Charles Erickson /// Part 1 /// 439 | Forensic Files

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[Music] [Music] foreign I made a lot of assumptions and turned them into facts to satisfy the police
when I did that I used the opportunity to move the blame on to Ryan and off of myself
things happen much differently than I had previously stated when we left the club I cannot honest I
cannot honestly remember if we had robbery on our minds I made up the statement about Ryan giving me the tire
iron and saying that we might get messed up about it I imagine that it might have
occurred that way because I knew I had beaten the victim with a tire iron I could not accept in my conscious mind
that I was a sole perpetrator and aggressor so I put a lot of the blame on Ryan I don't I don't think that much of much
of it was even consciously done it was just too hard to admit to myself and others that I had killed someone
I could not even accept the possibility of it we had never done robberies before we
never did them after we broke a lot of stuff which was probably what we had in mind when we left the club I believe
that I flipped out committed the entire act alone and with little forethought I remember feeling psychotically giddy if
that's understandable uh I did not tell Ryan what I was going to do he had no idea that I would act in
such an aggressive manner I don't remember how much of how much of it he was there for he could not stop me
he could not stop me though he tried at the end if he had wanted to stop me before and during much of the ACT I was
armed with the tire tool Ryan did not say come on let's get this over with while I was stalking the
victim he was actually pleading come on let's go he did not want to Pardon it again I turn it around because I did not
want to accept the responsibility of the sole perpetrator I strangled Ken Idol to
death I did not remember this until the police told me what he was strangled with when
I said that's [ __ ] up after they told me what he was strangled with I just remember doing it I then denied
remembering it I lied right there that was the first blatant lie it was then that I knew I had done it
I was worried about survival it was too hard to throw away my entire life and put my head on a quote The Chopping
Block see uh see the video the interrogation for that I tried telling the police that I might have strangled
the victim one of the officers stopped me he got mad he did not want to hear that I might have done it I didn't see
the video before I knew I had done it I consciously assumed it was Ryan because it was too hard to accept that I might
have done it I made up what I said about Ryan being on top of the victim I lied about him strangling the victim to
everyone from Nick Gilpin to the jury on a subconscious level I've always known that I did it that is a part of me
that I have accepted I enjoy doing it at the time I was in a lot of pain and felt
the need to take it out on someone else there is something wrong with me I regret now that I put an innocent man
through that he didn't deserve it I don't lose sleep over it though it's more that I feel it was a sort of
violation he had had he been my enemy I wouldn't regret it except for the prison
time that came with it I lied at the proper about ripping the belt off pushing Ryan off of the victim and
leaving the scene with the belt I made this up after I read Dallas Mallory statement that he had seen me with
something in my hand there are also two unidentified Witnesses in the car who could have seen
me with the belt I had to have an excuse for having the belt in case it came up later
Ryan was actually the one who pushed me off of the victim he probably wouldn't have been successful except that the
belt broke at the same time my original story didn't make sense I don't know why the police didn't
question it why would I stop beating the victim snap out of my rage and then Ryan
stranglin I beat the victim can't hide Holt until he was on the ground then I took his belt off and strangled him with
it at first I said that I thought I had thrown up at the scene I did throw up but it was later I'm not sure where
maybe at the Osco uh or Jewel or whatever it was maybe in their parking lot I'm not sure
saying that I thought I got sick at the scene was convenient because it removed me from the situation I said I was
sitting on the curb feeling nauseous in between the time that I stopped beating the victim and I pushed Ryan off of Kent
Heidel that was a lie Ryan never touched the victim I lied about remembering taking items
from the victim though I believe I did that was all assumptions in trying to pacify the police and prosecutors I lied
about putting things in a bag in Ryan's car I didn't remember that I believe that when Ryan took the money
out of his wallet when we were out of his own wallet and we were back at the bar and said how pointless my actions
were he meant just that he was asking why I had done it how could he have forgotten about money in his wallet
I'm not sure that I remember him saying that he had always wanted to kill someone before he turned 60 on the night
of the murder if he did say it he may have just been trying to act tough the witness stated that the kid with
highlights in their hair had told the cleaning lady to get help Ryan had highlights not me I can't remember who
told the cleaning people to get help I remember feeling astounded when I was told by the police that it actually
happened I still don't know where I still don't know where that memory came from
uh what what were my out of control statements it's a Christian Blankenship and Julie Dunn in the parking lot uh I
don't know that that's something that that I'd like to know and they should probably be
asked about uh and finally after the murder I remember telling Ryan that it didn't matter who did what because we
were both there I said this so he would keep his mouth shut that's it okay let me ask you just a
couple of follow-up questions so are you saying today that you are the sole murderer of Kent heithold that's correct
yes and are you saying that Ryan had no idea when you went to the parking lot where
you encountered Ken Heidel what you were going to do that's correct are you saying that there was no plan between
