

BY SUMMER BALLENTINE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley will take the first step toward challenging incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill later this week, his spokesman said Wednesday. It potentially sets up a marquee 2018 race between a crafty Democratic veteran and a political newcomer touted as a rising star in the Republican party. Spokesman Scott Paradise said Hawley, 37, will launch an exploratory committee this week as

INDEX

Classified...................... 5B Comics .......................... 4B Crossword ................... 4B

Obituaries....................6A Opinion ........................8A Sports............................ 1B

Claire McCaskill

part of his “process to consider becoming a candidate.” An exploratory committee will allow Hawley to begin raising money without officially entering the race. See HAWLEY, Page 5A

Strange but true

Woman gets long-distance milkshake

A group of businessmen thrilled train passengers with mock robberies in 1987. Read about their adventures at semissourian. com/blogs.

Daily Record ...............6A Dear Abby ................ 12A Next ............................ 10A

Josh Hawley

WEATHER

f/8 and Be There blog

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CORY CROSNOE principal, Jackson Junior High School

Missouri AG moves to challenge Sen. McCaskill

semissourian.com

Breaking news

It’s been great, seeing the smiles on the faces, kids having their own devices. And the parents are very appreciative that there’s not a pile of books like there used to be.”

TV listings ................. 12A

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — An Ohio native in hospice care in Virginia had a dying wish fulfilled last month — one last mocha milkshake from a popular suburban Cleveland restaurant. Emily Pomeranz, 50, died Friday of pancreatic cancer. With help from a friend in Virginia and the owner of Tommy’s in Cleveland Heights, the shake arrived four days earlier. Restaurant owner Tommy Fello organized the shake’s 375-mile journey by packing it in dry ice and shipping it overnight. — Associated Press

Volume 113 • Issue 255

FROM PAGE ONE

Thursday, August 03, 2017

Freshmen

Robinson

Kase said the orientation process has evolved over a decade of finding what worked to get the students acclimated to the school year’s structure and flow. “It’s taken on a little different form over the years,” Kase said, “but it’s a great way for us to meet the freshmen.” This year, students were given locker combinations and a presentation on being prepared to their school-issued Dell Chromebooks, which will be used in the classroom and at home. Kase also said there’s a new administrative team at the high school. “We’re excited,” Kase said of three new assistant principals — Brice Beck, Tracy Haggerty and Stephanie Small. “They’re excited. They have great ideas to bring to us as a school.” Kase said the energy of the students has been great as well. “Not only are they excited to be back, we have student leaders who’ve been here every day, working at orientation,” Kase said. “It’s a really great group.” At Jackson, nearly 500 ninth-graders are enrolled at the junior high for this school year. Principal Cory Crosnoe is in his 15th year as principal. He said he thinks much of the excitement is with the new Chromebooks. “We’ve talked so long about it,” Crosnoe said. Last year, the school had Chromebook carts available for teachers to reserve, and there was a computer lab.

Charlie Weiss of the Bryan Cave Law Firm laid out the case for the defense, mentioning the lack of physical evidence tying Robinson to the crime and the payments made by police to the prosecution’s star witness, Albert Baker, whose original testimony named Robinson as the killer. All the other evidence in the case, Weiss said, “contradicts and belies Mr. Baker’s testimony.” Weiss went on to list dozens of factors he argued totally undermine the state’s case for keeping Robinson in prison. Assistant attorney general Katharine Dolin’s opening statement cited the 2016 decision in Lincoln v. Cassady, in which the court found “the Missouri Supreme Court has not recognized a freestanding claim of actual innocence in cases where the death penalty has not been imposed.” “We already tried this murder case,” Dolin said, urging the court to keep that in mind. She called the credibility of defense witnesses into question and pointed out the fact Baker passed a polygraph test corroborating his original testimony. But Baker, the first witness called, stuck by his recantation, calling his original testimony “all lies.” Wednesday was Baker’s 55th birthday, and he looked stiff and tired as he took the stand, sporting a gray scruff of beard and a gray-striped prison jumpsuit that matched Robinson’s. “I admit that I perjured,” Baker told Robinson’s attorney, Jim Wyrsch. “The detectives said they would change my life.” He described receiving payments, relief from then-pending criminal charges and witness-protection benefits from Sikeston police in exchange for providing false testimony. Under cross-examination, Baker told Dolin he knew Robinson before the murder because Robinson had sold him drugs. Dolin asked Baker about a statement he previously had made in which he claimed to have seen Robinson shooting a gun into the air July 4, 2000 — a month before the murder. Baker confirmed that statement but also claimed to have seen Robinson shooting a gun into the air the night of the murder. Dolin further questioned Baker on that point because his latter claim appeared to surprise her and Robinson’s attorneys, but Baker restated the claim. When he also reiterated the falsehood of his original testimony, Dolin asked

From Page 1A

System From Page 1A

It also will allow city staff and its development-review partners — the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, the county assessor’s office and the city’s stormwater consultant — to more easily review development plans. “This software will reduce our paper storage needs and will reduce our need to climate control an area that doesn’t serve any people,” Kangas wrote. The move should lessen the amount of time it takes to review development plans, Kangas said. Not only will staff be able to review the plans online, but needed changes can be made online, she added. Chris Koehler of Koehler Engineering said the review process currently takes from two to 10 weeks,

Hawley From Page 1A

McCaskill and Missouri Democrats wasted little time criticizing Hawley, who was elected to his current post in 2016. The Missouri Democratic Party late last month launched a digital ad, suggesting he’s using his election to attorney general as a stepping stone to higher office and on Wednesday sent out a copy of a tweet he sent during his campaign last year that slammed the state capital as being “full of insiders just climbing the political ladder.” “Josh Hawley must want to set some kind of record — just a few months after promising Missourians he wouldn’t be a ladder-climbing politician, he decides

From Page 1A

ANDREW J. WHITAKER ~ awhitaker@semissourian.com

Cape Central principal Chris Kase speaks to the incoming freshmen during orientation Wednesday at Cape Girardeau Central High School. But it just wasn’t the same experience as each student having his or her own device to work on and become familiar with, Crosnoe said. Teachers at Jackson junior high have had a Chromebook each for about a year now, Crosnoe said, and have been receiving professional-development training with it. “It’s exciting to have a lot of new things we can do,” Crosnoe said. “We’ve barely touched the surface, and while this isn’t the end-all, it’s a different way to motivate the kids and get them excited.” Crosnoe said while today’s students are comfortable with computer screens, that doesn’t mean they know how best to use technology. “Teaching them how to use technology correctly from an earlier age, the sky’s the limit,” he said. Teachers are excited to bring the ideas they’ve formulated over the past year into the classroom, Crosnoe said. He credits the school board with giving the school

plenty of time to become accustomed to the devices before sending them home with each student. Assistant superintendent Matt Lacy said that was intentional. He also said the school has been communicating with parents about the process since April. An at-home registration process also cut a lot of time out of Wednesday’s orientation process, Crosnoe said. “About 70 percent of Chromebook registrations were done before students got here today,” Crosnoe said. “It’s been great, seeing the smiles on the faces, kids having their own devices,” Crosnoe said. “And the parents are very appreciative that there’s not a pile of books like there used to be.” Crosnoe said curriculum has moved away from stacks of heavy textbooks, as many textbooks now have online versions. “It helps,” Crosnoe said. mniederkorn@semissourian.com (573) 388-3630

