Ryan W. Ferguson

In the early morning hours of November 1, 2001, 48-year-old Kent Heitholt was murdered in the parking lot of the Columbia Daily Tribune, where he worked as a sports editor. He was last seen alive by co-worker Michael Boyd, who told police that he had a work-related conversation with Heitholt in the parking lot between 2:12 and 2:20 a.m. Minutes later, janitor Shawna Ornt stepped outside for a cigarette break and saw two shadowy figures near Heitholt's car. She ran back inside to get her supervisor, Jerry Trump. On the same evening, 17-year-old high-school junior Ryan Ferguson and classmate Charles Erickson were attending Halloween parties in the area. Erickson was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol that night, and the following day, he had no memory of what had happened. At a later hearing, attorneys asked Erickson whether he had noticed anything unusual on the morning of November 1, such as injuries or blood on his clothing, but he stated that he had not noticed anything out of the ordinary. ==Investigation==

Ornt told police that she got a good look at the young men, while Trump reported that he was unable to see them clearly. Police recovered unidentified fingerprints on and inside Heitholt's car, as well as an unidentified hair in his hand. Police also recovered footprints from the blood at the crime scene. Ornt provided police with a description of the men, and a composite sketch was drawn. In November 2003, Erickson read an article in the local newspaper that included a sketch of a possible suspect. Erickson thought that the sketch resembled him and became more concerned. He asked a friend, Nick Gilpin, for advice, who mentioned something to another friend, John Alder. John Alder then called the police on his two friends, Erickson and Ferguson. In the recorded interrogation, Erickson seems to know little about the crime. He told police, "It's just so foggy... I could be sitting here fabricating all of it." At one point, he was asked questions about the weapon used to strangle Heitholt. Erickson replied that he thought it was a shirt. When the police officer told him that it was not, he replied, "Maybe a bungee cord?" Eventually, the officer told Erickson that the weapon was Heitholt's own belt. Erickson replied, "I don't remember that at all." In March 2004, Erickson and Ferguson were arrested and charged with the murder. ==Trial==

The government offered Erickson a plea deal in exchange for testimony against Ferguson at his trial, which took place in 2005. Along with Erickson, Trump testified that he had seen Erickson and Ferguson at the scene. Trump testified that while he was in jail on unrelated charges, his wife sent him a news article about the crime. He claims that as he removed the newspaper from the envelope, he saw photos of Erickson and Ferguson and immediately recognized them as the two men standing over Heitholt on the evening of the murder. or Erickson, and no traces of the victim's blood were found in the vehicle that Ferguson was driving the night of the murder. Ferguson was convicted of second-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to 40 years in prison. ==Conviction vacated, charges dismissed==

Following the conviction, Ferguson gained a following with wrongful-conviction advocacy groups. In 2009, high-profile Chicago attorney Kathleen Zellner took over Ferguson's case, working pro bono. In 2012, both Erickson and Trump recanted their trial testimony in statements obtained by Zellner and her investigator. In the subsequent habeas corpus hearing, both Erickson and Trump admitted that they had lied at Ferguson's trial. Erickson claimed that prosecutor Kevin Crane pressured him into implicating Ferguson. Erickson testified in the habeas hearing that he could not remember the evening of the murder because he was so intoxicated with drugs and alcohol that night that he had blacked out, causing his anterograde amnesia. Trump recanted the story about his wife sending him the newspaper article and claimed that Crane had pressured him into testifying against Ferguson, saying that he had first seen the newspaper photos in 2004 at the prosecutor's office after he was released from prison. "On more than one occasion, he said 'I've got the right two guys' — almost like a cheerleader," Trump said, also alleging that Crane had shown him a Tribune newspaper with Ferguson's photo and that Crane mentioned that it would be "helpful" for Trump to identify Ferguson as having been at the crime scene. Michael Boyd, the last person to have seen Heitholt alive in the parking lot, was also called as a witness. When questioning Boyd, Zellner elicited a timeline from him that placed him with Heitholt at the time of the murder. The court cited these critical admissions in its opinion. Boyd's five conflicting stories were known before the hearing, but he had never been called as a sworn witness in any court proceeding regarding the case. The case remains unsolved, and in 2013 the police said that they are considering reopening the case. ==Civil rights suit==

On March 11, 2014, Ferguson filed a civil suit against 11 individuals as well as Boone County, Missouri and the city of Columbia in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The suit alleged suppression of exculpatory evidence, fabrication of evidence, reckless or intentional failure to investigate, malicious prosecution, conspiracy to deprive constitutional rights, false arrest and defamation. The suit also claimed that following Ferguson's release, former prosecutor Kevin Crane and former Columbia police chief Randy Boehm harmed Ferguson by continuing to make statements about his guilt. Ultimately, all defendants were dismissed except for six police officers. In a July 2017 settlement hearing, a judge awarded Ferguson $11 million — $1 million for each year he had spent in prison and $1 million for legal expenses. In the hearing, attorneys for the city compared the settlement to an Alford plea—not admitting liability, but admitting enough evidence exists that they would likely lose in court. The charges against him were dismissed because, as the Western District Appellate Court pointed out in its decision, there was no evidence left that would support a conviction. On June 16, 2025, Cole County, Missouri Judge Cotton Walker awarded Ferguson $43.8 million, adding several million dollars in interest to the amount the jury had awarded in November 2024, ordering "Traveler's to pay $41.6 million for claims of bad faith and another $2.14 million for vexatious refusal". Ferguson's lawyers, led by Kathleen Zellner, will receive $305,250. ==Charles Erickson==

Charles Erickson received a 25-year sentence in exchange for testifying against Ferguson. Erickson filed an appeal in December 2018, which the court denied because he had already confessed to the crime. In June 2020, Erickson filed for a rehearing. Erickson was released on parole in January 2023, after serving 18 years of his 25-year sentence. ==Media coverage==

In September 2013, the first book about the Ryan Ferguson case was released: Free Ryan Ferguson: 101 Reasons Why Ryan Ferguson Should Be Released, by Brian D'Ambrosio. The book details allegations of police misconduct and intimidation by prosecutor Kevin Crane. There are also accounts of bogus police reports and alleged witnesses claiming that affidavits against Ferguson were signed in their names. D'Ambrosio proposes alternate theories and examines the allegations against Michael Boyd, the final person to speak with the victim. The case has been featured on 48 Hours, It aired in August 2016 as a two-hour special on the Investigation Discovery network. ==Personal life==

Soon after he was arrested, Ferguson began devoting his time to fitness and health and became a certified personal trainer. "I know you're innocent, but while you're in there, I can't protect you," his father told him four days after his arrest in 2004, "You have to do everything you can to make yourself stronger, faster, and smarter to survive." Ferguson began exercising and lifting weights while in prison. In April 2016, it was announced that Ferguson would host an MTV series entitled Unlocking the Truth, a serialized documentary following other cases of possible wrongful conviction. In 2022, Ferguson was a contestant on the 33rd season of The Amazing Race with his friend Dusty Harris. His team finished in third place. ==See also==