the two of you to commit a robbery that night I don't know I don't know do you have a recollection
of that I can't remember what we intended to do I don't know what was the position of Mr heithold when he was
strangled he was face down things I want to ask you again is it correct that you're the one who declined to have
an attorney present today that's correct and are you currently on any medication
of any type no I'm not okay do you feel that you're making this statement from your memory of the events
of what happened that night that's correct okay I don't have any further questions
[Music] we are joined here in the garage today by a long time friend of the show Maggie
freeling Maggie is the host and producer of the unjust and unsolved podcast long
time listeners of our show will know her from helping us out with our Shaker Heights project as well as her work on
the mara Murray case as she was featured in oxygen TV's documentary The Disappearance of Mara Murray thank you
for joining us here in the garage today Maggie please take us through and tell us about your new project hello guys
thank you so much for having me um yeah yeah I'm you know this is really exciting because most of the times that
we've talked and and done stuff together has been about Maura Murray but this is
a complete 180. I'm now working on wrongful convictions you know this project we conceived it by
we I mean Patrick Hines of True Crime obsessed um about a year ago and we just launched
in September and each week I cover a case of a person that I strongly believe has been wrongfully incarcerated and I
heard you talking on your podcast about the Innocence Project and there's a the rough estimation or the the low
estimation is 20 000 individuals are in prison that are innocent yeah and I would say that's
definitely super low I mean that's just people that we know of that have petitioned the Innocence Project I mean
there are so many people that I've even heard from who write to me saying hey I'm innocent but the Innocence Project
won't take my case they only take DNA cases so you know they're not going to take a case that doesn't have some sort
of DNA evidence so that leaves out so many cases hundreds of thousands of cases and you know if you listen to my
podcast most of my cases have not been taken by the Innocence Project they're either ballistic cases or accidental you
know baby murders involving choking or falling so these are all cases that are very likely not even in those statistics
and a good portion of these wrongfully convicted inmates have been convicted based off of false confessions
and we now know from DNA evidence that even in DNA cases where DNA will exonerate the person who has been
convicted of the murder 25 percent of the time with a false confession the DNA proves that it was in fact false
and that we have put the wrong person in prison and those numbers alone if you carry that out further to cases with no
DNA you would think roughly 25 is going to apply to those cases as well so yes I
think I think the 20 000 estimate is very conservative very low and it's amazing how unfortunately yes
these organizations have to prioritize these cases which ones they take on which ones they choose because there
just are so many of them out there that's that's the saddest part is you know there are these ones that early on
in this I got a couple letters from a man who had a very sympathetic story but even for me it's tough to cover it
because I'm like have you had a private investigator have you had any of these things and he's like his niece accused
him of sexually assaulting her in some form I don't I didn't really get into too many details with him but there was
there was really no way of of proving his innocence in that sense and and you know
there's so many of these out there so it's been tough it's definitely been tough hearing these stories and so many
of them I can't even cover just just because I wouldn't have enough evidence to feel comfortable saying this is a
wrongful conviction right because you don't want to possibly give a criminal a platform now when we started talking
about you doing a podcast in general I mean this was probably three years ago at crime con but you were stating I
believe on your show that that Charles's case was the first case that you actually or the first person you
actually made contact with before you started producing your show yeah so I've reached out to a lot of people so you
know in the intro of my show it says 20 folks which is true I did reach out to at least 20 folks and sent uh snail mail
and he he wrote back immediately I mean Charles is a incredibly intelligent on the ball person and he just wants p
people to know about what happened to him which is just so I there are no words to even explain what has happened
to him and why he's still in prison and so he was you know one of the first people the first person that I really
got to know and to this day I would say you know Charles is a friend I've put his episode out but I here I am you know
still advocating for him you know still getting people to listen to his story to
listen to his side of the story because to him that's really the most important he's been portrayed in the media for so
long as this crazy person who wrongfully and knowingly put Ryan Ferguson in prison which is not the story at all so
for me you know it was really important to talk to Charles and and hear what he has to say well in this story it
involves the unjust convictions of two individuals and therefore leads us to the unsolved murder and can you take us
through the attack and murder of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent heitholt so this is the perfect
time of year to tell this story because it was Halloween night 2001 Kent heitholt he was the sports editor for
the Columbia Tribune this is in Columbia Missouri he's leaving work super super late it's around 2 10 a.m that he says
goodbye to his colleague near his car and he is later found sometime you know 10 minutes later around 2 20 a.m
brutally beaten and strangled in the Tribune parking lot again this is Kent height hold he was 40 years old he's a