depending on the size and complexity of the project. “It varies a great deal,” he said. Koehler said he is looking forward to the online process. He said he hopes it is “beneficial” in cost savings and the amount of time it takes for plan reviews. Local developer Kenny Pincksten said the online system “will speed things up” and eliminate the cost of paying an engineer or architect for multiple sets of plans. “I haven’t seen any negatives at all,” he said. “This is definitely a step in the right direction.” Midamerica Hotels Corp. vice president Joel Neikirk also welcomed the city’s move. “Having the ability to submit plans digitally will be beneficial in getting the plans to multiple agencies/ reviewers quickly,” Neikirk wrote in an email to the

mbliss@semissourian.com (573) 388-3641

he’d rather run for the next office than do the job he was elected to do,” McCaskill campaign manager David Kirby said in a statement. Before becoming attorney general, Hawley worked as an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Law and was part of a team of about 15 lawyers in a U.S. Supreme Court case in which Hobby Lobby and other businesses challenged a federal requirement to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives for employees. Vice President Mike Pence earlier in July called Hawley about the race, and former Missouri senator John Danforth and prominent donor David Humphreys are among several high-profile Republicans who in April released a public letter encouraging Hawley. Big Missouri donor Sam

Fox sent a June letter that asked other GOP donors not to give to other candidates while Hawley decided whether to run. Republicans see Hawley as a strong candidate against McCaskill, 64, who is among 10 Senate Democrats running in states won by President Donald Trump. While McCaskill is vulnerable, she also is a skilled campaigner and is positioning herself as a moderate in a state that has trended toward the Republicans in recent years. Paradise in a statement added Hawley’s state campaign committee “has ceased expenditures and the soliciting or accepting of donations while he considers becoming a federal candidate.” Hawley can’t use money raised through that state committee for a federal race.

Southeast Missourian. “On our end, it will save some time and money on having multiple sets of plans printed, especially for a large project. In addition, the review notes being submitted back can more easily be forwarded with images to multiple individuals on the submission side,” he said. But Neikirk said “it is not clear” the online system will speed the review process at city hall. Kangas said the city has one full-time plan reviewer and is looking to hire a parttime plan reviewer. In addition, several other members of the development services staff are involved in plan reviews. Neikirk said even with an online plan review system, “it all still comes down to having enough staff at the review level to keep up and eliminate the backlog.”

I already knew I had lied, and I apologize to you. I can’t make it up to you.” ALBERT BAKER witness, addressing David Robinson in court him how he passed a polygraph if he was lying. He said before he took the test, lead detective in the Box case Sikeston police detective John Blakely gave him pills. Baker said he’s allergic to aspirin, but the pills didn’t cause a reaction other than to calm him. “Police drugged you?” Dolin asked. “That’s basically what I can honestly say,” Baker said. “I was trying to relax.” At two points during his testimony, Baker turned from Dolin to address Robinson directly. “I already knew I had lied, and I apologize to you,” Baker told Robinson. “I can’t make it up to you.” Robinson made no response other than to drop his head, thump a foot on the ground and again wipe his eyes. Near the end of Baker’s testimony, Dolin asked him, if he stood by his recantation, why he had disobeyed a subpoena for a recent hearing in the case. Baker recalled receiving the subpoena, but not knowing what to do. He said the only number he could think to call was that of Blakely’s, who he said told him he didn’t have to show up. “The person you were so afraid of, you called him?” Dolin asked. “Yup. Why? ’Cause I wanted to know, did I have to be there?” Baker said. “He told me I didn’t have to be there.” The next witness called was Carlos Jones, the first cousin of Romanze Mosby. Defense attorney Stephen Snodgrass asked Jones when Mosby told him about killing Box. “He ain’t actually have to tell me,” Jones said, scratching his jaw with a finger. “I was there.” Jones described standing in his uncle’s yard at 845 Ruth St. and seeing Box’s SUV pull up. “[Mosby] jumped on the rail of the Suburban, they got to talking, and the gun went off,” Jones said. When asked whether he ever talked to Robinson about the shooting while the two of them were incarcerated together, Jones addressed Robinson directly. “Bro, I apologize,” Jones said. “I know you finna get mad at me, but I knew.” Questioned by Dolin, Jones admitted to having smoked marijuana the night of the murder, though he denied he’d

been impaired, arguing he and Mosby were the only ones on Ruth Street that night, and he’d be able to recognize his own cousin. Jones also said thenScott County sheriff’s deputy Bobby Sullivan and Sikeston detective Chris Rataj knew about Mosby as a suspect. “Sikeston’s finest knew the situation,” he said. The third witness to testify was Ronnie Robinson (no relation to the defendant). Ronnie Robinson owned a detail shop on Branum Street in Sikeston and told the court he saw Box’s two-tone SUV careening north on Branum, past his shop, and nearly hitting another driver before it crashed into the Tradewinds flea market. He said he saw neither David Robinson nor Albert Baker anywhere in the area that night. Dolin asked why he didn’t come forward sooner. “I didn’t think even he’d be charged with [the murder],” Ronnie Robinson said. The last witness was Antonio Johnson, the driver whom Ronnie Robinson saw nearly struck by Box’s SUV. Johnson said he initially assumed it was a drunk driver and described the path the SUV took, which was consistent with the accounts of Jones and Ronnie Robinson but contradicted the original testimony of Albert Baker. Johnson said he didn’t call the cops because, “I didn’t have a license at the time, for real.” Dolin asked whether he’d discussed his testimony with anyone before Wednesday’s hearing. Johnson, who has pending criminal charges for drugs and weapons-related offenses, said one person tried to talk to him while he was in the Sikeston police station. “That Blakely dude was trying to talk to me about it,” he said. When Dolin asked for clarification, Johnson testified he stopped the conversation before any specific questions could be asked by Blakely. “I don’t know,” Johnson said. “I didn’t want to (talk with Blakely).” The hearing was adjourned before 1 p.m. and will resume at 9 a.m. today. After the hearing, Robinson’s mother, Jennett McCaster, said she felt good about how it had gone. “From what I heard today, it should have been dismissed today,” she said. Seeing Baker and Jones apologize directly to Robinson was hard, McCaster said. “It just broke my heart,” she said. “I’m just proud they stuck with their word and told the truth.” tgraef@semissourian.com (573) 388-3627

Covering the bases We cover the news that’s important in your community, from the opening of water slides to tax-increment financing.

Flea Baths

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Blogger James Baughn takes you on the trails in his “Pavement Ends” blog at semissourian.com

#semoselfie Planning on attending a fun event this weekend? Take a selfie and use the hashtag #semoselfie on Twitter or Instagram, and we will consider it for print.

