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

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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 hon 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 without it I imagined that it might have occurred that way because I knew I had beaten a victim with a tire iron I
could not accept in my conscious mind that 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 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 a tire tool Ryan did not say come on let's get this over with while I was talking
talking the victim he was actually pleading come on let's go he did not want to Parton it again I turned it
around because I did not want to accept the responsibility of the sole perpetrator I strangled Kent hiid hold
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 quote The Chopping Block see uh see the video of 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 again 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 enjoyed doing it at the time I was in a lot of pain and felt the need to take it out on someone else
there was 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 profer 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 mallerie's
statement that he had seen me with something in my hand there were also two un 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 strangling
I beat the victim can't hide hold 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 Ken heidle that was a lie Ryan never
touched the victim I lied about remembering taking items from the victim though I believe I
did uh 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 when 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 stat
stat Ms to Christian blank and ship and Julie done in the parking lot uh I don't
know that that's something that that that I'd like to know and they should Pro 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 the sole murderer of Kent hdold that's correct yes and are you saying that uh
Ryan had no idea when you went uh to the parking lot where you encountered Ken hi
highle 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 um what was the position of
Mr heid hold when he was strangled he was face down okay else um I want to ask you again um
is it correct that you're the one who declined 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 feel that you're making this statement uh from your memory of
the events of what happened that night that's correct okay I don't have any further
[Music] questions we are joined here in the garage today by longtime friend of the
show Maggie freeling Maggie is the host and producer of the unjust and unsolved podcast longtime 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 documentry 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 I 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 Mora 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 um 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 innocent 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% 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 proofing 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 mhm 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 sent sent uh snail
mail and he he wrote back immediately I mean Charles is a incredibly intelligent
on theball person and he just wants people to know about what happened to him which is just
so 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 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 heol so this is the perfect time of year to tell this story because it was Halloween night 2001 Kent heol he was
the sports editor for the Columbia Tribune this is in Colombia 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 heol he was 48 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
Raider 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 height hold 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
911 to say that Kent has been attacked in the parking lot we need PA Medics we need police yes two janitors Shaina or
and Jerry Trump they are two janitors and so according to Shaina 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 heol her her colleague and she calls the police and there's a 911 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 2year 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 Kent heol who used to work for the Tribune as far as the evidence
they have they have blood evidence they have fingerprints they have shoeprints they have the 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 by liers or if they were witnesses to the crime so they do have quite a bit of
evidence but like you said it just doesn't go anywhere part of that evidence is um Shaina 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 Shaina and then this is where we get into the entire story of Charles and Ryan this sketch
comes out in the paper and Charles Erikson who at the time just remembers that this was Halloween night he was
doing a lot of drugs including cocaine pills um he's to also have done 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 would argue it it looks like a pretty generic uh young white man you know
buzzcut pretty pretty generic looking but Charles thinking oh my gosh I was at a party near there it was Halloween
night I have no idea what happened I was completely blackout 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 Charles and this is where I I always 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 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 with that 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
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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 dat line the first time I heard about it it's so scary to think being in Ryan
shoes and 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 going to drop off my buddy and then I'm
going to go home and 2 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 often times 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 clearcut 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 Erikson 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 that you guys
did this there's another one um where allegedly a girl heard Ryan confessing at a party and they show 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 Ericson he
was confused he goes in he talks to police he confesses to the crime he says me and my buddy Ryan 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 him 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 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 Erikson 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 that 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 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 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 said say 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 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 and
you might not that because different departments work different ways and 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 he seems like the dirty one to me he
coached jry 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 U they said that
these two boys were not the boys that they saw at the crime scene yeah so to clarify on that Shaina or 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 Ericson 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 BR 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 Ryan's fingerprints match any of those or a bloody pal 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 is 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 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 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 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 F you 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 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 thatmore you know where is where is the line on what they can do to
get you know a confession out of somebody I think that's what's so tricky here because we have Charles Ericson
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 was well now I don't even know if
I did this maybe I'm crazy I'm 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 end 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 and the other one guy's 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 and one person saying that they
did and so I get that from the police angle but the problem with Erikson'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 and
pounding their fist 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 Crim 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 crimestopper saying hey look Charles Ericson 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 Crim 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 break 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 Ericson yeah Charles takes a 25 toli 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 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 and 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 Ericson to
testify at Ryan's trial and I'll tell you what having seen portions of that trial look the 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 Erikson 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 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 at 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 in 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
going to do that I was going to be the one to you know give Kent height hold's family the justice that they deserved
and Ryan wasn't doing that yeah and then they bring him in and shackles in the black and white jumpsuit I mean
it's very theatrical and like you said um Nick when they bring Brian Ferguson on the The Stand he's very ill prepared
and just little mannerisms that he has he 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 is even happening
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 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 yeah what are you talking about we're involved in a murder get out of
here months later being arrested or being pulled into questioning 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 till 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 Ericson 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 to 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 returned 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 K heol was even murdered because they call in the janitors call in to 911 I believe at
uh 2:26 a.m. and now Chuck Erikson 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 yeah that's the thing too they also not only did none of the evidence at the scene match
Charles and Ryan but they searched their I forget who 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 crime yeah and
again there was multiple Witnesses you know like you said the bar saying it was closed like people people were alibiing
for them and they just pushed ahead and I think to going back to what you said you know 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 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 cuz 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 shaa AR in advance he could have asked her that question in a
deposition found out in advance she was going to say and realize 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 and again this is so it's so bizarre and one of the reasons is cu 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 your 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 yeah because because it was a old map this guy was so
ill-prepared and then again The Perfect Storm cops that went too far a prosecu 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 a conviction 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 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 douchy 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 and
interrogating interrogating eyewitnesses now because of his conviction the state owes $10 million 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 heid hold's 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 inv 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 2:
later says he left at 2:20 in 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 boy'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 the the Medics were still there that was a lie there was also he said um a couple
different things about the crime scene um that he shouldn't 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 I what I question is is it the the janitors are correct in their eyewitness that they both saw two
individuals that were caucas so I think that's what it 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 boy 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 zelner
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 I don't think it was Boyd but he he should have been looked into much more than he
was thanks for joining us here in the garage make sure you go to the website truecrime garage.com sign up on our
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Charles Erickson /// Part 1 /// 439

Part 1 of 2

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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

Charles Erikson and Ryan Ferguson were wrongfully convicted of murdering Kent Heithold due to police misconduct and false confessions.

Key points

The Impact of Quality Sleep. Ashley offers top mattress brands at winning prices, helping children in need.
Rosetta Stone's Holiday Deal. Get 50% off a lifetime membership for unlimited access to 25 languages.
True Crime Garage Introduction. Join Nick as he dives into true crime stories, starting with a chilling case.
Confessions and Lies. A suspect reveals the psychological turmoil behind his actions and false statements.
The Murder of Kent Heidhold. A brutal murder unfolds in a parking lot, leaving a community searching for answers.
The Impact of Therapy. Adding something new and positive to your life can help counteract feelings of sadness.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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

Struggling with guilt and responsibility.

4:59WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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