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Mistaken identity: Man freed after 17 years in prison for Kan. robbery

Richard Anthony Jones-photo KDOC

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A man who spent nearly 17 years in prison for a 1999 robbery is free after supporters found another man who looked like him and lived near the crime scene.

Richard Anthony Jones, of Kansas City, Missouri, was freed Thursday. He always maintained he didn’t commit the robbery in Roeland Park and, after a hearing on Wednesday, a Johnson County judge ordered him released.

The Kansas City Star reports witnesses at Wednesday’s hearing, including the robbery victim, testified they could no longer say if Jones committed the crime after seeing pictures of the two men.

Johnson County District Judge Kevin Moriarty then ruled the new evidence made it unlikely that another jury would convict Jones of the crime.

The other man testified Wednesday that he didn’t commit the robbery.

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