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ESTABLISHED 1904, CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO. $1.00

FRIDAY & SATURDAY

SPORTS / 1B

Making the leap Local star Eric Roth discovers niche in decathlon

AUGUST 4 & 5, 2017

SE LIVE / 16A

CONVERGING Visiting artists from Mexico to have exhibit at Catapult

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@

Mueller is using grand jury in Russia probe

FIGHTING A FIRE

BY CHAD DAY AND ERIC TUCKER

witnesses and records and present evidence, though they do not suggest any criminal charges are near WASHINGTON — Spe- or necessarily will be cial Counsel Robert Muel- sought. ler is using a grand jury It was not immediately in Washington as part of clear how or whether the an investigation Washington grand into potential coorjury was connectdination between ed to the work of the Trump cama separate one in paign and Russia, Alexandria, Vira person familiar ginia. with the probe said That panel has Thursday. been used to gathThe use of a er information on grand jury, a stan- Robert Michael Flynn, dard prosecution Mueller Trump’s former tool in criminal national-security investigations, suggests adviser. Mueller and his team of A spokesman for Muelinvestigators are likely ler’s team did not return to hear from witnesses an email seeking comand demand documents ment. in the coming weeks and Mueller’s reliance on a months. grand jury is the “logical The person who con- next step in this investifirmed to The Associated gation,” given it’s the traPress that Mueller had ditional method for proseturned to a grand jury was cutors to gather evidence, not authorized to discuss Washington defense lawthe investigation by name yer Jacob Frenkel said. and spoke on condition of “The use of the grand anonymity. jury neither escalates nor The Wall Street Journal establishes a timeline for first reported the use of a the investigation,” he addgrand jury. ed. Grand juries are common vehicles to subpoena See MUELLER, Page 4A

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANDREW J. WHITAKER ~ awhitaker@semissourian.com

Fruitland Fire Department and surrounding area departments investigate a structure fire Thursday at 1461 County Road 442. Fruitland fire chief Rob Francis said residents of the home reported lightning struck the house and caused a fire in the attic. No injuries were reported.

Cape city officials scrap plan for sculpture made of old trolley rails BY MARK BLISS

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN The city of Cape Girardeau has scrapped a plan to create a downtown sculpture out of rusted trolley rails, Mayor Harry Rediger said Thursday. “It’s right now a dead issue,” the mayor said. Rediger had championed the proposed sculp-

ture, suggesting only a few weeks ago the city apply for a federal grant to fund 50 percent of the estimated $40,000 to $60,000 cost of the project. City staff said last month the city could dip into its Riverfront Region Economic Development Fund, which is financed partly with Isle Casino Cape Girardeau gaming revenue,

for the matching money. But the funding plan was tabled at the July 24 city council meeting after the majority of council members opposed spending local tax money on the project. Council members including Rediger then suggested an effort could be made to raise funds privately. Such funding would be needed if the city were to apply for

a grant from the Delta Regional Authority. The authority is an independent, federal agency that serves 252 counties and parishes in the eight-state Mississippi Delta region. A resolution authorizing a grant application is listed on the draft agenda for Monday’s council meeting. See SCULPTURE, Page 4A

Testimony focuses on man who confessed to killing Sheila Box Members of David Robinson’s family pray Thursday after the second of six days of testimony at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Hillsboro, Missouri.

BY TYLER GRAEF

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

WEB:

HILLSBORO, Mo. — Testimony on Thursday centered around Romanze Mosby, the man who confessed to the 2000 murder of Sheila Box, during the second day of David Robinson’s case review. Robinson was convicted in 2001 of killing box in Sikeston, Missouri. He continues to serve a

life sentence without the possibility of parole but is hoping a series of hearings going on now will lead to his exoneration. Four witnesses testified during the first day, but this time, only two were called before Judge Darrell Missey of Jefferson County, whom the Missouri Supreme Court named special master and tasked with studying the case evidence. Both witnesses were men

formerly incarcerated with Mosby, also of Sikeston, who confessed on tape in 2004 to killing Box. Because no physical evidence ever has linked Robinson to the crime, Mosby’s

semissourian.com

Breaking news

INDEX

Classified...................... 5B Comics ....................... 12A Crossword ................ 12A

Strange but true Court rules against ‘Spaghetti Monster’

Relive old memories of events gone by with our galleries of photos from the days before digital cameras. Find them online at semissourian.com.

Daily Record ...............6A Dear Abby ................ 13A Entertainment ........ 16A

Obituaries....................6A Opinion ........................8A Sports............................ 1B

See ROBINSON, Page 4A

WEATHER

Captured on Film gallery

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confession lent a significant boost to Robinson’s continued efforts to prove his innocence. The taped confession, however, thus far has been insufficient in that regard, because Mosby refused to authorize it formally and killed himself in 2009 after reading about a new Robinson appeal in a newspaper article.

TV listings ................. 14A

BERLIN — A German court has ruled local authorities may prevent the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster from advertising its “noodle Masses” at the entrance to an eastern town. It’s standard practice in Germany for small signs at the entrance to towns to announce there’s a Lutheran or Catholic church and detail when it holds services. The “Spaghetti Monster” group, an organization that criticizes religion as intolerant, wanted permission to do the same in Templin, northeast of Berlin. — Associated Press

Volume 113 • Issue 256

FROM PAGE ONE / NATION

Friday, August 04, 2017

Flynn filing details ties to data firm, transition pay BY CHAD DAY AND STEPHEN BRAUN

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

Nathan Pierce discusses his proposed downtown sculpture using the old trolley-car rails July 11 in Cape Girardeau.

Sculpture From Page 1A

But Rediger said Thursday city officials now have abandoned the sculpture project entirely for lack of local funding and have not applied for the grant. With no private donations and the council’s opposition to spending local tax dollars on the project, “we just decided to drop it,” the mayor said. Cape Girardeau sculptor Nathan Pierce had proposed fashioning art from the old trolley rails that were part of Cape Girardeau’s downtown history. He said he came up with the idea after seeing the rusted steel dug up and removed as part of recent Main Street improvements. Pierce proposed a sculp-

Robinson From Page 1A

Mosby’s suicide came just two months before he was due to be released from prison. Michael Richardson and Vincent Hines were called to bolster that confession’s credibility by recalling times Mosby discussed the Box shooting with them while in prison. Richardson recalled being incarcerated with Mosby from about 2002 to 2005 in South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri. Richardson, who grew up in Sikeston, said he was familiar with the Mosby and Robinson families — including Romanze and David — and had heard talk Robinson was doing time for a murder Mosby committed. “Rumor was that detectives had come from Sikeston to speak with him (Mosby),” Richardson said. “And actually got him to confess to [the Box murder].” But Richardson said Mosby approached him on the prison yard and told him the detectives were actually mad because he refused to tell them anything. Mosby approached Richardson again, this time to talk about manslaughter. Richardson was serving time for manslaughter, and Mosby probed him about the legal difference between manslaughter and murder. Richardson said Mosby

It’s right now a dead issue.” HARRY REDIGER Cape Girardeau mayor, on having a sculpture built from old trolley-car rails

ture that would tie together six to eight sections of rail. Erected upright, the rails would stand 18 to 20 feet in height. It would have been lighted from the ground on the interior and exterior with a color-changing, LED lighting system. Pierce proposed placing the “Time Tracks” sculpture on the southeast corner of the intersection of Main and Independence streets. Pierce said he is “dis-

then told him about shooting “the white lady that David Robinson is locked up for ... [Mosby] didn’t actually say Sheila Box.” “[He] came out with it as if it was eating him up on the inside, and he needed to tell someone he could trust,” Richardson said. Richardson recalled directing Mosby to look up for himself the legal parameters for manslaughter in the prison’s law library and urging Mosby to rectify the situation. Richardson said he told Mosby to “get it on out the way, because this man (Robinson) is locked up for something he didn’t do.” But Richardson also cautioned Mosby against speaking too freely about the shooting. “I told him it wouldn’t be wise to have these conversations with anybody else,” Richardson said. “[It’s] important to tell the truth to the necessary people; not inmates.” The next witness, however, testified Mosby failed to heed Richardson’s advice. In 2005, Vincent Hines was Mosby’s cellmate in the Licking prison, Hines testified. He said he and Mosby had been talking about self-defense situations while eating in their cell when Mosby told him about shooting a woman in a botched drug deal. Hines told the court he could not recall whether Mosby mentioned the race of the woman he shot, nor whether Mosby was buying or selling drugs when the shooting happened, but

appointed like everyone else” the project has been scrapped. But he said he still wants to create a sculpture from the rails to highlight part of the city’s history. Cape Girardeau had a trolley service from 1893 to 1934. “The historical value of that is awesome,” he said of the old rails. Pierce said he may create a smaller-scale sculpture from some of the rusted metal and enter it in the annual Broadway sculpture competition. Winning sculptures are placed on display along Broadway for a year and then replaced with new selections the next year. Rediger said he would like to see such a sculpture grace the Broadway corridor. mbliss@semissourian.com (573) 388-3641