family man brutally beaten and strangled in the parking lot he was leaving work but he also like stopped to feed a cat
yeah so that's what I was reading in some of these old papers he stopped to feed a cat and that's in so Michael Boyd
and we'll get to him as you guys know in a little bit he is a colleague I believe
he was also a sports writer I think I think Kent was his boss he's the last person to see him alive in the parking
lot and they were talking about you know feeding these cats and then according to
Boyd he leaves and and almost immediately after that heighthold is beaten strangled bludgeoned and left for
dead and two of the workers two other people working at this building they see or believe they saw something in the
parking lot they call this into 9-1-1 to say that Kent has been attacked in the parking lot we need paramedics we need
police yes two janitors Shayna aren't and Jerry Trump they are two janitors and so according to Shayna she has
multiple affidavits she comes out and sees two young white folks who allegedly say someone is hurt and then they leave
and she sees Kent heithold her her colleague and she calls the police and there's a 9-1-1 call that you can listen
to It's her and Jerry Trump calling the police saying Kent is laying in the parking lot he's not moving we need help
but the case doesn't really go anywhere right we have two potential Witnesses we
have some physical evidence at the scene but this man was beat to death in the parking lot and choked and the case
doesn't really seem to go anywhere this takes us to the two-year anniversary marker and the Columbia Daily Tribune
they start running the story again one of their own has been murdered on their property and they're trying to get some
answers for Ken hithold who used to work for the Tribune as far as the evidence they have they have blood evidence they
have fingerprints they have shoe prints they have the the weapon they have obviously these two eyewitnesses that
saw these other two individuals we don't know if they're attackers or if they were just passer buyers or if they were
witnesses to the crime so that they do have quite a bit of evidence but like you said it just doesn't go anywhere
part of that evidence is um Shayna does a police composite sketch so on this anniversary of the murder
like you said two years later in 2003 the Columbia Tribune puts out this sketch from Shayna and then this is
where we get into the entire story of Charles and Ryan this sketch comes out in the paper
and Charles Erickson who at the time just remembers that this was Halloween night he was doing a lot of drugs
including cocaine pills um he's going to also have ton LSD mushrooms you know he's a high school kid he's just
experimenting this night he blacks out and so two years later he sees in the paper this sketch that he thinks looks a
lot like him you know I would argue it looks like a pretty generic uh young white man you know buzz cut pretty
pretty generic looking but Charles is thinking oh my gosh I was at a party mirror there it was Halloween night I
have no idea what happened I was completely black out this looks like me hold on what's going on did I have
something to do with this yeah which is very interesting because taking a look at Charles and looking at this sketch
I don't think they look anything alike personally yeah I don't I don't really think so either
but this is where I I thought it was so important to tell his story because you know not only did
he allegedly have substance abuse issues I would say he's just a teenager just you know doing his thing but okay people
are calling it substance abuse issues not only did he have that but he did also have you know OCD anxiety you know
some some mental issues as well that were really causing him to think about this and overthink about this and obsess
over this and guess without obsessing he he really thought this looked like him and he went to Ryan and said hey man did
we have anything to do with this and Ryan was like what are you even talking about dude I dropped you off at home
after the party around 1 30. you were home like get get away from me this is crazy
[Music] [Music] now knowing Charles and having a friendship with him do you know if he
has been diagnosed with any mental disorder yeah so those are currently in all of his appeals like these
compounding factors that's with it too that that you know he was someone who was troubled did have you know some
mental disorders and the police completely took advantage of that at the time that I spoke with his lawyer that
appeal wasn't in yet so he didn't get too into details but now that I've read them like yes he he has OCD he has
anxiety he does take medication for it he is in therapy for it now but back then at 17 years old compounding with
drinking a lot doing cocaine doing LSD it was it was not a good combination this case has always been on my radar
because when you see the I believe it was Dateline the first time I heard about it
it's so scary to think being in Ryan's shoes and all and I've always viewed this case
through Ryan Ferguson's lens that you're out at this party and you're drinking and having a good
time and at some point it's time to go home I'm gonna drop off my buddy and then I'm going to go home
and two and a half years later I am being pulled into they're questioning me now
well one on these events and yes I mean it happened on Halloween so it's a little bit easier to remember what
happened but could you imagine if it was not on Halloween how less of the story he would
have known um and if you watch those interrogations it's it they're scary to watch because
they're feeding Charles all this information and then the other interrogation you have Ryan
going look I I wasn't even there yeah so I guess my question would be how much do
you think time played a factor in this meaning the cops had really nothing to go off of
for two and a half years so do you think that played into the way they handled this case I do
um they wanted it solved and you know this case is a is a oftentimes you know when I'm looking in these cases we know
that there's been some kind of misconduct but it could be accidental you know I was covering a case where the
