Ferguson murder trial to begin today
Published Oct. 14, 2005
Jury selection is set to begin today in Lincoln County in the murder trial of 20-year-old Ryan Ferguson, who is charged with the first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in connection with the 2001 killing of former Columbia Daily Tribune Sports Editor Kent Heitholt.
Heitholt was found dead in the Tribune's parking lot on Nov. 1, 2001. An autopsy revealed that Heitholt died from head trauma from a blunt object and strangulation.
Ferguson and Charles Erickson, 21, were arrested in March 2004 after a tipster called the Crime Stoppers hotline and implicated the two Rock Bridge High School graduates. Ferguson and Erickson were 17 when Heitholt, who was a sports reporter for The Maneater while he attended MU, was killed.
"We will be picking a jury in a county unfamiliar to all concerned," said Ferguson's attorney, Charles Rogers. "We are looking for intelligent, open-minded jurors."
Attorneys will finish jury selection by the end of the day, and opening testimonies will be heard on Monday, Rogers said.
Heitholt's daughter, Kali Heitholt, said her family is glad the trial is near. "My family and I still miss my dad very much," she said, "but this has dragged on long enough, and we are just ready to get it over with."
Erickson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and robbery last year and has agreed to testify against Ferguson in court as part of a plea agreement.
Kali Heitholt said she was in Sweden when she received news of Ferguson and Erickson's arrests.
"I was so shocked that after three years they may have found the people that committed such a horrible act of violence," she said.
Ryan Ferguson's father, Bill Ferguson, said he is convinced of his son's innocence.
"There are no fingerprints that associate my son or Chuck to the crime," Bill Ferguson said. "No blood. No DNA. No weapon. Not one single item that ties Chuck or Ryan to the crime."
Bill Ferguson said that due to the method and severity of the crime, the scene would have been particularly gruesome.
"It's a very bloody crime," he said. "They would have been covered in blood."
In a signed statement, Erickson said he and Ferguson attacked Heitholt with a tire tool. Bill Ferguson said police investigated tools in his son's car, even using a Luminol test to find blood, and came up empty-handed.
Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Crane, who is prosecuting the case, could not be reached for comment.
Although he declined to comment on the merit of his own case, Rogers noted the particularly long amount of time between the crime itself and his client's arrest.
"Ryan Ferguson was never even accused until two and a half years after the death," he said.