Hines said the thrust of the conversation was clear. “He (Mosby) pulled first and shot her before she could shoot him,” Hines said. “Basically beat her to the drop.” Hines also said Mosby told him “he felt bad that someone else had got the case.” Near the end of Hines’ testimony, questions posed by assistant attorney general Katharine Dolin appeared to draw skepticism from the judge. Dolin’s questions highlighted an inconsistency between Hines’ account and Mosby’s taped confession by asking Hines several times whether it was Mosby or Box who allegedly sought to sell drugs to the other. Before she could finish, Missey interjected to ask what exactly she hoped to establish. “I’m having trouble understanding why this is hugely salient,” Missey said. “Does this make a difference? ... I really don’t care who had the drugs and who had the money.” Dolin told the judge it was important to scrutinize Hines’ statements because the other party to the conversation, Romanze Mosby, is dead. He allowed her to continue her line of questioning but again said he didn’t see it as a “massively salient issue.” Robinson’s next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in the Jefferson County Courthouse. tgraef@semissourian.com (573) 388-3627

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s former national-security adviser, Michael Flynn, is revealing a brief advisory role with a firm related to a controversial data-analysis company that aided the Trump campaign, The Associated Press has learned. The disclosure of Flynn’s link to Cambridge Analytica will come in an amended public financial filing in which the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general also discloses income that includes payments from the Trump transition team, according to a person close to Flynn who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity Thursday to describe details of the filing made to the White House. The amended disclosure shows just before the end of the campaign, Flynn entered into a consulting agreement with SCL Group, a Virginia-based company related to Cambridge Analytica, the data-mining and analysis firm that worked with Trump’s campaign. The person said Flynn didn’t perform work or accept payment as part of the agreement with SCL Group. The details of Flynn’s role with SCL weren’t laid out fully, the person said, noting Flynn terminated his involvement shortly after Trump won the presidency. Cambridge Analytica was funded heavily by the family of Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund manager who backed the campaign and other conservative candidates and causes. Cambridge Analytica also worked for the successful pro-Brexit campaign in 2016 to pull Britain out of the European Union.

Mueller From Page 1A

Meanwhile, lawyers for President Donald Trump said they were unaware of the existence of a grand jury and had no information to suggest the president himself was under federal investigation. “With respect to the news of the federal grand jury, I have no reason to believe that the president is under investigation,” defense attorney John Dowd told the AP. Ty Cobb, special counsel to the president, said he wasn’t aware Mueller had started using a new grand jury. “Grand-jury matters are typically secret,” Cobb said. “The White House favors anything that accelerates the conclusion of his work fairly. ... The White House is committed to fully cooperating with Mr. Mueller.” It was not clear what witnesses might appear before the grand jury or what evidence it might be accumulating or presented. Though there is “considerable deference to the prosecutors and their recommendations” when it comes to a grand jury, “the mere fact of

CAROLYN KASTER ~ Associated Press

Then-national security adviser Michael Flynn speaks during the daily news briefing Feb.1 at the White House in Washington. Flynn is detailing previously undisclosed paid speaking engagements, business positions and income from the presidential transition that he left off his public financial disclosure. Trump administration chief strategist Steve Bannon was a vice president of Cambridge Analytica before he joined the Trump campaign. Democratic lawmakers and Trump critics have seized on Cambridge Analytica’s role as they’ve pushed congressional investigators to scrutinize the Trump campaign’s data operation as part of probes into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Flynn’s previous filing, submitted to the White House and Office of Government Ethics in March, listed at least $1.3 million in earnings, including between $50,000 and $100,000 from his consulting company, Flynn Intel Group Inc. The latest filing lists at least $1.8 million in income. Flynn’s amended filing comes some six months after he was ousted from the White House for misleading the vice president about conversations he had with the former Russian ambassador to the U.S. It also comes as special counsel

Robert Mueller and congressional committees are scrutinizing Flynn’s business deals and foreign connections. The person close to Flynn said he is disclosing the information in an amended filing to make sure the “public record is accurate and transparent.” The person noted Flynn and his legal team have spent months piecing together the information necessary for the filing without the assistance of the White House counsel’s office or the Office of Government Ethics. In the filing, Flynn reports earning about $28,000 from the Trump presidential transition and more than $5,000 as a consultant to an aborted plan to build nuclear-power plants across the Middle East. The consulting connection with a group of companies involved in the power-plant proposal had been disclosed in Flynn’s previous filing, but it had not indicated he had received payment.

presenting evidence to the grand jury does not obligate prosecutors in any way to ask them to return an indictment,” Frenkel said. Mueller was appointed special counsel in May by the Justice Department after Trump fired FBI director James Comey. Mueller since has assembled a team of more than a dozen investigators, including current and former Justice Department prosecutors with experience in international bribery, organized crime and financial fraud. That team has been working at an undisclosed location in Washington, so presenting evidence inside a federal courthouse in the city could be more convenient for the group of investigators than working out of Alexandria. Mueller also worked as a prosecutor in Washington before becoming FBI director, a job he held for 12 years. News of the grand jury came as senators introduced two bipartisan bills aimed at protecting Mueller from being fired by Trump, with both parties signaling resistance to any White House effort to derail the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election.

Trump’s defense team has been looking into potential conflicts of interest among members of Mueller’s team, such as past political contributions to Democrats including Hillary Clinton, and Trump has warned any effort by Mueller to look into his finances would fall outside the scope of Mueller’s appointment. Under the regulations, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein is the government official empowered to fire Mueller under limited circumstances, such as conflict of interest and dereliction of duty. Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, has said publicly he has seen no basis for firing him. Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told Fox News on Thursday “the president is not thinking about firing Robert Mueller, so the speculation that’s out there is just incorrect.” He also downplayed the significance of the grand jury, calling it “a standard operating procedure when you’ve got a situation like this.” Associated Press writers Stephen Braun and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Your passion What are you passionate about? Call or email features editor Logan Young with your story idea: lyoung@semissourian. com or (573) 388-3632

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LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@

Trump warns N. Korea of ‘fire, fury’

JUMP AROUND

BY MATTHEW PENNINGTON AND CATHERINE LUCEY

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened North Korea “with fire and fury like the world has never seen” after suggestions the communist country has mastered one of the final hurdles to being able to strike the United States with a nuclear missile. North Korea fired off its own “serious warning to the United States” about “enveloping” America’s Pacific territory of Guam in missile fire to counteract U.S. bombers based there and fly over South Korea — and “get on the nerves” of the North. The competing threats escalated tensions between the foes further. Although it wasn’t clear whether Trump and the Koreans were responding directly to each other, the heightened rhetoric added to the potential for a miscalculation that might bring the nuclear-armed nations into conflict. Trump’s stern words to the camera at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, came hours after reports indicating

ANDREW J. WHITAKER ~ awhitaker@semissourian.com

“I can touch the top,” Payge Cox, 5, left, said as she and her brother, Payton Cox, 6, jump on their trampoline Tuesday while their grandparents watch them in Cape Girardeau. Payge was referring to reaching the top of the safety net.

