'It's a sin he’s been sitting in jail for 20 years': Was the right man convicted of a 2004 murder? | 11 Investigates: Shadow of a doubt

Eric Babos shuffles across the prison yard at Allen Correctional Institution.

When he was much younger, a rod was put in his back to correct scoliosis.

An achy back has been a constant companion. Twenty years of living in a prison hasn’t helped the stiffness. But he’s trying to make the best of it.

“I could have went down a couple of different roads when I got here. I just went down the road where I was going to try to be positive, and that's exactly what I've done,” Eric Babos said. “I’m big on community service here. We just got done making Easter baskets for the kids, and we do a lot for Habitat for Humanity, VA nursing homes. I'm a certified tutor. I’ve done numerous programs, you know, to try to better myself when I’m in here.”

The description he gives of himself doesn't fit the profile of a cold-blooded killer.

"I've never carried a gun. Never fired a gun, never owned a gun," Eric Babos said. "We didn't have guns in the house when I was growing up. We didn't hunt. We fished, but we did not hunt. We just weren't gun people."

It's a story repeated by his father.

"My grandfather and uncle took me out hunting one day. I remember it quite well because it was a rainy day. I was walking and a bird or rabbit jumped out in front of me. It scared me to death and I shot the gun. I gave the gun back to my grandfather or uncle and said, 'that's enough for me.'" Stephen Babos said. "Eric was never around guns."

If Eric Babos shot John Riebe, he didn't miss. All seven shots hit Riebe. One of the first went directly through his heart.

Longtime friend John Klawitter said Eric Babos was clueless about weapons.

"He bought his son a pellet gun one time and asked me how to use it because he didn’t know," Klawitter said. "It’s a sin he’s been sitting in jail for 20 years and he didn’t do it."

December 2004 is never far from Babos' mind.

“I just got full custody of my son. I mean, this was our first Christmas together, so it was a big deal, and we were looking forward to it. The day John was killed, I actually went out and and I purchased a Christmas tree. It was a normal day for me,” Babos said. “I had just gotten custody and things were going really good in my life.”

He said he had mostly put the heavy drinking and drug usage in the past. His record includes a DUI from 1991 and a misdemeanor domestic violence incident from 1995. That involved the mother of his son, Colton. Kathryn Boswell told us that it was an argument sparked by drinking from both of them.

“He tried to stop me from leaving and he jumped on my car,” she said.

John Riebe was a longtime friend, almost a member of the Babos family. He and his daughters would swim and cookout at the home of Eric’s brother, Greg. Eric was a painter by trade, but he would do contract work with Riebe for HVAC companies.

“I first met him through my brother. He was a year younger than me. We did a lot of stuff during high school and even in our early years after high school – camping, cookouts, basic stuff,” Babos said. “My brother started a family, so me and John started hanging out a little more, and then that's when I started working with him. I wouldn’t say he was part of our family, but he was there at Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

He also did contracting work with his buddy, John Klawitter.

“I worked off and on with Eric for 13 years. He would flip on me if I owed him money, but he was just blowing smoke. He would never do anything about it,” Klawitter said.

But police said Babos did do something to Riebe because he owed him $150 from a job they had recently completed for A-1 Heating.

They said he got so angry and frustrated that he hopped on a bike in December, rode 3.8 miles from his brother’s home, confronted Riebe and shot one of his best friends seven times, then got back on his bike and rode back to his brother’s.

An hour after the murder, police said, he called Riebe’s house, demanding money – to make it look like he didn’t know Riebe was dead. He then was picked up by his brother, who confirmed all the work was done inside that he asked Eric to complete, and then they went Christmas tree shopping.

Eric and Greg said Greg offered money to Eric, who declined it because he said he was good with money.

“Never, not one time, have I ever argued with John about money,” Babos said. “I've worked for John probably on and off for 20 years, and he's always paid me. We've never argued about money.”

In a police interview on the night of the murder, Babos did, however, admit that he was frustrated that John owed him money.

“Eric had called me that day to say Riebe owed him money, but he wouldn’t leave the house because he gets paranoid when he’s on that junk,” Klawitter said. “He tried to get a ride over there so he could get his check.”

An autopsy shows Riebe had cocaine in his system and he was legally drunk when he was killed.

Phone records show Eric called Riebe’s house four times on Dec. 15 before he was killed:

6:51 a.m.: “We were supposed to pick up the check, and we had material for another job that we had already bought. It's sitting there and we were supposed to start that job,” Babos said. “I called him up in the morning. I could tell he sounded a little funny. I knew he was high. I mean, I'll just say it, he was high. But he's like, ‘call me in an hour and we'll see what's going on.’”

At 8:39 a.m.: “I called him back and he said, 'we're not working today.' So I was like, okay, whatever," Babos said. "That's when I called my brother (8:52 a.m.) and decided to do some stuff for him.”

At 12:07 p.m.: “He was going to pick up the check," Babos said. "So I just wanted to see if he had got the check and to see what's going on for work in the next day or so.”

At 2:21 p.m.: The same conversation was repeated. But during that nearly two-minute call, Riebe’s phone records show that Valynn Rodgers, also known as JR, was trying to call him. JR was one of Riebe’s drug dealers.

Days before, JR showed up at a party at Riebe’s and had an animated conversation with Eric Babos.

THE PARTY

Immediately after his father called him on the night of the murder to tell him that Riebe was dead, Babos’ thoughts flashed back to a party at Riebe’s house the weekend before.

