Break For Justice Pool Tournament, Blue Springs, MO, March 23, 2013

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - March 18, 2013 - PRLog -- Break For Justice Pool Tournament
Benefitting wrongfully convicted Kansas City native, Byron Case
Blue Springs, MO, March 23, 2013:  

A group campaigning for the release of an imprisoned Kansas City man is holding a benefit pool tournament to expand public awareness and raise funds to fight what they say is a wrongful conviction.

“Break For Justice” is an open-registration pool tournament being held at Larry’s Getaway, in Blue Springs. Entrants of all skill levels can sign up at the restaurant and bar on Saturday, March 23, between 11 A.M. and 1 P.M. In addition to pool, the event will also feature a prize raffle. “Free Byron Case” t-shirts and copies of the book about Case’s trial will be available for purchase, as well. Tournament registration is $20. All proceeds from “Break for Justice” will benefit the campaign to restore Case’s freedom.

More information about “Break for Justice” and the cause it supports can be found at freebyroncase.com.

Case’s appeals have all been denied, however he is currently under review for pardon by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. In August 2011, Case filed that application for executive clemency, making the argument that newly discovered forensic evidence and information withheld from the trial jury prove he did not kill WitbolsFeugen. Case’s supporters have made that application publicly available on their website and have started a petition in the hopes of bolstering Case’s chances at pardon.

Case and WitbolsFeugen were both 18 when the 1997 murder took place. WitbolsFeugen’s body was discovered by a Jackson County Sheriff’s deputy on patrol in Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Summit, an unincorporated area between her Independence home and Kansas City, Missouri at 3:44 A.M. on October 23 of that year. Before her body was identified by authorities, WitbolsFeugen’s boyfriend, Justin Bruton, 20, committed suicide behind an abandoned building in DeSoto, Kansas. Investigators suspected the deaths were a case of murder-suicide but lacked sufficient proof.

The homicide investigation remained open for more than three years. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department (JCSD) never declared a suspect, despite conducting numerous interviews with friends and family of the deceased.

Case moved to St. Louis in 2001. Days afterward, an ex-girlfriend, Kelly Moffett, then 19, arranged an immunity deal with the Jackson County Prosecutor in exchange for her testimony that she had witnessed WitbolsFeugen’s murder and that Case had been the killer. On the strength of Moffett’s story and a recorded phone conversation between her and case, in which Case responded ambiguously to a question about WitbolsFeugen’s death, a grand jury indictment was handed down. Case was arrested in his mother’s Kansas City home on the morning of June 11, 2001.