Angela Mischelle Lawless: Kezer Conviction and Lamb Indictment

The Angela Mischelle Lawless murder is a 1992 Missouri cold case in which a 19-year-old nursing student was beaten and shot to death near Benton, a teenager named Joshua Kezer was wrongfully convicted and spent nearly 16 years in prison before his 2009 exoneration, and Lawless’s former boyfriend Leon Lamb was indicted in December 2024 and is scheduled to stand trial in February 2027.

What Happened on November 8, 1992

Lawless went out with friends in Scott County, Missouri, on the night of November 8, 1992, and never made it home. Around 1:00 a.m., a man named Mark Abbott stopped at the top of exit ramp 77 off Interstate 55 to check on a 1986 Buick Somerset that was idling there. He felt blood inside the car, heard a woman in distress, and drove to the sheriff’s department.¹

Reserve deputy Rick Walter reached the scene around 1:30 a.m. and found Lawless’s body inside the vehicle. Blood trails and grass on her clothing suggested she had been struck twice on the top of the head outside the car, then placed back inside and shot three times in the back of the head.¹

The Wrongful Conviction of Joshua Kezer

Joshua Kezer was 17 when he was arrested on February 27, 1993, and indicted that April on first-degree murder and armed criminal action. No physical evidence tied him to the killing. There was no blood, no fingerprints, no weapon.²

The state’s case was built on witnesses. Three jailhouse informants said Kezer had confessed to them. Mark Abbott identified him as a driver he had seen near the scene, even though Abbott’s earliest descriptions to police had been of a man with a dark complexion, possibly Latino, and later a Black man from Sikeston, neither of which fit the white teenager. A friend of Lawless named Chantelle Crider testified Kezer had harassed her at a Halloween party ten days before the murder. Prosecutors also pointed to small flecks on Kezer’s jacket as possible blood.¹

Trial began June 13, 1994, in Ste. Genevieve County. Four days later a jury convicted Kezer of second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 60 years.¹

How the Case Against Kezer Fell Apart

The trial prosecutor was Kenny Hulshof. A later judge would find he had suppressed critical evidence. Ten days after the murder, Abbott had told investigators the driver near the scene was a Black man from Sikeston, not Kezer, and that report was never turned over. Neither was a written recantation from one of the jailhouse informants. A notebook kept by Scott County deputy Brenda Schiwitz showed Abbott himself had been considered a suspect early on. Schiwitz testified at trial that Abbott was never a suspect and that she had destroyed her notes; in a 2008 deposition she admitted she had given them to Hulshof.³

In closing, Hulshof had told jurors: “We put him at the scene, we put a gun in his hand, we put the victim with him, we have got blood on his clothes.” Later forensic testing showed the flecks on Kezer’s jacket were tomato juice.²

Rick Walter, the reserve deputy from the original scene, was elected Scott County sheriff in 2004. He had long believed two people were involved and that the investigation had gone off the rails. In 2006, over objections from other officials, he ordered a formal re-investigation.⁴

Working with Kezer’s defense team and, separately, the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Walter’s review turned up evidence that had been buried or overlooked. DNA testing of blood found under Lawless’s fingernails excluded Kezer. A 1997 statement from Abbott emerged in which he said he and a married friend had followed Lawless, that the friend confronted her at the exit ramp, and that Abbott then heard gunshots. Two local residents said they had heard Abbott and his friend boast about the killing even before Kezer’s trial ended.³ Chantelle Crider recanted. The host of the Halloween party confirmed Kezer had never been there, and identified the man who actually argued with Lawless that night as Todd Mayberry.¹

In April 2008, attorney Charlie Weiss of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, working with the Midwest Innocence Project, filed a habeas petition in Cole County Circuit Court. After a two-day hearing, Judge Richard B. Callahan vacated the conviction on February 17, 2009, finding the evidence pointed to Kezer’s actual innocence and that no reasonable juror would have convicted him had the withheld material been disclosed. Callahan wrote that the system “failed in the investigative and charging stage, it failed at trial, it failed at the post trial review and it failed during the appellate process.”³ Charges were dismissed the next day and Kezer walked out of prison on February 18, 2009, after nearly 16 years.¹

Kezer later sued Scott County, former Sheriff William F. Ferrell, and former deputy Schiwitz. Prosecutors were shielded by immunity. In August 2010 he reached a multimillion-dollar settlement paid by the county’s insurance carrier; the exact amount was not disclosed.²⁵

The Cold Case Years

With Kezer cleared and no one else charged, the killing reverted to an open case. In October 2013, more than two decades after the murder, Lawless’s body was exhumed so DNA could be collected from wounds on her hands that had never been tested. Sheriff Walter said at the time he had four or five strong suspects. The remains were sent to forensic specialists in the Netherlands and reburied that same day.⁶⁷

