JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A former Sikeston, Mo., resident serving a 10-year sentence for assault in the Missouri Department of Corrections died Saturday in his prison cell, according to department spokeswoman Jacqueline Lapine.

Romanze D. Mosby, 26, was pronounced dead at 11:45 p.m. Saturday at Algoa Correctional Center in Jefferson City. Mosby's name came up in connection with a 2000 Sikeston homicide, first during the 2001 trial of David Robinson and then several years ago when Mosby gave a taped statement to an investigator with the state public defender's office.

Robinson was convicted and sentenced to life without parole for first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the shooting death of 36-year-old Sheila Box.

Box was killed in her Chevrolet Suburban after apparently crashing Aug. 5, 2000, on West Malone Avenue in Sikeston. She had suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest, and a pistol was found in the car.

During Robinson's trial, a witness testified that he'd heard Mosby confess to the shooting, but the judge ruled to exclude that testimony and it was not presented to the jury as evidence in the case.

Prosecutors argued the hearsay testimony was not credible because the witness testified Mosby had thrown the gun into a lake in Charleston, Mo., yet repeated searches by the Missouri State Water Patrol failed to find it.

Mosby later confessed to the shooting in a recorded statement given to Butch Johnson of Columbia, Mo., an investigator with the state public defender's office, but later refused to sign a statement written by Johnson, Johnson said.

The taped confession was presented at Robinson's 2004 post-conviction hearing.

Jefferson City law enforcement and the inspector general's office are handling the investigation into Mosby's death, Lapine said. An autopsy was scheduled for early in the week, said Cole County coroner Dr. Carl Doerhoff. The manner of death has not been officially determined, Doerhoff said, though suicide is "tentatively anticipated."

Mosby was in the last year of his sentence for a Scott County assault case, according to Missouri Casenet. He pleaded guilty to the charge of first-degree assault resulting in serious injury Nov. 28, 2001.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

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