North Korea had best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Scott City police chief steps down; search begins for his replacement

DONALD TRUMP

BY MARK BLISS

North Korea can wed nuclear warheads with its missiles, including those that may be able to hit the American mainland. The isolated and impoverished dictatorship has strived for decades to have the ability to strike the U.S. and its Asian allies, and the pace of its breakthroughs is having far-reaching consequences for stability in the Pacific and beyond.

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN Scott City police chief David Leeman has retired, and the city has begun conducting a search for a new chief, officials said Tuesday. Mayor Ron Cummins said Leeman submitted his resignation Monday. Cummins said Leeman previously had talked of retiring. Cummins said he did not force the chief to resign. “The chief did a wonder-

See KOREA, Page 5A

David Leeman

Kevin Harris

ful job for the city,” Cummins said. The mayor said he expects the city will hold a retirement luncheon for Leeman.

Leeman was employed by the police department for nearly two decades. He began working with the police department as a patrolman in 1998, city administrator Diann Ulmer said in a news release. He was promoted to police chief in 2008. “The city of Scott City would like to thank chief Leeman for his years of service to the department and to the citizens of Scott City,” Ulmer said in the release.

Applications are being accepted for the position of police chief, she said. Those who are interested may pick up an application at city hall, according to the release. Ulmer said the city plans to advertise the position. No application deadline has been set yet, she added. Ulmer said the mayor appointed police officer Kevin Harris as interim chief. See CHIEF, Page 5A

Judge hears formerly suppressed confession at Robinson hearing David Robinson is escorted out of the Jefferson County Courthouse in Hillsboro, Missouri, by sheriff’s deputies Tuesday.

BY TYLER GRAEF

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

WEB:

HILLSBORO, Mo. — Romanze Mosby mumbled under the hiss on the cassette, but as the taped statement he made in 2004 filled the Jefferson County Courtroom on Tuesday, his confession was unmistakable. “She raised up, and I shot her,” he said on the tape. It was a story many had heard before: In 2000, Mosby

killed Sheila Box during a drug deal in Sikeston, Missouri. But this time — for the first time — Mosby’s confession was heard by a judge. That judge, Darrell Missey, is the man the Missouri Supreme Court appointed to review the Box case and evaluate the innocence claims of the man serving a life sentence without parole for the murder, David Robinson. Robinson was in the court-

room as his attorneys played the tape, which in previous proceedings was deemed inadmissible as hearsay because Mosby refused to authorize it with his signature. Investigator Butch Johnson, who taped the confes-

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INDEX

Classified...................... 1C Comics .......................... 4B Crossword ................... 4B

From the Morgue blog

See ROBINSON, Page 5A

WEATHER Strange but true

Bid to deposit $1M bill leads to arrest

How much do you know about the trolley line that once served Cape Girardeau? James Baughn shares some of its history at semissourian.com/blogs.

Daily Record ...............6A Dear Abby ................ 10A Obituaries....................6A

sion, took the stand Tuesday to explain how his interview with Mosby transpired. He said Mosby was initially combative but for some reason didn’t leave the interview as was his right. Johnson said he kept talking. “I looked up from my questions and saw his eyes were beginning to well up,” Johnson testified. “He just broke down crying.”

Opinion ........................8A Sports............................ 1B TV listings ................. 10A

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Authorities said a man who tried to deposit what he presented as a $1 million bill was charged with drug possession. A criminal complaint stated Sioux City police officers were called to a bank Thursday to talk to a man who tried to deposit the bill into his account. The officers asked Dennis Strickland, 33, whether he had any more of the bills, and a baggie fell out when he emptied a pocket. The complaint stated the baggie contained methamphetamine. — Associated Press Volume 112 • Issue 260

FROM PAGE ONE / NATION

Korea

From Page 1A The nuclear advances were detailed in an official Japanese assessment and a Washington Post story that cited U.S. intelligence officials and a confidential Defense Intelligence Agency report. The U.S. puts the North Korean arsenal at up to 60 nuclear weapons, more than double most assessments by independent experts, according to the Post’s reporting. “North Korea had best not make any more threats to the United States,” said a stern-looking Trump, seated with his arms crossed and with his wife beside him. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. “He has been very threatening beyond a normal state. And as I said they will be met with fire, fury and, frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before.” The remarks appeared scripted, with Trump glancing at a paper in front of him. They evoked President Harry Truman’s announcement of the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, in which he warned of “a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” But it wasn’t clear what Trump, who is prone to hyperbole and bombast in lessgrave situations, meant by the threat. White House officials did not elaborate. The Trump administration considers North Korea to be America’s greatest national-security threat, and tensions have escalated this year. Pyongyang had threatened the U.S. in response to the U.N. Security Council’s adoption this weekend of new, tougher sanctions led by Washington.

Chief

From Page 1A Harris, who has worked as a Scott City patrolman, has been in law enforcement for 30 years, Ulmer said. During his career, he also has served on the Jackson, Sikeston and Perryville police departments, she said. The search for a new chief will involve the city’s police board and the city council. The council will interview applicants before making a final decision, city officials said. The mayor said city officials want to hire a permanent chief “as quickly as possible.” But he offered no timetable on how soon that could occur. The department is short-handed, as two of its

The sanctions followed groundbreaking long-range missile tests last month that showed the North could reach the continental United States with its missiles. The newly revealed U.S. intelligence assessment indicates those missiles can carry nuclear warheads. Denouncing the U.N. sanctions through state media, the North warned: “We will make the U.S. pay by a thousandfold for all the heinous crimes it commits against the state and people of this country.” For North Korea, having a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike America would be the ultimate guarantee against invasion by its superpower adversary. It is an ambition decades in the making. North Korea began producing fissile material for bombs in the early 1990s and conducted its first nuclear test explosion in 2006. Four subsequent nuclear tests, the latest a year ago, have accelerated progress on miniaturizing a device — something North Korea already claimed it could do. Over that span, U.S. presidents have tried and failed to coax or pressure Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear ambitions. The secrecy of the North’s nuclear program and the underground nature of its test explosions make it difficult to properly assess its claims. But the new assessments from Japan and the U.S. suggest doubts over the North’s abilities are receding. In an annual report, Japan’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday concluded “it is possible that North Korea has achieved the miniaturization of nuclear weapons and has developed nuclear warheads.” Japan, a key U.S. ally, is a potential, front-line target of North Korean aggression. The Post story, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials, went further. It said the Defense Intel-

ligence Agency analysis, completed last month, assessed North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, including by intercontinental missiles. Officials at the agency wouldn’t comment Tuesday. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also wouldn’t discuss the report. It’s unclear how North Korea’s new capabilities will affect how the U.S. approaches the country’s regular missile launches and occasional nuclear tests. The U.S. military never has attempted to shoot a North Korean missile out of the sky, deeming all previous tests to pose no threat to the United States. The U.S. could weigh military action if the threat perception changes. The calculation of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal at 60 bombs exceeds other assessments, which range from around one dozen to about 30 weapons. The assessments are typically an estimate of the amount of plutonium and enriched uranium North Korea has in its inventory rather than how much of that material has been weaponized. It’s unclear how many, if any, miniaturized warheads North Korea has built. Last month’s tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles highlighted the growing threat. While those missiles landed at sea near Japan, both were fired at highly lofted angles. Analysts said the weapons could reach Alaska, Los Angeles or Chicago if fired at a normal, flattened trajectory. Not all technical hurdles have been overcome with the missiles, however. North Korea still is believed to lack expertise to allow a missile to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere without burning up. Another workin-progress: the ability to strike targets with accuracy.

