Man Jailed for Missouri Sports Editor’s Death Seeks Freedom

A 31-year-old man whose dreams led him to confess to the slaying of a Missouri journalist says he had nothing to do with it and is planning to appeal.

Charles Erickson is serving a 25-year sentence in the death of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt, who was killed on Nov. 1, 2001. Erickson's confession also led to the nearly 10-year incarceration of his friend Ryan Ferguson, who was freed in late 2013 because prosecutors withheld evidence.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports Erickson started having dreams about Heitholt's death more than two years after the killing and eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Now he says he blacked out the night of the slaying and many of the details in his confession came from investigators and news reports.