Inmate says conscience led to cold-case killing confession

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri inmate who admitted to a long-unsolved killing while serving time for robbery says he confessed to the crime because his conscience was nagging him. DeAngelo Thomas says he felt relief when he penned his admission from his Missouri prison cell. “Just like a weight lifted on my shoulder,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a recent interview, the first time he has talked to a reporter about the 1999 shooting death of 30-year-old Floyd Epps. Epps was a stranger who agreed to buy Thomas a bottle of whiskey because Thomas was too young. Afterward, they fought over $18. Thomas claims he only wanted to wound the man.