[MO] Retrial scheduled for Officer Rios, convicted of killing Jessie

...[Officer Rios, who was married at the time and had a child, admitted having had a homosexual affair with the 23-year-old Valencia but denied killing him. At his sentencing, Rios said prosecutors distorted the evidence against him and that his attorneys were ineffective.

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OFFICER RIOS CONVICTED_JESSE'S MOM LINDA - A former Columbia police officer was convicted Saturday of first-degree murder in the death of a homosexual college student with whom he had an affair.

Rios murder re-trial scheduled for August
Columbia Daily Tribune, MO
Thursday, March 20, 2008
[Excerpts] A second trial in the murder case against former Columbia police Officer Steven Rios has been scheduled for mid-August with jurors pulled from Clay County. Rios’ murder retrial is tentatively set for Aug. 18. His first trial in July 2005 lasted about a week; prosecutors and Rios’ defense team anticipate his retrial also will last about five days. Rios has requested that attorneys Stone Grissom of Baton Rouge, La., and Gillis Leonard of Moberly be allowed to represent him on his murder retrial instead of the state public defender’s office. Grissom and Leonard have agreed to handle Rios’ case free of charge, with the public defender’s office covering basic litigation expenses... Rios, 30, was convicted of killing University of Missouri student Jesse Valencia, whose body was found June 5, 2004, with the throat slashed outside his East Campus apartment. Rios, who was married at the time and had a child, admitted having had a homosexual affair with the 23-year-old Valencia but denied killing him. At his sentencing, Rios said prosecutors distorted the evidence against him and that his attorneys were ineffective. [Full article here]