Buffalo man, no longer convicted of wife's murder, awaits possible release

A judge ruled decisively Thursday in throwing out the 2009 murder conviction of Brad Jennings in the death of his wife, Lisa, who died in the early morning hours of Christmas Day 2006.

Jennings' attorney filed a motion Thursday asking that Jennings be released on bond from the South Central Correction Center in Licking.

The death, originally ruled a suicide, was in the couple's Buffalo home.

Jennings, now 61, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

On the day of his arrest in 2007, Jennings told detectives "the evidence is lying." Investigators had tried to get him to confess as they told him that blood-spatter evidence proved he killed his wife.

Series: Convicted by Blood - the Brad Jennings case

In his ruling Thursday, Judge Robert Beger sided with Jennings.

The judge picked apart the evidence and criticized the credentials and competence of two Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators in the case — including the lead detective.

Jennings' defense attorney, Robert Ramsey of St. Louis, said he called Jennings with the news on Wednesday.

"I wanted Brad to know that there was light at the end of the tunnel," Ramsey told the News-Leader. "He told me, 'I want to thank you for what you have done for me and what you have done for my family.'

"It is a good feeling," Ramsey said. "I have been fortunate to represent some people that I think were innocent and were wrongfully convicted and now they have a chance for justice."

Beger, the judge, wrote that the failure of the state to hand over to the defense attorney the results of a gunshot residue test undermined confidence in the jurors' verdict of guilty.

During the 2009 trial, jurors were never shown the results of the gunshot residue test, which indicated it was unlikely Jennings fired a gun that night.

Detective Dan Nash, with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, never informed the prosecutor in the case that the test was done. As a result, the prosecutor never informed the defense.

The gunshot residue evidence was not discovered until 2016 — seven years after Jennings' conviction. It was uncovered by Lindsey Phoenix, a lawyer working for Marsha Iler, Jennings' sister.

The lack of disclosure was the linchpin of Jennings' writ of habeas corpus filing, which is a prisoner's last chance at exoneration.

Beger wrote:

"This court orders the convictions of Brad Jennings vacated and the Respondent is ordered to release Petitioner, Brad Jennings, unless the Missouri Attorney General schedules Petitioner for retrial within 120 days."

This does not mean Jennings has been found not guilty. He is still charged with murder but he is — once again — presumed innocent. He can be tried a second time.

Laci Deckard, 31, still believes Jennings is guilty. She is the daughter of Lisa Jennings and was raised by her mother and Brad Jennings.

Deckard testified against Jennings at the 2009 trial. The judge's ruling to vacate the conviction is based on the fact that "a report was left out of the first trial," she told the News-Leader via Facebook messenger.

"He is still guilty!" Deckard wrote.

The couple's other two children do not believe Jennings killed Lisa.

Ramsey said Thursday it is unclear to him if the judge's order means the state must again file a murder charge within 120 days — or if the trial must be scheduled to start within 120 days.

The News-Leader has contacted the Missouri Attorney General's office for comment.

"We received the order. We are reviewing it and will determine the next steps," said Loree Anne Paradise, deputy chief of staff for Attorney General Josh Hawley.

The newspaper published a five-part series on the case in November, prior to the writ of habeas corpus evidentiary hearing Nov. 7-9, which the News-Leader also covered.

Beger wrote:

"Had the gunshot-residue evidence from the robe been disclosed to the defense it could easily have tipped the scales in favor of another verdict — not guilty. At the very least, the nondisclosure undermines confidence in the verdict against Mr. Jennings and places the case in an entirely different light."

Beger, a former Phelps County prosecuting attorney, noted in his 19-page ruling that he was at a loss to explain how it was possible that the state's star witness at the trial, Nash, never told the prosecutor that a gunshot residue test was performed on Jennings' bathrobe.

"Sgt. Nash was the (boldface used by judge) key witness at the trial of this case and this Court is unable to explain how Sgt. Nash did not mention to Mr. (Kevin) Zoellner that, in addition to blood and DNA testing, the robe was submitted for gunshot residue."

The gunshot-residue test on Jennings' bathrobe would have reinforced Jennings' contention that he did not kill his wife. It also would have helped refute Zoellner's speculation made to the jury that the reason Jennings did not have gunshot residue on his hands was that he washed them after shooting his wife.

An earlier test done the night of the death showed gunshot residue was not on Jennings' hands but was present on Lisa Jennings' right hand, her dominant hand.

Initially, the Dallas County sheriff and local coroner ruled the death a suicide.

Lisa Jennings died at age 39. The News-Leader stories brought to light that she had made a previous attempt on her life at age 18 and her biological father took his own life.

