Missouri man who never served sentence awaits prison term after leading crime-free life

Cornealious ‘Mike’ Anderson helped rob a Burger King employee in 1999 and was ordered to serve 13 years. But no one came for him, and he went on with his life in St. Louis.

Cornealious ‘Mike’ Anderson, surrounded by his four children and his wife, LaQonna, is waiting on word from the Missouri Attorney General’s office.

He's a pretty average guy — father of four, owns his home, pays his taxes, volunteers at his family's church.

Except for that prison thing.

Cornealious "Mike" Anderson, of St. Louis, was sentenced to 13 years behind bars in 2000 for helping to rob a Burger King manager. After posting bail, he waited for word on when he should surrender himself to the Missouri penal system.

He waited a really long time.

Meanwhile, he got married. He fathered four children. He coached his son's football team. He joined a church and started small businesses of his own, including a contractor service. He never left the St. Louis area.

Thirteen years went by.

Last summer, after state officials realized their mistake, a SWAT team descended on Anderson's house and dragged him off to jail.

On Tuesday, he was waiting again, this time for a ruling from the state Attorney General's office on whether he must serve that sentence.

"I'm hoping that there is a way for them to save face while still allowing him to stay free," Patrick Michael Megaro, Anderson's attorney, told the Daily News on Tuesday.

Megaro said some kind of clerical error resulted in his client staying free all these years. Anderson, he said, assumed state officials had changed their mind about his prison sentence.

"He's no legal expert," said Megaro, who entered the case last summer after Anderson was picked up. "He relied on his lawyer," who has since retired, Megaro said. His predecessor also thought Anderson was in prison, the new attorney said.

So why is Anderson dealing with this now?

Under the prison term he never served, Anderson was supposed to be released last year. As the paperwork process unfolded, state prison authorities realized Anderson wasn't incarcerated.

And so he was arrested.

"This man is not a fugitive," Megaro said. "He didn't try to hide."

He built a life and he never got in trouble with the law again.

An online petition at change.org has gathered more than 14,000 signatures calling for Anderson's freedom.

Isaiah 14:21

Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

Jeremiah 12:3

But thou, O Lord, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

Isaiah 42:22

But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.