Mark Woodworth was 16 at the time. Now 36, he has been serving four consecutive life prison terms plus 15 years at Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron.
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A Chillicothe man twice convicted in the 1990 slaying of Cathy Robertson – a farm wife shot to death while she slept — will have a new hearing in late May in Boone County. Her husband was critically wounded in the shooting, but survived.
It has been 20 years since the murder took place. Many people in the Chillicothe farming community believe the wrong man was convicted. But the only people whose opinion mattered — a jury of his peers — thought him guilty not once, but twice.
Just before midnight on Nov. 13, 1990, Cathy and Lyndel Robertson were asleep in their bedroom when an assailant entered the house and shot them six times with a .22 caliber weapon. The 41-year-old mother of five was struck twice in the head and chest and died instantly. Her husband survived four bullet wounds to his face, neck and shoulder.
In October 1993, almost three years after the attack, Mark Woodworth was indicted on five counts of murder, assault, armed criminal action and burglary. A jury convicted him on all five counts in March 1995.
His convictions were set aside on appeal in February 1997 by an appeals court, which ordered a new trial. Mark was convicted again at his second trial in November 1999.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in November 2010 that Woodworth may present new testimony as part of his latest post-conviction appeal.