In 2019, Scott County Prosecuting Attorney Amanda Oesch launched a fresh independent review after finding the case files disorganized and never digitized, and brought in state investigators to re-examine the evidence.⁸

Leon Lamb’s Indictment

Special Prosecutor Allen Moss was appointed on June 7, 2023, to lead the investigation. Eighteen months later, on December 20, 2024, a Scott County grand jury indicted Leon Lamb, 52, of Arkansas, on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.⁹ Lamb is described as Lawless’s former boyfriend and the last person known to have seen her alive.¹⁰

Lamb was arrested in Conway, Arkansas, waived extradition on February 5, 2025, and was transported back to Missouri two days later.¹¹ On February 10, 2025, his attorney Russ Oliver entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.¹²

The armed criminal action charge was dropped on February 21, 2025, because Missouri’s statute of limitations had expired for that offense. Three days later, Lamb was granted a $100,000 bond. The case was moved to Greene County to reduce media influence, and the Missouri Supreme Court appointed retired Judge Ben Lewis to preside.¹⁰

The Fight Over Lamb’s Defense Attorney

Lamb’s defense team includes not only Russ Oliver but also Charlie Weiss, the same attorney who won Kezer’s exoneration in the same murder. In January 2026, the prosecution moved to disqualify Weiss, arguing his prior representation of Kezer creates a conflict of interest because Kezer may be a material witness at Lamb’s trial.¹³

At a June 1, 2026 hearing, Assistant Special Prosecutor Mike Remley pressed the point: if Kezer’s testimony helps Lamb, can Weiss use it, and if it hurts Lamb, can Weiss attack the credibility of the man he once fought to free? The defense responded that Weiss’s prior work was limited to the exoneration effort, that the concerns had been known for years and should have been raised earlier, and that with Kezer already exonerated he faces no further jeopardy Weiss would need to protect.¹⁴

Kezer spoke up publicly. He revealed he had secretly recorded a summer 2024 meeting with Weiss and the prosecutors, said the recording leaves “no ambiguity about what was said,” and called the disqualification motion a distraction. He said he had grown “increasingly concerned” that the state was pursuing a “predetermined conclusion against Lamb” rather than following evidence pointing to other suspects.¹⁴

Weiss himself has said that in his years working on the case, he found “no indication at all that Leon Lamb had anything to do with the murder of Mischelle Lawless.”¹⁵ A ruling on the disqualification motion is pending.

Trial Date and What’s Still Unknown

Judge Lewis has set a target trial date of February 22, 2027, and attorneys on both sides expect proceedings to run about three weeks.¹⁶ Authorities have not released the evidence presented to the grand jury, and the special prosecutor has sought a protective order over discovery citing heavy press coverage.¹⁷ Lamb has pleaded not guilty and remains presumed innocent.

1
Innocence Project. Joshua Kezer
2
ABC News. Man Freed After Spending Half His Life Behind Bars for Murder He Did Not Commit
3
Courthouse News Service. Judge Says Prosecutor-Politico Hid Evidence, Orders Man Freed After 14 Years in Prison
4
Columbia Missourian. Scott County Sheriff Frees Man Previously Charged With Murder
5
Claims Journal. Wrongfully Convicted Missouri Man Wins Settlement
6
Columbia Missourian. Body of 1992 Missouri Homicide Victim Exhumed
7
KMBC. Body of Slain Mo. Nursing Student Exhumed After 21 Years
8
WPSD Local 6. State Investigators Taking a New Look Into 30-Year-Old Mischelle Lawless Murder Case
9
KFVS12. Man Arrested in Relation to 1992 Murder of Mischelle Lawless
10
Southeast Missourian. Mischelle Lawless
11
KBSI 23. Man Back in Scott County Charged in Connection With Mischelle Lawless Murder
12
KFVS12. Man Charged With Murder of Mischelle Lawless Brought Back to Scott Co., Mo.
13
Southeast Missourian. Special Prosecutor Moves to Disqualify Leon Lamb Attorney Over Past Role in Kezer’s Exoneration
14
Southeast Missourian. Prosecutor: Kezer’s Role as Witness Should Disqualify Lamb’s Attorney
15
BCLP. BCLP Partner Charlie Weiss Quoted on Kezer Exoneration Coverage
16
Daily American Republic. Judge Sets Target Date for Lamb Trial; Lawyers Expect It to Last Three Weeks
17
KY3. Ark. Man Charged in Connection With Lawless Murder Fighting Extradition