Man convicted in Boone County double-murder asks federal judge for new trial
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A man serving two life sentences for a double-murder in Boone County wants a federal judge to give him a new trial.
Darious Lucas filed the federal writ on Tuesday in the Western District of Missouri's federal court. Lucas said his judge at trial should have allowed him to present evidence that another person admitted to the 2015 killings.
A jury convicted Lucas in 2017 for killing James Richardson and Kenneth Long off of Mexico Gravel Road. A jailhouse informant told the jury that Lucas admitted to killing the two over a drug deal. Sheriff's deputies also said Lucas' girlfriend purchased the rare ammunition they believe was used in the shooting.
Lucas's latest request to a federal judge said he should have been allowed to present evidence that another man, Charles Pearl, committed the crime.
A witness reported that Pearl told her about two weeks after the killings that he was involved in a double murder with an unnamed second person. Pearl told Judge Kevin Crane during the trial, and while the jury was out of the room, that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination if he was called to testify.
A state appeals court rejected a similar argument Lucas made in 2018, calling the witness's account of Pearl's statements hearsay.
Lucas also argues that his defense attorneys should have objected to photos of a bag of shell casings found at his friend's house. He said the attorney also should have challenged the jury makeup's lack of racial representation, claiming it underrepresented the African American community in Boone County.
