Judge denies new trial for Blue Springs 80-year-old who claims he didn’t kill his wife
An 80-year-old man convicted of killing his wife in Blue Springs will not get a new trial after a judge ruled his appeal relied on evidence already denied by the courts and that his testimony had “limited credibility.”
Ken Middleton was convicted in the February 1990 shooting death of his wife Kathy Middleton and sentenced to life without parole.
His attorney Kent Gipson said they “are disappointed with the decision and intend to take the case to the appellate courts.”
Ken Middleton filed a petition in July 2023 in DeKalb County seeking his release or a new trial.
Court documents said that his wife accidentally shot herself. They also allege that prosecutors froze his accounts, preventing him from hiring the counsel of his choice.
During an evidentiary hearing in September, Ken Middleton estimated his net worth at about $500,000 to $600,000. After he was arrested, he looked into selling assets. He claimed he was not able to do so without the permission of the court and the prosecutor because the assets were held jointly by him and his wife.
The case was opposed by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office. The office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Middleton had testified that he wanted the funds to hire a new attorney. He said his attorney Bob Duncan failed to hire experts and did “very little” to build a defense at trial.
Duncan was later disbarred. He also represented Sandra Hemme, who spent more than 40 years in prison for a murder she did not commit and was released from prison in July.
Middleton appealed his case on an ineffective counsel claim, and his conviction was vacated in 2005.
Prosecutors offered him an Alford plea, often called no contest. He rejected it. Then a higher court overturned the ruling for a new trial. Middleton testified in September that he turned down the plea deal because he was “totally innocent” and that “it’s cost me 20 years (in prison).”
DeKalb County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman wrote in a 32-page order issued Monday that Middleton’s claim about his frozen assets could have been raised in earlier appeals and therefore was “procedurally defaulted.” The judge noted that a bank account that had been frozen was at the direction of private counsel involved in a wrongful death claim and not as a result of Middleton’s criminal case.
Horsman also said Middleton’s testimony had “limited credibility” due to his “obvious interest in the outcome of this action,” and limited corroboration as a result of the deaths of witnesses and a lack of records.
On Middleton’s innocence claim, Horsman continued, he “merely repackages evidence that was available to him at the time of his trial.”
Cliff Middleton, who has been fighting on behalf of his father’s claims for years, said his family was “deeply disappointed by the court’s ruling.”
“In Missouri, it seems that this presumption of innocence is nothing more than a hollow promise,” Cliff Middleton said in a statement Tuesday. “Freezing my father Ken Middleton’s assets before trial robbed him of the ability to properly defend himself.”