police officers recently left for other jobs, Cummins said. “We are like anybody else,” he said of police officer turnover. “It seems like every city is looking for police officers right now.” Scott City recently raised police pay by $1.50 an hour, the mayor said. Starting pay for a Scott City officer is $14 an hour, he said. “We have a great benefit package,” he added. But Cummins said Cape Girardeau and Sikeston police departments offer much higher salaries and, “I think we have exhausted this area out (of police officers).” The mayor said, “It’s tough to get someone to come in here for $14 an hour.” Cummins said the mayor has the power to terminate or suspend police officers, but the decision on hiring a

new police chief rests with the city council. Cummins said as mayor, he is not in charge of police-department operations. “The chief runs the department,” he said, adding a new chief “will hopefully bring some new ideas.” But city officials already are looking at changing the police department uniform. Officers wear black uniforms. Cummins said city officials are looking at adopting blue uniforms that “reflect heat better.” He said the uniform change is part of an effort to improve community relations. “We want to be community-friendly,” he said. Phone calls to Leeman were not returned Tuesday. mbliss@semissourian.com (573) 388-3641

Trump pledges U.S. will beat opioid drug epidemic BY CATHERINE LUCEY

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEDMINSTER, N.J. — President Donald Trump took on the opioid drug epidemic Tuesday, pledging that “we will fight this deadly epidemic, and the United States will win.” Trump held a briefing on the matter at his private golf course in central New Jersey, where he is on a 17day “working vacation.” Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser Jared Kushner and first lady Melania Trump were among the attendees. The president did not announce any new policy, but vowed to work with health professionals and law enforcement on the crisis.

In the biz

He said federal drug prosecutions have dropped but promised he would “be bringing them up rapidly.” He also said, “We’re very, very tough on the Southern border, where much of this comes in.” Trump’s drug commission, led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, recently called on him to declare a national emergency to deal with the opioid crisis. An initial report from the commission states the approximately 142 deaths each day from drug overdoses mean the death toll is “equal to September 11th every three weeks.” The White House said it still is reviewing the recommendations in the report. Price said after the briefing the administration can deploy the necessary

resources and attention without declaring a national emergency, though he stressed “all things are on the table for the president.” Trump drew criticism recently after transcripts of a call with Mexico’s president showed him describing New Hampshire as a “drug-infested den.” The transcripts were published in The Washington Post. This was the first event listed on the president’s public schedule since he started his “working vacation” Friday. Trump has pushed back against any suggestion he is taking a summer break, tweeting he is holding meetings and making calls while renovations have vacated the West Wing.

Southeast Missouri has a bustling business community. Get updates on the area’s movers and shakers on our SemoBiz Facebook page.

Wednesday, August 09, 2017

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

Butch Johnson stands outside the Jefferson County Courthouse after testifying Tuesday during the third of six days of testimony before a special master appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court, in Hillsboro, Missouri. The supreme court appointed Judge Darrell Missey as the special master. The defendant, David Robinson, is serving a life sentence for the August 2000 murder of Sheila Box in Sikeston, Missouri. Robinson is hoping for a new trial or an exoneration.

Robinson From Page 1A

Mosby then confessed, Johnson said, and agreed to go on tape. After taping the confession, Johnson summoned the prison notary, who was on her lunch break. In the hour Johnson said it took for the notary to return, Mosby became increasingly withdrawn, returning to his cell without signing the statement. Mosby committed suicide in his cell in 2009, two months before he was due to be released from prison. Assistant attorney general Katharine Dolin objected to playing the tape, as the prosecution still believes it to be hearsay. “I’m going to allow it,” Missey said. “I’m interested to hear it.” After the tape was played, Johnson was questioned about his role in Robinson’s post-conviction appeals, especially in regard to Albert Baker, the witness whose now-recanted testimony named Robinson as the shooter. The state called Elizabeth Bock, who prosecuted the original case, to testify after Johnson. Bock is an associate circuit judge in Douglas County, Missouri, but in 2001 was assistant attorney general. She testified she was unaware of any recantation by Baker or the state’s other main witness, Jason Richison. Bock acknowledged Baker was paid through a witness-protection program. She recalled how that was discussed at trial but said she was unaware of any deals made between Baker and police for his testimony. She also said she saw no reason to suspect there may have been any such deals.

After hearing the testimony the first three days, it’s kind of like, David (Robinson) has not even been implicated. Is this even about David?” JUSTIN ROBINSON David Robinson’s brother Likewise, Richison’s schizophrenia was discussed at trial, as was the fact parts of his testimony were untrue. He claimed to have been Robinson’s cellmate and to have slept above him on the top bunk, despite jail records showing they shared only common spaces and never a cell. Bock testified Richison had a good demeanor, made eye contact and made sense before Robinson’s trial. “He was normal,” she said. “He seemed very stable.” Had he seemed otherwise, she said, he never would have been used as a witness. Regarding Mosby as a suspect, Bock said that came to light “right before the trial.” The investigation of Mosby was being done mostly by then-Scott County sheriff’s deputy Bobby Sullivan, who later testified he only pursued the lead after investigators with the Sikeston Department of Public Safety expressed their unwillingness to consider Mosby as a suspect. Bock testified Tuesday working with Sullivan was “causing us (the prosecution) enormous difficulty.” Defense attorney Charlie Weiss brought up a pretrial deposition in which Baker claimed under oath to have

spent a week in jail after telling detectives he saw Robinson shoot Box, when he actually was released on his own recognizance hours after meeting with Sikeston police detective John Blakely. Bock said she read the transcript before the trial, but had “no memory of this.” Weiss also pointed to a message Bock wrote on an October 2004 fax that stated, “Told Blakely [to] have no contact with Baker.” Bock said she did this because “no one should be having contact with this fella (Baker),” but added she did not know whether Blakely had contacted Baker. She also cited a letter Johnson wrote to Baker that she suggested was inappropriate, but Weiss pointed out the letter wasn’t sent until more than a week after Bock’s note was written. Dolin asked whether perhaps Bock wrote the note later, using the fax as scratch paper. “I don’t know,” Bock responded. “Could’ve been; could’ve not been.” After the hearing, Robinson’s brother, Justin, said the testimony so far has been encouraging. “After hearing the testimony the first three days, it’s kind of like, David has not even been implicated,” he said. “Is this even about David?” He said Bock’s cross-examination was particularly significant because she cited inconsistencies in Robinson’s alibi before admitting inconsistencies in her testimony. “She said a while back that they popped David’s alibi,” Justin Robinson said. “Well, I felt like today, (Weiss) popped hers.” tgraef@semissourian.com (573) 388-3627