prosecution unknowingly withheld evidence because the officers never even gave it to the
prosecution so so that was like a complete accident prosecutor had no idea there was all of this exculpatory
evidence because the police withheld it but in this it is like such a clear-cut the police manufactured this conviction
the police and prosecutor manufactured this conviction because with all of the people who later recant Jerry Trump the
the janitor they got to make a false statement about Ryan and Charles you know he recants and says you know the
prosecutor told me what to say the police were giving Charles Erickson multiple I only talk about one in my
podcast you know I don't have a lot of time to go into every little detail right but there are at least two other
manufactured alleged confessions of people saying Ryan confessed to me they showed this to Charles saying you know
look Ryan's telling people people that you guys did this there's another one um where allegedly a girl heard Ryan
confessing at a party and they showed this to Charles and say look she heard Ryan confessing all of this was
manufactured all of this was faked by the police and it is so egregious what they did to Charles and Ryan but they
got Charles to confess because of all of these false police reports they were giving to him you know time I think in
the sense that they wanted to solve it but Ryan knew the whole time where he was what he did there were multiple
Brady violations in this case there were multiple people who said we saw them leave we saw them go home and that was
all withheld from the defense and it's weird because it's kind of if you know the details and you go through every bit
of it it feels like there was not so much a confession really at all and on the surface that's what we're told this
is how this case went wrong this kid Charles Erickson he was confused he goes in he talks to police he confesses to
the crime he says me and my buddy and did it why did we do it we were looking to get more money for maybe drinks or
some drugs or both and it was Halloween night we were up to no good this is not totally out of the blue for Ryan
Ferguson when he gets picked up because Charles has already contacted him and said look I'm seeing this story in the
news I saw this composite sketch they're saying that two people were at the crime scene
is this something we did the bar we were drinking at was near this area did were
we involved in this guy's murder and of course Ryan's telling them dude you're you're crazy I don't know what you're
talking about here and then a couple months go by he's picked up Ryan's picked up and what
we're getting here in the interrogation rooms are two very different things we have Ryan saying I did not do this I
don't know what this other guy is telling you but I was not there I I'm not just innocent of the murder I'm
innocent of even having been there I don't have the didn't have the ability to even commit this crime because I
wasn't physically there on the other hand in the other room what we got going on is Charles Erickson who's saying
he's kind of he's less confessing to it more so asking them could I have done this yeah yeah he he says
could I have done this and what has happened and Maggie you hit the nail you hit the nail right on the head there was
he saw this in the news he blacked out that night he had a history of blacking out and then he said he remembered some
things of that night but I think you're exactly right I think he started obsessing about this crime and his mind
started filling in some of the blanks on its own by the time he gets in that room
with police police are saying he'll walk us through the crime well he's getting details wrong and they know that he's
getting details wrong and they start to feed him information so whatever blanks he couldn't figure out or fill in on his
own they start filling them in for him and this is something I didn't get to put in the podcast either but um they
took him to the crime scene so he had a very clear when he's later explaining how this happened they took him there
and showed him where it happened and said this is where it happened this is you know where he was found and
strangled with the belt so he not only has been fed all this information he was taken to the crime scene to give an even
more accurate description of this this murder that he allegedly committed um so it's it's in really it's incredibly
disturbing when they pick up Brian Ferguson one of the things the detective says to him is
that I'm a fact gatherer which will drive you nuts in this case because if you're a fact gatherer then you would
have known pretty quickly that Charles knew nothing about the crime scene the victim or anything that happened that
night because he wasn't there the other thing in the these interrogations I think for me there's a detective that
talks with Ryan Ferguson and he says I have a I have a son like you so uh you can't talk to your father right now but
let me step in for him there's multiple times where I I think I would have stopped as a detective
and said this isn't making sense we need something that actually connects them to
the scene where we're going to have to let these guys go they knew that they did not do this none of the evidence you
know they tested all of the blood evidence the hair evidence all of this did not match Ryan and Charles they knew
they did not do this and yet they they literally concocted false statements from people
I mean it it is so it is just beyond police misconduct it is beyond prosecutor misconduct
and the prosecutor was Kevin Crane and he is now a judge so beyond like the misconduct there is no ramifications for
what they did putting two innocent people in in prison is just so so wild well do you know this and you might not
that because different departments work different ways in different cities work different ways so in some cases the
detectives are the ones that push the trial to the prosecutors there's a conversation that goes back
and forth but there's one entity normally that has the hierarchy to say no we're going to take this to trial so
we need you to go back and get more information I didn't know if you knew how that
