Nation - Missouri Man recants testimony in editor's death

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- A man whose testimony helped convict a friend in the 2001 slaying of a Columbia sports editor is now saying that he alone committed the crime. Chuck Erickson says in court statements that he was solely responsible for the death of Kent Heitholt, sports editor of the Columbia Daily Tribune when he was killed on Nov. 1, 2001. Erickson had testified in 2005 that co-defendant Ryan Ferguson helped him rob, beat and strangle Heitholt in the Tribune's parking lot. Erickson and Ferguson were former high school classmates. Ferguson was convicted of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery and is serving a 40-year sentence. He has appealed his conviction and Erickson's statements were included in a motion for a new trial filed by Ferguson's attorneys in the Western District Court of Appeals. Erickson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and armed criminal action and is serving a 25-year sentence. He now says his testimony was a lie. "I did not tell Ryan what I was going to do," Erickson said in a deposition videotaped Nov. 22 at Potosi Correctional Center, the Columbia Missourian reported this week. "He had no idea that I would act in such an aggressive manner. ... He could not stop me, though he tried at the end." Erickson's statement followed a letter he sent two weeks earlier to Ferguson, who is imprisoned at the Jefferson City Correctional Center. "Have your lawyers come speak to me the next time that they're down here," he wrote. "If you tell the media that I asked to see your lawyers, or you tell the media what I talked to your lawyers about before I can talk to my family and/or consult an attorney, it will be regretful. I hope that you are holding up." Erickson's recantation could be construed as perjury and a violation of his plea bargain, Ferguson attorney Kathleen Zellner noted in her motion. In his original statements to police and in trial testimony, Erickson said he had no memory of committing the murder until two years later. His accounts of the crime changed substantially over time, and much of what he told police seemed to contradict other evidence. Erickson now says he "made a lot of assumptions and turned them into facts to satisfy the police" and "used the opportunity to move the blame onto Ryan and off of myself." "It was just too hard to admit to myself and others that I killed someone," he said in the new deposition. "I could not even accept the possibility of it." Ferguson denied involvement in the crime during numerous interrogations, and he has maintained since his arrest that he was not even at the crime scene. Both Ferguson and Erickson were juniors at Rock Bridge High School at the time of the murder. Published: Thu, Feb 11, 2010

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