Leon Lamb granted bond as Mischelle Lawless murder case heads to Greene County

Leon Lamb’s defense team won two victories in court Monday, Feb. 24, as Judge Ben Lewis set a bond for Lamb and denied the state’s request for a gag order against the defense.

Monday’s hearing will be the last on Lamb’s case to be held in the Scott County Courthouse, as Lewis ordered the venue to Greene County.

Lamb was indicted by a grand jury for the murder of Mischelle Lawless, a 19-year-old college student from Benton. The murder took place Nov. 8, 1992, at the northbound exit ramp on Interstate 55 near Benton. Lamb and Lawless had dated for more than two years before breaking up in the summer of 1992, but still occasionally saw each other. Lamb was the last person known to have seen Lawless alive. He has told investigators that the night of her murder, Lawless stopped at his house and they had sex before she left to go home.

The surety bond was set at $100,000. Before the hearing, Lamb was being held without bond. He has been in custody since Dec. 20. Lewis ordered Lamb to wear an ankle monitor and live with his sister near Springfield.

“Yeah, I’m ecstatic,” defense attorney Russ Oliver said after the hearing. “This is Judge Lewis, a very, very fair judge. I’ve always been impressed with his rulings, and I think this is a perfect example of that. He looked at the strength and weakness of the case, he looked at Leon and his character, and this is an appropriate bond.”

Oliver said he thought Lamb “was a little stunned. And I think it’s taken him some time to process all of this, and I don’t think he’s fully processed what’s happened so far, even though he’s been sitting in jail for 60 days.”

In changing the venue, Lewis told the attorneys that he wanted the case to be tried outside the local media market, where the case has been covered since 1992, and has been heavily scrutinized since Josh Kezer was exonerated for the murder in 2009. Lewis also said he wanted to send the case to a venue that had the proper space and technology to handle a complicated case such as this one.

Kezer was convicted in 1994, despite no physical evidence linking him to the crime and witnesses who testified he was in Kankakee, Illinois, the night of the murder. In addition to this new evidence, the state also violated Kezer’s constitutional rights by withholding exculpatory evidence, including notes that listed Mark Abbott as a suspect and a report where Abbott had identified Ray Ring as the man he saw at a payphone the night of the murder. In the 1994 trial, law enforcement told the jury that Abbott was not a suspect at any time; and in a deposition, a Scott County deputy claimed her notes were thrown away and not available to the defense.

As part of Kezer’s exoneration, other suspects were developed. Testimony revealed that these suspects told others they were involved in the crime. Among those implicated were Abbott, who discovered the body, interacted with the body, reported the murder to the sheriff’s office and about four months later identified Kezer as a man he saw at a nearby payphone minutes after the murder. Also implicated in sworn court testimony was Kevin Williams, who witnesses say told them that Abbott was responsible for the murder. In 1997, while waiting for sentencing for a methamphetamine conspiracy charge, Abbott told a narcotics officer he saw Williams shoot Lawless. Williams and Abbott were sentenced in the same federal meth case.

Oliver, Lamb’s lead defense attorney, cited these witness testimonies, all made under oath, as a reason why Lamb should be allowed to have bond in the case.

Lewis acknowledged that special prosecutor Allen Moss had enough evidence to convince a grand jury of probable cause, but also said such a setting is not subject to cross-examination. Probable cause is a lower standard of proof than “beyond a reasonable doubt”, which is what is required for a jury to convict someone. In a grand jury, nine of 12 individuals must agree there is probable cause to believe a crime was committed in order to indict the suspect.

Moss and investigators David James and Mike Williams have built a case against Lamb that was presented to the grand jury. It’s been public knowledge for several years that Lamb’s DNA was found under Lawless’ fingernails, but Lamb has explained the DNA transfer must have happened during sex they had before Lawless left his house. No reports from the initial investigation noted any defensive wounds on Lamb’s body. Lamb passed a polygraph after the murder. It’s not publicly known what other evidence the state has collected against Lamb. After the hearing, Oliver explained that he believes he knows the “high points” of the evidence against his client, and expects to receive more discovery as time goes on.

Because the charges were delivered by a grand jury and not the state’s typical criminal process, probable cause has not been established in open court, or in public documents.

Moss had filed a request for a gag order against the defense to release any evidence, including witness names in the case. Moss claimed in court Monday that Lamb had tried to call one witness twice while in jail. Lewis said he didn’t see any extraordinary reason to approve the motion, but added that if any witness tampering were attempted the prosecution should pursue charges. The order for Lamb to live in Springfield should help prevent access to witnesses, the judge said.

Oliver stated that the defense may need to talk to witnesses without fear that they would be subject to the gag order. He said that the prosecution has already sought the public’s help for information on the crime, and the defendant should be allowed the same opportunity.

Those attending the hearing included Lawless’ father, mother and sister; Lamb’s sister; former Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter and dozens more. The gallery also included Kezer, who stepped into a Scott County courtroom for the first time since 1993.

Kezer, who lives in Columbia, is supporting Lamb, who he does not believe murdered Lawless. One of Kezer’s lead attorneys during his exoneration, Charles Weiss, is helping Oliver in Lamb’s defense case.

“I’ve been doing a lot behind the scenes on this,” Kezer said. “Some of it doesn’t need to be known right now, but it’s safe to assume that Leon Lamb is no longer a soft target for Allen Moss and David James.”

Unlike Lamb, Kezer was held in jail for the entirety of the investigation and trial from March 1993 until the trial in June 1994. Kezer sat in jail as a 19-year-old, where he first laid eyes on Lawless in an obituary photo his attorney brought to him. The isolation, Kezer has previously described, prevented him from being able to routinely consult with his attorneys. He said a lot has changed since then.

“I don’t know to what extent (posting bond) will mean to Leon, as far as his defense is concerned, but I would hope that it means to Leon that he now has access to a good church community, perhaps good colleagues, if he’s able to land a good job, maybe therapy to help him get through this, being with his sister and being able to be in that loving environment,” Kezer said. “I haven’t really thought about myself in the context or comparisons of what Leon is getting and what I didn’t get. … But what I would just say is that, again, for me, it can’t be overstated. This is first and foremost about Mischelle Lawless. I believe Leon Lamb is innocent, but my heart goes out to the Lawless family.”

Oliver said next steps include filing motions that ask the court to consider the number of witnesses who have died since the original investigation took place. Those motions will be determined by a new judge in Greene County.

Lamb had previously faced armed criminal action in addition to first-degree murder charges. Moss recently dropped the ACA charge.