worked in this department I don't know but um again like I was saying you know I
ran into these instances in other cases where the prosecution didn't know all of
the dirty things the cops were doing in this instance crane is part of it I mean
he seems like the dirty one to me he coached Jerry Trump who was the star witness who is the entire reason that
Ryan's case was um vacated because he went on the stand and said um everything I said was a lie prosecutor
Kevin crane coached me on what to say so to me it seems like all of it was was dirty um they all knew they knew that
the evidence was not matching them and they just took two innocent freaking kids 19 year old kids and locked them
away right so what we have as far as evidence that didn't match the eyewitnesses the janitors didn't match
they just said that these two boys were not the boys that they saw at the crime scene yeah so to clarify on that Shayna
Orange um this was one of the Brady one of the numerous Brady violations um she specifically told the police
um when they showed her photos that is not it is not them it is not Ryan Ferguson it is not Charles Erickson that
is not who I saw at the scene and so when it comes to trial the defense had no idea about her so
that's the Brady violation and of course the prosecution doesn't bring on this witness because it doesn't match their
story she's saying consistently for years that is not who I saw so yeah that's one of the pieces of evidence is
the eyewitness did not see Charles and Ryan well supposedly there was a lot of fingerprints all over the scene and none
of uh Charles or Brian's fingerprints match any of those or a bloody palm print or the shoe prints as well
none of them match I mean there is not a single shred of evidence there's not a single witness who has not
come and either recanted or said I was coaxed putting them there I mean there's zero evidence
even putting them near there well I think that that's a big thing in this trial that is not talked about enough in
the system is I think there was some somewhere between 10 and 15 people that came forward and said hey I
was interviewed and they asked me questions but I felt like I was an interrogation I felt like I was doing
something wrong and we they have several of them come forward and say I got to the point where I just told the
prosecutor whatever you want me to say I'll say it so you let me leave this is not how we should be treating
eyewitnesses and and the other thing too that I want to step back to for a second
when you were talking about um do you know how they didn't have their parents there not only did they not have
their parents there they weren't read any kind of Miranda rights they weren't under arrest they
had no idea I mean they're kids you know we work in this field so we know you know if you're taken in you're not under
arrest you don't have to say anything you can leave you can walk out um he has no idea what's going on he's a
scared kid and but when I say he I mean I'm talking about Charles specifically because he's the confused one I mean
Ryan is very adamant like y'all get the hell up away from me I didn't have anything to do with this but Charles is
like I don't know I don't know and he wanted to help so bad and I talk about this in the podcast
when you know now he understands he's innocent but he didn't at the time because so much evidence
was withheld from him he didn't know that these were all false police reports given to him he had no idea that DNA was
exculpatory for him and Ryan he didn't know any of this until around 2013. so he's sitting there thinking I think we
did this Ryan is not trying to help or be helpful and I want to help so you know what do I
have to do to help him a man is dead and I don't right but that's not even the story he's being told because in the
other room like you said if if Ryan knew hey I'm not under arrest I wasn't there
Fu he could have just walked out and and that's probably what he should have done and then in this other room or
later on when they're talking to Charles what do they do they go hey by the way your head's on The Chopping Block
and if you don't confess against Ryan he's going to confess against you and so for a 17 year old to 19 at the
time yeah or yeah 19 at the time of questioning but he doesn't know that the the cops
are allowed to lie to you I think most people would assume that the cops are not legally allowed to lie to you so now
you have somebody in the other room or nobody in the other room but they're telling you hey if you don't confess
uh you're going to get the the bad end of the stick and I I you know there that's something I haven't really looked
into like we know that's a thing that they're allowed to lie to you I didn't know they were allowed to go as far as
making fake police reports I didn't know that you know where is where is the line
on what they can do to get right you know a confession out of somebody I think that's what's so tricky here
because we have Charles Erickson who's saying he's asking did I do this I may have done this I
don't know he's flat out telling them I don't know maybe I'm crazy he says that several times when they when he can't
get a question right he goes well now I don't even know if I did this maybe I'm crazy yeah he gives them making this up
several several outs and the thing is it starts off as a slippery slope I get it
from the police end from the police and they're like look we we have reason to believe we might be looking for two
perpetrators or one attacker and one witness now we have this kid who comes forward says me and my buddy I think we
did this and of course you got one guy in one room and one guy in the other one guy saying we might have done this the
other guy's saying go to hell I didn't do this that happens in every crime that's committed by two people they get
one person saying they did one person saying that they did and so I get that from the police angle but the problem
with Erickson's confession then becomes he can't answer these questions they start filling in the blanks for him and
as soon as he agreed that yes it was a belt it was a belt that Ryan took off of the victim put it around the victim's
neck and choked him to death when he agreed that yes it was a belt their hold back information he sealed his fate
