Federal court orders new trial or murder conviction vacated

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By MARGERY A. GIBBS / The Associated Press

OMAHA — A man convicted more than two decades ago in a Norfolk murder could be a free man by Thanksgiving, unless the state affords him a new trial as ordered Wednesday by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon cited “egregious prosecutorial misconduct’’ among other things in his order that could see Robert Hunt walk out of prison later this year.

Bataillon’s order gives the state 180 days to try Hunt again, or his first-degree murder conviction will be vacated.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said Wednesday that the state would appeal the order.

“This was a horrible crime and the judge’s decision here was wrong,’’ Bruning said.

Hunt was initially sentenced to death for the 1984 murder of 27-year-old Beverly Ramspott in Norfolk, but his death sentence was set aside upon appeal and he was re-sentenced to life in prison.

It was not until 1996 that Hunt appealed his conviction again, after Madison County Judge Richard Krepela — the case’s original prosecutor — admitted to altering a copy of a police report given to Hunt’s defense lawyers.

Krepela admitted to having his secretary retype a copy of the police report to omit paragraphs detailing Hunt’s request for an attorney during questioning and statements leading up to an alleged confession made in a second interview. Krepela then tried to persuade an investigator to change the police department’s copy of the report, but the officer refused.

Krepela confessed his misconduct to Madison County District Judge Richard Garden and Hunt’s defense lawyer before Hunt’s original trial in an off-the-record meeting. Krepela also asked former deputy Madison County Attorney James Smith to serve as special prosecutor in the case.

But the misconduct did not come to light until years after Hunt’s original trial.

In 2001, the Nebraska Supreme Court suspended Krepela for six months without pay for the offense. He remains a Madison County judge.

“This is a very disturbing case because it strikes at the very heart of the fundamental fairness of our criminal justice system,’’ Bataillon wrote in his order. “It exposes egregious prosecutorial misconduct, conflicted defense counsel, and critical off-the-record proceedings.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Hunt’s trial was so fundamentally flawed that it is impossible to know whether he is guilty of first-degree murder or of some lesser offense.’’

Bataillon also said in his Wednesday order that Hunt’s original defense attorney acted to protect Krepela’s career, rather than his client’s best interests, as evidenced by his failure to make Hunt aware of the misconduct.

Messages left with federal public defenders for Hunt were not immediately returned.