KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The judicial system can take a long time to prosecute crimes.
If someone is fighting their conviction, the legal battle takes even longer.
Missouri's court system has checks and balances.
For Victor Vickers, the unanswered question is who has the authority to grant enough credit for time served so Vickers can get out of prison?
The 39-year-old Kansas City man was sentenced in Jackson County to life without parole for a first degree murder conviction in a deadly 2011 home invasion.
He also received 30-year sentences for first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action.
Vickers and his family have maintained his innocence.
"The words really didn't register," Lavern Vickers, his mother, told KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson. "I had to sit there for a minute and realize what the judge had just said. He said 'Life without parole."' "Then, I don' t know if you call it a state of denial. I knew that wasn't what God ordered for my son."
Another Chance?
Since his conviction, Vickers' case has taken many turns.
He said he had one shot at getting his sentence vacated and won a post-conviction relief motion in 2019.
"It asserts whether or not you had effective assistance of counsel," said Molly Hastings, Vickers' attorney. "Victor shared he had an alibi witness willing to testify who was cooperative, available and was not properly vetted, investigated or called at trial."
After he won that motion, a judge ordered Vickers a new trial.
Instead, Vickers accepted an Alford plea to avoid having the case tried a second time.
He also thought in doing so he could get credit for time served.
"Lightning was not going to strike twice," Hastings said.
Vickers' pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, assault in the second degree, and armed criminal action.
The plea meant he maintained his innocence, but would accept the reduced charges for a 15-year sentence.
A Complicated Legal Battle
After the plea, his case got even more complicated.
When Vickers accepted the plea, he believed he could argue for credit for all the days he spent in prison.
Based on a Missouri law, he thought he would be released because of conditional or early release.
That law allowed him to be eligible for release after he served 12 years.
In 2022, Jackson County Judge John Torrence calculated credit for his prison time of 3,767 days, or roughly 10 years.
That includes time he spent waiting trial in while in the Jackson County Jail, time he spent in federal custody for a different case, and time in the Missouri Department of Corrections for his initial life sentence.
If that order was carried out, Vickers would be out of prison.
The Missouri Attorney General's Office objected, arguing a judge did not have the legal authority for his action.
In August, Judge Drew Davis in Dekalb County filed an order that stated Vickers, because of all the time he served, should be released immediately.
On August 29th, a day after Davis' order, a Missouri Court of Appeals judge filed an order prohibiting any action being taken on Judge Davis' order because the order is now on appeal.
The Missouri Attorney General's Office continues to fight against Vickers' release.
"We thought a judge had the final say," said Nyil'a Webster, Vickers' aunt. "If a judge said he is released to go home, time served...we took that as a fact. We found out what he said could be overruled."
Vickers continues to fight the release date set by the Missouri Department of Corrections for November 2026.
Who has the final say?
While the case remains in limbo, KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson spoke with Vickers by phone.
He expressed his disappointment in the judicial system and knows the exact amount of time down to the day he has been in prison
Vickers still has hope it will be over soon.
"To feel as if we finally convinced the other side that it was time to hear them admit to that in writing to a court of law and see the gates practically open and immediately shut again...that is crushing," Hastings said.
Those involved in the case include the Missouri Attorney General's Office, the Missouri Department of Corrections and state courts in multiple jurisdictions.
They are all trying to decide who has the power to allow Vickers' release.
The answer is still unclear.
"It is at Victor's expense and he is in custody as we are waiting for attorneys to file their complaints, file their rejection of the judge's order," Hastings said.
The Missouri Department of Corrections told KSHB 41 Vickers' release date is up to the parole board, and his time served has not been miscalculated.
That won't stop Vickers, his family and legal team from trying to prove the math was wrong.
"As far as to bring him home, my hands are tied," Vickers' mother said. "It feels like you're screaming from the inside out."
She joins her son and his attorney in thinking time served should mean just that.
"Airing on the side of caution to allow someone their freedom rather than prohibiting their freedom seems to me the clear path forward," Hastings said.
The Missouri Attorney General's Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Attorneys for the office stated in court filings one of the main reasons for being opposed to Vickers' release is the judge that sentenced Vickers did not have the legal authority to award jail time credit.
The attorney general's office also believes he is not entitled to time served in federal prison because that case is not related to case in Jackson County.
However, Vickers argues since the Jackson County charges prevented his release from federal custody, Missouri law deems they are related.
Vickers' attorney said they will wait, even if it means fighting the system until his 2026 release date.