right then and there and it goes so far as he keeps asking them maybe I didn't do this I don't know if I did or not and
what you guys are talking about is they are giving outside confirmation to him to say yes you did you're right to come
and tell us this because we got these other people that are that are backing up portions of your story we got who was
it a friend of theirs named Dallas who all of a sudden says now that they saw that we we know this guy Dallas he saw
you near the crime scene so everything you are telling us must be true and that's where it's crazy because
you're not having somebody walk in and pounding their fists on the table and saying this is what I did this is how we
did it and this is why no you're you you have you have a guy going I'm not certain if I did this or not I have a
little snapshots I'm confused about that night and they're filling in the blanks
form and offering confirmation for him so now tell us more because you're going to fry for this and if whoever speaks
first is going to win in this case Ryan's going to turn on you so start telling us everything right and I think
the other thing that people are also confused about is um Charles didn't turn himself in it was
a Crime Stoppers tip because people had heard him kind of saying I don't remember that
night I wonder if I had something to do with it and someone called Crime Stoppers saying hey look Charles
Erickson is you know talking about this murder and that's when they brought him in who knows what would have happened if
someone didn't call Crime Stoppers but yeah that that's how they wound up in in questioning Paul is it true that once he
made contact with Ryan to say hey did we do this that not only were there rumors uh
people started circulating rumors saying that that Eric was involved but that Ryan was not involved I don't know about
that um I know Ryan was saying you know we had nothing to do with this and Ryan kind of went about
his life like just like Charles shut up like what are you even talking about I don't know if there were rumors about
Ryan not being involved but I know Charles was definitely talking to people he was really worried you know just
trying to figure out what what was going on what this ultimately leads to though
nobody bothers to pull the emergency brake and hit stop on this thing everybody just keeps letting it go
further and further and then at some point the prosecutor starts saying all right let's we're not only not only
we're not going to stop this train we're going to add fuel to the fire we're going to put Witnesses on the stand have
them say things that they know are not true because when they don't get a confession what they're hoping for
police is like all right we got one half of the parties confessing let's get Ryan
Ferguson to confess too and he doesn't he does not waver on his innocence and they have to take Ryan to trial this is
going to get a deal a plea deal for Charles Erickson yeah Charles takes uh 25 to Life second-degree murder for his
testimony against against Ryan and that's one of these things too the death penalty was on the
table so he was also absolutely terrified of the death penalty and you guys know we see this almost in every
single if not every single false confession is the death penalty is on the table and they're saying if you
don't say something you're going up for the death penalty if you just say something you know we'll take it off the
table but isn't it more likely that if he was convicted of first-degree murder that
death penalty would be on the table and it wouldn't be really likely that death penalty would be on the table for murder
in the second right well that's why he took the plea because he was up for first degree murder he took the plea to
get the death penalty off the table Yeah and this they're going to charge Ryan Ferguson with first degree murder
and they need him to testify they need Charles Erickson to testify at Ryan's trial and I'll tell you what having seen
portions of that trial look that the prosecutor very strategically had things laid out with different quote-unquote
Witnesses the defense attorney seemed scatterbrained seemed that he didn't prepare for this case he calls Ryan to
testify Ryan was not prepared to take the stand he was not trained on how to answer the questions but the thing that
was so shocking to me where you have this confused Charles Erickson when he's talking to police maybe Ryan strangled
the guy with a shirt oh it wasn't a shirt maybe it was a bungee cord oh it wasn't a bungee cord
we know it was his belt okay Ryan did it with the belt but when Charles walks into that Court
it is shocking it is stunning he walks right in and he throws a death stare a death glance over it Ryan Ferguson who's
sitting in the defendant's chair he walks up to the stand and now he it's like he's an expert on the case all
of a sudden he's he the script is completely flipped and he's up there with The Dramatics he's acting
reenacting the the murder for the jury he was extremely believable and he had this look of like anger against Ryan
Ferguson while he's on the stand he didn't hide his face from Ryan and shame or or or guilt or anything like that he
looked at him dead on and said this is what he did this is what I did I am here today because I am 100 guilty of this
murder yeah and and I asked him about that because it is really scary to watch um
and you know when you're only seeing this when you're watching you know dream killer and other things that have been
put out about this case I mean you're watching these clips and you are thinking wow Charles is a really messed
up person like what is he doing and I asked him that I said you know you looked like you know you had the fire of
Hell In Your Eyes like ready to go for Ryan like what was that about and he said I thought Ryan was being a
bad guy I thought that he was not taking responsibility for what we did and I was
gonna do that I was gonna be the one to you know give Kent heithold's family the
justice that they deserved and Ryan wasn't doing that yeah and then they bring them in and shackles and
of the black and white jumpsuit I mean it's very theatrical and like you said um Nick when they bring Ryan Ferguson on