Nash also testified late last year at Jennings' writ of habeas corpus hearing in a Rolla courtroom.

Nash said he never received the fax sent to him from the patrol's crime lab a mile away regarding the negative gunshot-residue test on the bathrobe.

Ramsey, Jennings' attorney, on Wednesday also informed Iler, of Buffalo, of the judge's decision.

Iler is a registered nurse who has spent $200,000 to prove her brother's innocence.

Ramsey said that when he told her the news, she wept.

"We don't hardly know how to feel," Iler toldthe News-Leader. "We hoped for this ... We are just blown away. It is hard to even talk about it."

It will be up to the Missouri Attorney General's Office whether to re-try Jennings for murder.

Iler said that even if her brother is re-tried, he should be able to be released on bond.

The reason the Missouri attorney general prosecuted the case in the first place is that the Dallas County prosecuting attorney in 2009, Wayne K. Rieschel, withdrew because of a conflict of interest. He attended church with members of Jennings' family.

Iler said she expects another trial.

"The state has fought us every single inch of the way, and I am not sure why they would stop now," she said.

Iler said Ramsey and his daughter Elizabeth have agreed to represent her brother if there is another trial.

Ramsey is well-versed in wrongful conviction cases. He worked 13 years to free Mark Woodworth, who had been convicted twice for the murder of a woman near Chillicothe.

Through Ramsey's efforts, Woodworth walked out of prison a free man in July 2014.

Judge Beger actually cited a ruling in the Woodworth case in his decision on Jennings.

Ramsey also expects the state to re-try Jennings, despite the fact Beger's ruling will make that difficult, he says.

"Their evidence has been eviscerated by this order," Ramsey said.

Ramsey said he believes the Missouri Attorney General's Office is being encouraged by the Missouri State Highway Patrol to continue to fight Jennings' release.

Ramsey made Nash's credibility an issue in the Jennings case, and the highway patrol has a lot invested in the detective's trustworthiness as an investigator and witness.

Nash has worked hundreds of homicide cases, including high-profile cold cases in the Ozarks, such as the 1985 murder of Jackie Johns.

"Nash's credibility right now is certainly wide open to attack," Ramsey said.

The judge not only criticized the missing gunshot-residue evidence, he also questioned the investigators' expertise in interpreting bloodstains found at the scene.

"At the time of his (Nash's) 'analysis' of the crime scene photographs and his authorship of the Crime Scene Reconstruction Report, Sgt. Nash had not even taken the basic bloodstain analysis class.

"In fact, Sgt. Nash asked Sgt. Roger Renken to do the bloodstain analysis in this case because, in his words, 'Roger was the most experienced, he was the most trained, and he's just a very good bloodstain-pattern analyst.

"However, Sgt. Roger Renken, testified at the evidentiary hearing that at the time of preparing his bloodstain analysis in this case he had only completed 72 hours of training in bloodstain analysis and he did not consider himself an expert (bold-face used by judge.)"

In addition, the judge wrote that Renken's interpretation of the blood-spatter pattern in this case "defies logic."

He wrote that what Renken testified to in November "contradicts" Nash's interpretation and testimony at the trial.

"The two opinions are mutually exclusive," Beger wrote.

Ramsey presented his own blood-spatter expert at the evidentiary hearing in November.

Joseph Slemko testified that Nash and Renken were wrong and that the blood-stain evidence clearly indicated Lisa Jennings took her own life.

Slemko was more "credible and reliable" than either Nash or Renken, the judge wrote.

What happened in the case, Beger wrote in his ruling, is that Mike Rackley, Dallas County sheriff at the time, handed the investigation over to the Missouri State Highway Patrol based on new evidence discovered by Nash, whom Rackley considered an expert in blood-spatter interpretation.

"Rackley relied on Nash; Nash relied on Renken; Renken was, by his own admission, not a blood spatter expert.

"Therefore, the primary — and only forensic evidence — against Petitioner rested upon the questionable credentials of the State's purported experts and the bootstrapping of unsubstantiated and illogical opinion evidence.

"Therefore, the blood evidence, as presented at trial, does not constitute strong, credible evidence of Petitioner's guilt."

J. Dwight McNiel is a private investigator in Ozark. He was hired by Iler in January 2012 and was instrumental in discovering the undisclosed gunshot-residue test on the bathrobe.

McNiel reviewed the case through the eyes of law enforcement — he once was the sheriff of Christian County. He said this of Thursday's ruling:

"I think it is a sad day for law enforcement," he said. "I am sick that it happened. I am glad that he is closer to being free, but I don't know where he goes to get his eight years back.

"I pray that the attorney general's office does not drag this thing on another second."