Heitholt Killer Back in Court

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Columbia man serving a 40-year sentence for the 2001 killing of a newspaper editor is returning to court with new evidence he hopes will prove his innocence.
Ryan Ferguson was convicted in 2005 of second-degree murder in the strangling of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor and former Quincy resident Kent Heitholt. Colleagues said Heitholt was attacked while feeding a stray cat in the newspaper's parking lot.
Ferguson has convinced a Cole County judge that he deserves a new hearing based in part of the testimony of Charles Erickson, a former high school friend. Erickson pleaded guilty and received a lesser sentence but now says he acted alone.