the the stand he's very ill-prepared and just little mannerisms that he has he kind of smirks
and Chuckles at things and I think that made him come off uh insincere and like he wasn't taking this trial seriously I
think you know how it's like how could you it's like so ridiculous at least in Ryan's
perspective it's like this is absolutely insane it's like what has even happened
like I don't I can't even imagine what's going through Ryan's head at this point because he knows they
weren't there he's like this is absolutely Bonkers right and that's the thing is
that's the reason why this case always sticks with me so much is you just went out with one of your friends that night
a couple years later that friend's calling you going hey man were we involved in a murder I mean could you
imagine how much your brain would explode what are you talking about we're involved in a murder get out of here
months later being arrested or being pulled into question wait this this knucklehead's telling you
that maybe he had a dream and we murdered somebody we weren't even there and probably thinking the whole time
they're going to let me go and that's going to be it and nope now you're arrested now you're in jail
they're in jail for over two years before they went to trial I don't know if I could stand that if I
it's supposed to be innocent until proven guilty but you're in jail for two years before you even
go to trial it's and this is why you know so much of it focuses on Ryan because it it's
you know this poor kid was railroaded by his friend and the police and you know he is just like what is happening and
and you feel really bad for him but at the same time we also forget that here's Charles Erickson an incredibly
vulnerable 19 year old that was completely taken advantage of by the police and the prosecutor and and Ryan
has admit that you know when Ryan was released he I put it in the podcast a statement that he said he says um
Charles is a lot of things but he's not guilty of this murder naturally Ryan's going to feel a certain way towards
someone who put him in prison for 10 years but you know I know from that statement that Ryan knows that that
Charles had a lot of issues and the police took advantage of that well and his whole story just doesn't it doesn't
track I mean he says we left the bar in order to go rob someone to get more money for drinks and drugs
and this Kent height hold murder scene is a bloody mess Chuck says we return to the bar
afterwards and had some more drinks and we have witnesses who worked at the bar who were at the bar that said no the bar
closed closed before we believe Ken height Holt was even murdered because they call in the janitors call in to uh
9-1-1 I believe at uh 2 26 a.m and now Chuck Erickson saying we we killed this man and we returned to the bar which we
know could not have happened because the bar was not open and then on top of that
they would have been a bloody mess they're just going to hang out there that's the thing too they also not only
did none of the evidence at the scene match Charles and Ryan but they searched there I forget who's I think it was
Ryan's car because Ryan was driving but whichever car they were driving in they searched they searched Charles's you
know clothing from that night there's nothing nothing there's no blood there's no evidence and that's the whole point
they would have been a bloody mess there would have been blood in that car you know there would have been something
and again it's it's hard not to fault the detectives or the prosecutors but I I do feel that maybe
with somebody coming forward saying I don't know if I did this I possibly could have I think maybe you push
further than you normally would and you dig deeper than you normally would but I think at the end of the day
you still come to the conclusion that neither one of these boys were at the scene of the crime so they therefore
could have committed the class yeah and again there was multiple Witnesses you know like you said the bar saying it was
closed like people were alibiing for them and they just pushed ahead and I think to going back to what you said you
know I I feel like prosecutor Kevin crane I mean we have Jerry Trump specifically saying he was coached by
him I feel like he was really pushing for this conviction and again he's a judge now so this was like a big this
was a big win for him um in in a stepping stone in his career so you know if the whole thing was just
very dirty well and Shauna ort says that she told Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Crane That
that Ryan Ferguson is not the man that I saw in the parking lot so and he kind of conveniently leaves
that out he doesn't get her to change her story but he never says point to do you see the man that you saw that night
in the parking lot in this room at court here today he never asked that question
then of course Ryan Ferguson's attorney is too scared to ask that same question because he doesn't know what the witness
is going to say that's what's bizarre that shows you how the lack of preparedness on the defense
on their end there were holes to be poked in this story in this narrative and the evidence itself but he didn't
bother poking any of those holes because he didn't really didn't seem like he prepared much for this had he
interviewed Shauna art in advance he could have asked her that question in a deposition found out in advance what she
was going to say and realized wow that's some powerful information that this jury
should know about my client but he didn't know to do that because he didn't he didn't put in the work well again
this is so it's so bizarre and one of the reasons is because the system is set up to have checks and balances
and in this case it's it's such a perfect storm we have this kid that doesn't remember thinks they did
something bad now he's confessing against you you're uh attorney your defense attorney
that you hire that everybody tells you this guy's the best shows up so unprepared
I mean at one point he's pointing to um a reference map and talking about a restaurant and the
restaurant's not even on the map because because it was an old map this guy was so ill prepared and then
