Bryan Middlemas is a free man.
Around midnight Friday, a Clay County jury found Middlemas not guilty in the brutal murder of AT&T worker Kevin Mashburn in September 2013.
Now Mashburn's children are devastated and worried.
William Mashburn, Kevin Mashburn's son, said he was stunned when the verdict was announced in court.
"Everything we had heard all week in court -- the evidence and the testimony -- we just knew the verdict would be guilty," said William Mashburn.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Kevin Mashburn was working when, they allege, Middlemas robbed him and beat him with a crowbar so severely that Kevin Mashburn died.
"[The jury] got it wrong," said William Mashburn.
Amy Mashburn called her father an amazing dad. She praised him for loving people and helping everyone.
Photo of Kevin Mashburn courtesy Amy Mashburn.
"We know what we know, and we feel the verdict was wrong," said Amy Mashburn. "But now it's an unsolved mystery... rather than closure we don't have."
Now the Mashburn children are worried that Middlemas is free to hurt someone else.
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Cynthia Newsome can be reached at Cynthia.Newsome@kshb.com.
