Lawyer in Kelly murder questions reliability of two witnesses

An attorney for one of three men accused in the March 29 murder of Carlos Kelly asked a judge Friday not to allow two witnesses to testify against Travis Midgyett because they cannot provide a reliable identification of him.

Midgyett, 26; Felson Barney, 29; and Rodney Cunningham, 30; were charged with first-degree robbery and second-degree murder in connection with the robbery and slaying of Kelly, 35, at his Cynthia Drive apartment. Midgyett is suspected of carrying a handgun, which he gave to Barney before hitting Kelly on the head with a board, killing him, Columbia police said.

Charges against Barney, the man police said Midgyett handed the gun to, were dropped Tuesday in a separate motion hearing. Boone County Assistant Prosecutor Steven Berry would not say why the charges were dropped, but Barney’s defense attorney, Amy O’Keefe, said there was no evidence against her client.

In Friday’s motion hearing, Midgyett’s attorney, Christopher Slusher, said Angela Hawkins, who at first told police she spoke with one of the three men before they entered Kelly’s apartment, was unable to identify Midgyett or the other two men in a photo lineup. So to use her as a witness in a criminal case would be “highly suggestive and unreliable,” he said.

“A photo lineup is about fairness, and if she says in court it’s him, it would not be a reliable identification,” Slusher said.

Teisha Moody, the second witness, was inside Kelly’s apartment when the men came inside, according to the defense’s motion. Moody told investigators that her only opportunity to see the intruders was through a dark window with blinds opened at most a few inches.

Moody, who said she was Kelly’s girlfriend of a year at the time of his death, later saw pictures in a newspaper of the suspects involved and said she recognized Midgyett’s eyes but no other facial features.

“I saw lazy, slanted eyes through the mini-blinds,” Moody said in court Friday. “Eyes I will never forget.”

But the defense also sought to exclude Moody’s testimony, arguing that she was drunk and high on drugs at the time.

Moody admitted on the stand that she had been drinking and smoking marijuana and crack cocaine throughout the evening before the three men entered the apartment.

Boone County Circuit Judge Gene Hamilton took the motion under advisement and was expected to rule on it Monday afternoon.

A motion hearing for Cunningham will also be held Monday.

Jury selection in Midgyett’s trial was set for Oct. 3 in Independence, Mo., but his trial will be held in Boone County.