The latest local news, weather and high school sports from the Heartland

JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- A former longtime Kirksville attorney has died in custody. 

Tom Oswald died early Friday morning at Capital Region Medical Center in Jefferson City. 

Oswald had pleaded guilty in October 2009 to one count of statutory sodomy; he was sentenced to seven years in prison on the charge. Oswald’s case came up again a few years later when close friend and Kirksville dentist Steve Barber was convicted of offering cash to the parents of the victim if they would not cooperate with the prosecution of Oswald. 

Barber is currently appealing that conviction. 

Tom Oswald was 86 years of age.

The following was submitted by a local attorney who worked with Oswald for many years:

Tom Oswald was born in Independence, Mo., on July 3, 1925.  He grew up in Independence and is survived by one sister, Pennye Lewis.  He was a veteran of WW II having served in the European Theater. 

He attended University of Missouri and received his LLB in 1950 and was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1950.  He was also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court, Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri.  He was a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. 

He began his law career in Shelbina, Mo., with the firm of Bollow, Crist and Oswald. He then moved to Kirksville and became partner in the firm of Jayne, Oswald & Cottey.

In the early 1970s he and Lou Cottey formed the firm Oswald & Cottey, P.C. until the late 1990s. Lou Cottey passed away in 1999, and Oswald continued to practice for many years thereafter under the name of Oswald & Cottey, P.C. and other partners until his retirement. 

Many of his peers and fellow lawyers consider him "one of the greatest trial lawyers in the State of Missouri."