again The Perfect Storm cops that went too far a prosecution that probably said hey look if we can get the confession
doesn't matter if it's false or not if we can get that confession I can get it convicted well that was in his opening
statement in Crane's opening statement he points he says you know there's no DNA linking them to this all the DNA's
pointing away from them but uh he's confessing so that's all you need to worry about
well not even not DNA I I believe crane said there is zero physical evidence there's I mean the
the amount of douchebaggery he talks with I mean I wouldn't even call it a Swagger it's
he is so douchey at times this man is a judge now he is presiding over cases now
I guess on one hand people could go well he's you know taxpayers pay his salary and he he got the conviction
um by bending the rules right well an interrogating interrogating eyewitnesses now because of his conviction the state
owes 10 million dollars to Ryan Ferguson alone that not to mention when Charles gets out who's done more time than that
I mean what is this conviction was purely for his own political career gain it there is no way
to say that this helped society and it clearly did not help because again taxpayer money is now going to paying a
wrongful conviction settlement and the real killers are still out there Kent Hyatt holds family does not have any
kind of justice and who knows what these people have done in the meantime in fact
I I do know what two of these people have done in the meantime and there was another murder here's a couple things
about this case is again the focus normally goes on Ryan Ferguson he's definitely a victim in this case as
much so I believe Charles is a victim in this case but like you just said Kent is the victim that is most forgotten in
this case his family is forgotten in this case and just like the last person that saw him Michael Boyd which was a
sports writer which worked under Kent there was multiple things early on one he puts himself at the crime scene
he at one point says he left at two later says he left at 2 20 and one interview he says he drove his car
another interview he says he drove his wife's car there was pieces of paper that had a
schedule on it that would have been Michael Boyd's schedule that was found underneath Kent's car
there was rumors that they had an argument um the car that people believe Michael
was driving at the time he got rid of so uh he also said when he came back to work that there was
um this the Medics were still there that was a lie there's also he said um a couple different things about the
crime scene um that he shouldn't even he shouldn't have known uh or he changed the story about
so there was enough reason to look into that individual and I'm sure they did a little bit
but uh where where do you stand on on on Michael Boyd yeah you you just named everything that makes him you know a
better person of interest than Charles and Ryan I don't really know in that two-year span before Charles and Ryan
came on the radar how much they looked into Boyd clearly something turned them away from him
um you know well that I what I question is is it the the janitors are correct in their
eyewitness that they both saw two individuals that were caucus so I think that's what it was yeah
yeah Boyd is not he's not white um he's a dark-skinned man um and he was solo and the janitor said
they saw two young white men again though who knows if they were just pedestrians walking by because allegedly
they said hey someone's hurt so who knows if they were the actual Killers or if they just saw something it could have
been buoyed but you know in doing subsequent investigation and and talking a lot with people who know this case
really well there are two people that were uncovered by zellner's private investigators that are very good
suspects in 2005 commit another murder similar similar like a very random murder who who they were linked to this
murder and allegedly have said that they commit other murders like this and they
look very much like the sketch one of the men so personally I think they're much
better suspects than Boyd I think Boyd is just an odd odd duck and just doesn't remember things yeah I I don't think it
was Boyd but he he should have been looked into much more than he was [Music] thanks for joining us here in the garage
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[Music]

Charles Erickson /// Part 1 /// 439

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Charles Erickson and Ryan Ferguson were wrongfully convicted in 2005 for the 2001 murder Kent Heitholt in Columbia, Missouri. Ryan was freed in November of 2013 after serving nearly ten years in prison. Charles is still sitting in prison for crimes he did not commit. This week we are joined in the Garage by longtime friend of the show Maggie Freeleng. Maggie is the host and producer of “Unjust & Unsolved,” a podcast focusing on wrongful convictions. Listen to our old episodes #116 & #117 titled Ryan Ferguson for FREE on the Stitcher app.

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Brief Summary

Maggie Freeling discusses the wrongful conviction of Charles Erickson and Ryan Ferguson in the murder of Kent Heitholt, highlighting police misconduct and false confessions.

Key points

False Confessions and Wrongful Convictions. Exploring the alarming statistics of wrongful convictions linked to false confessions.
The Murder of Kent Heitholt. Kent Heitholt, a sports editor, was brutally murdered in a parking lot in 2001.
Manufactured Confessions. Evidence shows police coerced false confessions from witnesses.
The Interrogation Tactics. Police used manipulative tactics to extract confessions from Charles and Ryan.
The Trial's Dramatic Turn. Charles dramatically shifts his story in court, surprising everyone.
The Dramatic Confession. Charles Erickson admits his guilt in a powerful courtroom moment.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I could not accept in my conscious mind that I was a sole perpetrator.

A reflection on guilt and responsibility.

3:59WatchNov 11, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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