Richard Anthony Jones served 17 years in prison for a crime he adamantly denied committing after eyewitness testimony convicted him of a 1999 robbery in Roeland Park, Kansas, Esquire reported.
Jones, who shares a first name, similar facial features, skin tone, and hairstyle of a man who lived nearby at the time of the crime, walked free after witnesses — including the robbery victim — could no longer say if Jones was the perpetrator.
Following this new evidence and testimony, Johnson County District Judge Kevin Moriarty ordered Jones’ release, the Kansas City Star reported, though the judge stopped short of saying the other man committed the crime.
“Everybody has a doppelganger,” Alice Craig, Jones’ lawyer, said. “Luckily we found his.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Jones assimilate to life as a free man.
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