“John invited a couple of us over. He had his guitar out. He was playing his guitar. We were drinking some beer. It was a pretty good time,” Babos said.

But then the party escalated.

“John ended up calling for drugs. JR is the one that brought the drugs,” Babos said.

JR, according to Eric and John Klawitter, accused the men of looking like cops and Eric started arguing with him.

“I mouthed off and John told me to shut up, just shut your mouth,” Babos said. “ I never really seen him come in there and wave a gun around. I turned my head and he just put something back in his waistband, and I didn't see exactly what it was.”

But Klawitter told police that he pulled a gun. He repeated the story to 11 Investigates: “I don’t know how Eric didn’t see it. He pointed it right at him. And he said something like, ‘I just got out of prison. I’m not afraid of going back.’”

On the stand, Detective Sgt. Robert Colwell testified that Klawitter later recanted his story about the gun. He told us that he never recanted that story and that JR definitely had a gun.

On police audio from the night of the murder, Klawitter tells Colwell and Detective Todd Slaman that a big guy, “probably 6-foot-2, and I bet he was 260” came in “and John called him JR.” He tells police that JR pulled out a gun.

In audio of his interview, Eric tells police he "did not see the gun.”

Babos said he went to the police station to tell them that he believed JR could have killed his friend. But he left feeling that the police had a different suspect in mind.

“I left that police station thinking, and I'll never forget it to this day, ‘They think I did it.’ That's exactly what I said when I walked out their door. They think I'm a suspect. I felt like one,” he said. “I went in there and I was trying to help. I don’t know if I would help again in that situation.”

On Aug. 5, 2005, Eric Babos was convicted of killing John Riebe.

The prosecution successfully focused on a series of calls made from Riebe’s home between 2:57 p.m. and 3:13 p.m.

In those calls, Riebe was trying – first – to have his estranged wife pick up his check from A-1 Heating. Then four calls were placed to A-1 Heating by John and a man who identified himself as Eric, John’s helper.

Police believe that Riebe died around 3:15 p.m. Babos later called from his personal cell phone to A-1 to ask about the check. The owner of the company said Babos was the same man who had previously called from Riebe’s.

That tight timeline was key to his conviction.

In addition, the prosecution used a conversation with Boswell that took place in the days after the murder. They claim that Babos told her he was the last person to see Riebe alive. She told us that he said he was the last person to work with Riebe.

“The day of the trial, I was in my bedroom crying for an hour. I didn’t realize that I was going to be a prosecution witness,” Boswell said. “I was in denial. They kept saying he was a person he wasn’t.”

She had feared that Riebe would one day get him in trouble.

“I liked John as a person, but not his (drug) habit. I told Eric that he needed to stay away from him when he was doing that stuff,” Boswell said. “I told him that you’re going to be in the wrong place and something is going to happen.”

Jerry Phillips, one of the most prominent defense attorneys in Toledo, defended Babos and called the trial a nightmare.

“I believe Eric Babos is innocent, and I think about him all the time," Phillips said. "It's sad to say, but it’s probably the biggest failure of my criminal practice."

He agrees that the testimony of A-1 Heating owner Bob Pfieffer was key to the case.

“My feeling was that jurors would understand that it was a phone call where a stranger was talking to another stranger. Then you hear that voice a second time later. Can you say that that is the same person? I just assume, based on my experience with phone calls, that I can't identify that person,” Phillips said. “It just seemed to me that that witness potentially had been told that: this, for sure, is the guy. This is what we have, and he's for sure the guy. We just need you to confirm this.”

He also takes issue with the theory that Babos jumped on a bike to get to Riebe’s, since they couldn’t show he had any access to a car.

“It's in the middle of winter and he supposedly rode a bike. They had no evidence that he had a bike and nobody saw him on this alleged bike. It just was nonsensical to me. I was shocked,” Phillips said. “I thought at worst that it'd be a hung jury, that at least some of the jurors would understand how nonsensical this was. But, you don't know what happens in a jury room.”

Babos and his brother, Greg, told us that the only bikes at Greg’s home were bikes that had flat tires and chains that were not connected. Colwell testified that they had spied the bikes through a garage window. They did not inspect them.

But at 3 a.m., the morning of Aug. 5, the jury returned a guilty verdict.

“It was three in the morning. I got the call at my house, which woke me up out of bed. I can remember that and my dad with a shaky voice saying that Eric was convicted," Greg said. "I said, ‘You’ve gotta be (kidding) me.’ I said 'no way.'”

11 Investigates reached three jury members who were involved in the murder trial of Eric Babos.

One of them said the timeline and the phone calls, including the fact that Babos made no phone calls during the time Riebe was killed, were key factors. That juror also said the prosecution’s claim that Babos said he was the last to see Riebe alive influenced their decision.

A second juror said they spent a lot of time on the question of whether it was even possible for Babos to ride a bike nearly four miles in December.

Both agreed that the jury was not unanimous when deliberations began.

A third juror had almost no recollection of the trial or deliberations.

“I had a Bible verse, so I just kept repeating the Bible verse. I just knew I didn't do it,” Babos said of his thoughts after the verdict was announced. “I just figured, ‘OK, I've got my appeal.’ I knew they weren't telling the truth. I wasn't at John's house.”

Nearly 20 years later, Babos is still waiting for his truth to come out.

11 INVESTIGATES: SHADOW OF A DOUBT