Photo via GoFundMe and the Kansas City Police Department. Jones pictured (right)
In a story that could be a narrative arc from the new season of Twin Peaks (if the new season of Twin Peaks actually had coherent narrative arcs), a man is out of prison after finding an inmate look-a-like who may have actually committed the crime he served 17 years for.The Kansas City Star reports that Richard Anthony Jones was convicted in 1999 for an aggravated robbery in Roeland Park, Kansas, that he swore he did not commit. There was no DNA or fingerprint evidence linking him to the crime at the time—just eyewitnesses who said they recognized Jones's face.While locked up, Jones reportedly began hearing rumors of another prisoner also named Richard who bore an uncanny resemblance to him. Suspecting that he could be doing time for his prison doppelganger's crime, Jones reached out to the Midwest Innocence Project for help.
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Lawyers from the Innocence Project teamed up with Jones to track down his twin. "We were floored by how much they looked alike," attorney Alice Craig told the Star. The other man also lived near the site of the robbery, while Jones lived across state lines in Kansas City, Missouri.Jones's lawyers brought their findings to a Johnson County judge last week. The doppelganger testified that he didn't commit the robbery, but the witnesses who originally singled out Jones admitted they could not identify which of the two men was the actual culprit. The judge, Kevin Moriarty, ruled that a jury would never have convicted Jones without the witness testimonies, and ordered his release.Jones is now out of prison and back with his family after nearly two decades. A GoFundMe campaign, set up on Friday to help Jones get back on his feet, has already raised over $10,000"I don't believe in luck," he said after his release, according to BBC. "I believe I was blessed."