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A FEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CITIZENS OF MISSOURI 8TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Does Congressman Jason Smith represent the interests of your family or those of distant corporations? • On May 4, Jason voted YES on the American Health Care Act (AHCA) which will dramatically raise premiums for seniors and slash more than $834 billion from Medicaid if approved. Will you be among 23 million Americans the Congressional Budget Office recently predicted will lose health insurance as a result of the AHCA? Will this affect your family’s financial security and ability to avoid medical debt, a major reason for bankruptcy in the U.S.? Will a parent or grandparent be forced out of a nursing home due to drastic Medicaid cuts? • Jason has expressed support for the proposal of Betsy DeVos to redirect public tax dollars to private schools and for-profit charter schools. Will this draining of tax dollars away from the public schools that educate more than 90% of K-12 students in Missouri harm your community’s schools, particularly those in rural communities that do not have options for private education? • Jason supports eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency and its regulations against polluters. Will this affect your family’s access to safe drinking water and healthy surroundings? Will relaxed clean water legislation kill the recreational river industry vital to this region? • Has Jason’s policy of holding extremely few meetings with constituents on an invitation-only basis affected your ability to meet with your elected representative and express your concerns? • Did Jason’s votes of the last 6 years improve the local economy or help your family financially? The residents of the 8th District, the most economically distressed district in Missouri, are increasingly worried about unaffordability of health care and many other issues. Please contact Congressman Smith (Phone: 202-224-5721) to insist that he address these important issues. It is essential that our elected representative fight for the needs and economic health of families in the 8th Congressional District.

Message from Ozark Action Coalition (ozarkactioncoalition.org)

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Blakely says he knew Mosby was suspect

BATTLING A BLAZE

Detective’s testimony contradicts claims he made in 2015 deposition BY TYLER GRAEF

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN Sikeston’s lead detective identified but chose not to pursue as a suspect the man who later confessed to the 2000 killing of a Sikeston, Missouri, woman, the detective testified Thursday. Sikeston Department of Public Safety detective John Blakely testified he learned Sikeston man Romanze Mosby may have been involved in the crime but did not investigate further before another man, David Robinson, stood trial in 2001. Robinson was convicted of shooting 36-year-old Sheila Box due largely to now-recanted eyewitness testimony and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Blakely also testified Thursday there is no direct evidence linking Robinson to the crime. In 2004, Mosby confessed on tape to killing Box. Robinson maintains his innocence. His conviction is being reviewed by a Special Master appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court. Before Robinson’s trial, then-Scott County sheriff’s deputy Bobby Sullivan testified he told Blakely and other Sikeston DPS inves-

tigators about Mosby after receiving a tip Mosby was the shooter. Sullivan also said he investigated Mosby only after the Sikeston detectives did nothing with the information. Blakely contradicted Sullivan’s account in 2015 when he testified Mosby emerged as a suspect only after Robinson was convicted. “That would have been followed up on if we would have received that information,” Blakely testified in 2015, denying three times he knew Mosby was a suspect before trial. Thursday, Blakely said Mosby was a suspect before trial, but he could not recall speaking with Sullivan directly. “I know the name (Romanze Mosby) had come up,” Blakely said. While he said he didn’t pursue Mosby in the Box case because the sheriff’s department was “already investigating,” Blakely was investigating Mosby in another shooting at the same time.

ANDREW J. WHITAKER ~ awhitaker@semissourian.com

Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze Thursday at Cape Metal Recycling. Firefighters from Cape Girardeau and surrounding departments were called to the scene at 12:06 p.m. after a fire was reported in the scrap yard on Highway 74 west of Interstate 55. For more about the fire, see Page 3A.

Friends, civic leaders remember Joe Gambill for his wit and wisdom BY MARK BLISS

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN Former Cape Girardeau County commissioner Joe Gambill was remembered by friends and civic leaders Thursday as a man of wit and wisdom. Gambill died Thursday at his Cape Girardeau home at the age of 89. Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce president John Mehner said, “Joe was an extremely

See ROBINSON, Page 4A

brilliant individual,” adding Gambill was dedicated to the community. A former plant manager, Gambill was active in economic-development efforts with the chamber of commerce, the Cape Girardeau County Industrial Development Authority and the Cape Girardeau Area Magnet organization. He was plant manager of Marquette Cement for 10 years and served as a consultant, setting up concrete

plants in the Bahamas and California. He managed the BioKyowa plant, which manJoe Gambill u f a c t u r e s feed supplements, for a decade. Gambill served two different terms on the county commission, covering a total of six years. He was elected to a two-

year term in 1994 and then to a four-year term in 2000. He was a member of the Saint Francis Medical Center Board of Directors for several years. In 1994, he received the Rush H. Limbaugh Service Award, the highest honor given by the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce. “He was very witty,” Mehner said. See GAMBILL, Page 4A

United Way kicks off campaign; digital fundraising part of future People eat Thursday at the United Way Southeast Missouri luncheon at Isle Casino Cape Girardeau.

BY MARYBETH NIEDERKORN

SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN

ANDREW J. WHITAKER ~ awhitaker@semissourian.com

WEB:

Fundraising committee co-chairmen Jay and Gunnar Knudtson made a road-warrior entrance to the United Way fundraising-campaign kickoff luncheon Thursday. Jay Knudtson, president of the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents and former Cape Girardeau mayor, rode into the event center at Isle Casino Cape

Girardeau on a motorcycle, and his son Gunnar Knudtson drove in a golf cart to usher in their year as fundraising committee co-chairmen. Once he’d dismounted and taken the microphone, Jay Knudtson said it was a “dream come true” to stand onstage with his son. “It’s all about our community,” Jay Knudtson said, “and the United Way really exemplifies what that means.” Gunnar Knudtson said

he was looking forward to bringing fundraising into the 21st century, with people now able to give online, through crowdfunding or text messages. During the luncheon, the nearly 200 attendees were asked to text their pledges to a real-time counter. Three partner organizations — the Boy Scouts of America, Voices for Children (formerly CASA) and the Community Caring Counsel — each asked for a

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Classified...................... 5B Comics ....................... 10A Crossword ................ 10A

Strange but true Couple sees Jesus in baby’s sonogram

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Daily Record ...............6A Dear Abby ................ 11A Obituaries....................6A

Opinion ........................8A SE Live........................ 16A Sports............................ 1B

See UNITED WAY, Page 4A

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mini-grant to expand their services, and the full $2,500 requested was raised, Cape Girardeau Area United Way director Elizabeth Shelton said by phone Thursday. In the phone interview Thursday, Shelton said a couple of years ago, “we decided we were going to focus less on the amount of money we’re trying to raise and more on the work we’re trying to do with the money.”

TV listings ................. 13A

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania couple said Jesus showed up in their daughter’s sonogram picture, easing their concerns after two other children were born with birth defects. Alicia Zeek and Zach Smith told WPMT-TV they’re not especially religious, but they’re convinced the image to the left of their daughter’s head is a bearded Christ. Zeek’s first two children had problems at birth. — Associated Press

Volume 113 • Issue 274

FROM PAGE ONE / NATION

Friday, August 25, 2017

STEVEN SENNE ~ Associated Press

Mavis Wanczyk stands by a poster of her winnings during a news conference Thursday where she claimed the $758.7 million Powerball prize.

Hospital worker claims record lottery jackpot BY BOB SALSBERG

ASSOCIATED PRESS LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

David Robinson’s mother, Jennett McCaster sits in a car with her family Thursday after listening to a day of testimony before a special master appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Hillsboro, Missouri. The supreme court appointed Judge Darrell Missey to oversee the testimony. The defendant, David Robinson, is serving a life sentence for the August 2000 murder of Sheila Box in Sikeston, Missouri.

Robinson From Page 1A

He also briefly investigated Mosby when, after Box was killed, her stepson was shot in what police suspected was a drug deal gone wrong. Blakely did, however, follow up on another tip from Sullivan regarding Jason Richison, who testified against Robinson at trial. Blakely testified he was unaware Richison was a paranoid schizophrenic and had no reason to suspect Richison’s credibility, despite the fact Richison’s claim to have been Robinson’s cellmate was proven untrue. Richison, who since has recanted, claimed to have heard Robinson boasting in his cell about killing Box. Robinson’s attorney Charles Weiss asked the detective why, when he had the opportunity to question two men who actually shared Robinson’s cell, he failed to do so. “Wouldn’t a good detective do that?” Weiss asked. “I would think so, yes, sir,” Blakely said. “But you didn’t do that?” Weiss continued. “No, sir,” Blakely answered. The detective also faced questions about how he handled another witness, Albert Baker. Baker testified at Robinson’s trial he saw Rob-

United Way From Page 1A

“Internally, we have a goal in mind” for 2017, Shelton said, “but we prefer to talk externally about the difference the money is making in our community.” Shelton said more than $900,000 was raised in the

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

Detective John Blakely of the Sikeston Department of Public Safety exits the Jefferson County Courthouse after testifying Thursday in Hillsboro, Missouri. inson shoot Box but since has risked perjury charges to recant that testimony, claiming police paid him to lie. Baker received numerous payments for “information,” according to receipts signed by Blakely, but Blake-

2016 campaign, up slightly from 2015. “Donations were up, and operating expenses were down,” Shelton said. “We are trying to be the best stewards of our donors’ gifts as we can possibly be.” The United Way office recently moved to 1417 N. Mount Auburn Road, Suite D, in Cape Girardeau.

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ly said he had no reason to suspect Baker was lying. Blakely said it was the only case in which he’d ever used witness protection and said all payments would have been approved by his supervisor, but he also said Baker,

who was addicted to drugs, was paid in cash, and police made no effort to verify the money went to pay rent or living expenses. “Typically, we didn’t ask [confidential informants] what they needed it for,” he said. Attorneys asked Blakely about several allegations made against him by witnesses in the case. The accusations include various forms of witness intimidation. Blakely denied them all. He also denied giving Baker drugs to help him fool the polygraph test Baker took to convince the prosecuting attorney to bring charges against Robinson. Blakely said he arranged the test, which Baker passed, to be sure Baker was telling the truth. “I don’t want the wrong person to go to jail for something if they didn’t do it,” he said. Robinson, who also testified Thursday, said that’s exactly what happened. He said Blakely, Sikeston detective Dan Armour and then-Captain Mike Williams, who now heads the department, framed him. Blakely denied framing Robinson. “Is it true there is no direct evidence connecting David Robinson to this case?” Weiss asked Blakely. “Yes sir,” he replied. tgraef@semissourian.com (573) 388-3627

In the new office, Shelton works with community-relations organizer Kristin Funderburk and operations manager Donna Noe, as well as Robin Koetting, program manager of the Read to Succeed program serving kindergarten and first-grade students in all five Cape Girardeau elementary schools, Shelton said. The Read to Succeed pro-

Gambill From Page 1A

Gambill was “a huge Green Bay Packers fan,” added Mehner, who also roots for the storied National Football League team. Gambill served on the county commission with

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gram is expanding, Shelton said, thanks to a grant from DeltaCorps, a program of AmeriCorps and the Delta Regional Authority. Because of that grant, two full-time staff members, Nancy Israel and Emily Cabot, will be employees of DeltaCorps working closely with United Way. Israel and Cabot will help launch that expansion,

Gerald Jones. Jones, who was then the presiding commissioner, was a close friend of Gambill. Jones said his friend had “a great business” sense and displayed “good, common sense.” “We never had an argument,” Jones said. Gambill loved golf, his

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BRAINTREE, Mass. — A 53-year-old Massachusetts hospital worker stepped forward Thursday to claim the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in U.S. history — a $758.7 million Powerball prize — after breaking the news to her employer the way the rest of us only dream of: “I called and told them I will not be coming back.” “The first thing I want to do is just sit back and relax,” Mavis L. Wanczyk told reporters at a news conference. Wanczyk chose to take a lump-sum payment of $480 million, or $336 million after taxes, lottery officials said. Winners who take a gradual payout stand to get more money spread out over several decades. Even after paying taxes on the winnings, Wanczyk is worth more than some small countries, such as Micronesia, which has a gross domestic product of $322 million, or the Pacific islands of Palau, with a GDP of $293 million, according to 2016 figures from the World Bank. The previous evening, she recalled, she was leaving work with a firefighter and remarked, “It’s never going to be me. It’s just a pipe dream that I’ve always had.” Then she read the number on her ticket and realized she had won. Wanczyk worked for 32 years in a clerical job in the nursing department at Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, the hospital said. About a month ago, she shared a post on Facebook

called Read to Excel. “Read to Excel is going to the schools where it is most needed: Jefferson Elementary, Franklin and Central Middle School,” Shelton said. “Read to Succeed has always been to give a little extra encouragement and confidence to early readers,” she said. Volunteers act more as

joking she needed a vacation. “And by ‘vacation,”’ the post read, “I mean I need to move away and find a new job. On a beach. With rum.” The jackpot is the largest ever won with a single ticket. It is the second-largest U.S. lottery prize, ahead of a $656 million Mega Millions prize won by three people in 2012. But Wednesday’s big prize still is dwarfed by a $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot divvied up among three winners in January 2016. Wanczyk has two adult children, a daughter and a son. Massachusetts Treasurer Deb Goldberg said she offered advice to the family about being careful with their newfound wealth. “A lot of people will be coming at them with all sorts of things,” Goldberg told reporters. “I highly encourage them to find very, very good lawyers and advisers and think very, very carefully about how they are going to manage their assets.” Wanczyk bought five tickets. Two were computer-generated Powerball tickets, and three used numbers she chose. The winning ticket, she said, was one with numbers that used family birthdays. Her inspiration for the final digit — the Powerball — came from her penchant for playing the number four every Friday in a Keno game with her mother, stepfather and a friend. The lucky numbers from Wednesday night’s drawing were 6, 7, 16, 23 and 26, and the Powerball was 4.

cheerleaders than reading teachers, Shelton added. Of the luncheon, Shelton said, “I’m really excited that our kickoff for the fundraising drive was actually such a successful fundraiser. I really feel it sets a great tone for the rest of the fundraising campaign.” mniederkorn@semissourian.com (573) 388-3630

friends said. “He was fun to play golf with,” Jones said. “He just had a quip going on all the time about golf.” Cape Girardeau Mayor Harry Rediger said he and Gambill and their wives were “great friends” who traveled together. Like Jones and Mehner, the mayor remembered Gambill’s wit. “You couldn’t be around Joe without laughing,” Rediger said. Gambill’s friends said the former commissioner loved to collect rocks. “He loved to go quartz hunting in Hot Springs, Arkansas,” Rediger recalled.

Gambill was “a geologist by trade,” the mayor said. Mehner said Gambill had “an unbelievable rock collection.” “I can’t say enough good things about him. He is really going to be missed,” Jones said. Visitation for Gambill will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau. A funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, with the Rev. Francisco Gordillo officiating. mbliss@semissourian.com (573) 388-3641

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