Maya Moore Archives - Missourinet

New game plan for WNBA great Maya Moore and Missouri man she helped free from prison: Marriage

September 17, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

In July, the day Jonathan Irons had been waiting for finally arrived. He walked out of the Jefferson City Correctional Center as a free man. Waiting for him was a team of supporters, including the woman he now calls his wife.

Maya Moore and Jonathan Irons (Photo courtesy of Moore’s Twitter page)

WNBA star Maya Moore and Irons announced Wednesday that they tied the knot. Moore, 31, grew up in central Missouri’s Jefferson City. Irons, 40, is from the St. Louis suburb of Wentzville.

The newlyweds revealed their news to Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America”.

“We wanted to announce today that we are super-excited to continue the work that we’ve been doing together, but doing it as a married couple,” Moore said. “We got married a couple months ago and we’re excited to just continue this new chapter of life together.”

Moore and Irons became friends many years ago through her family.

“Over the last 13 years we … just entered into this huge battle to get him home, and just over time it was pretty clear what the Lord was doing in our hearts, and now we’re sitting here today, starting a whole new chapter together,” she said.

Moore walked away from the game about two years ago to put the full courtroom press on to get Irons released. She was in the prime of her career playing for the Minnesota Lynx.

Irons had been locked up for more than 20 years for a violent O’Fallon home burglary that he maintains he did not commit. His attorneys, a team from the powerful law firm of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry in St. Louis, argued there was no physical evidence linking Irons to the crime and other misconduct occurred by the police investigator in the case. Their work paid off – his conviction was overturned in March.

Irons said he asked Moore to marry him a few years ago, but told her to hold off on answering until he was free.

“Because in my mind, I didn’t know if I’d be home,” he said. “And she’s such an amazing, beautiful person, I could never trap her or not let her fulfill her dreams of being a wife and being a mother one day.”

Hours after his release from the maximum-security prison on “No More Victims Road”, Irons popped the question – again. Moore quickly accepted.

Moore is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time NCAA champion and four-time WNBA titlist. She was WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2011 and league MVP in 2014.

As for her basketball career, she says she does not have a game plan for that yet.

“I’m hoping sometime in the spring we’ll be able to have a next step moving forward, but right now I am trying to really just breathe from this long, long battle, and enjoy and rest,” she said. “There’s a lot of unknowns for a lot of us right now, so I’m still in that camp.”

Moore has told reporters in earlier interviews that a documentary is in the works to show their pursuit of shining a light on wrongful convictions.

Earlier stories:

WNBA icon helps Missouri man get another shot at life outside prison walls

WNBA icon helps Missouri man get another shot at life outside prison walls

Missouri man in prison for violent 1997 burglary could be a free man soon

Missouri man in prison for violent 1997 burglary could be a free man soon

Maya Moore to sit out second WNBA season to push for Missouri man’s prison release

Maya Moore to sit out second WNBA season to push for Missouri man’s prison release

Cole County judge orders mystery fingerprint to be cross-checked in violent 1997 burglary case

Cole County judge orders mystery fingerprint to be cross-checked in violent 1997 burglary case

WNBA star in Missouri courtroom to help imprisoned friend score ‘Win With Justice’

WNBA star in Missouri courtroom to help imprisoned friend score ‘Win With Justice’

WNBA icon helps Missouri man get another shot at life outside prison walls

July 14, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

WNBA star Maya Moore has scored a win in the courtroom by helping to get a St. Louis area man freed from prison this month. The Missouri Western District Court of Appeals granted the release of Johnathan Irons, who was locked up for more than 20 years for a violent O’Fallon home burglary he insists he did not do. Several gun shots were fired during the 1997 break-in, leaving the homeowner with a serious head injury.

Maya Moore and Jonathan Irons (Photo courtesy of Moore’s Twitter page)

Moore, who grew up in Jefferson City and is a longtime friend of Irons, stepped away from the game in the prime of her career to help Irons get out of prison. Outside the Jefferson City Correctional Center, she fell to her knees as she watched Irons take his first steps as a free man again.

During a conference call with reporters from across the globe, she said a huge weight has been lifted off her family’s shoulders.

“This is similar to a championship in the feeling of like the next day exhaustion of like ‘We just went to the mountain top and now oh yeah – our bodies are exhausted,’” said Moore.

For the past 18 months, she has been helping her extended family put on a full court press to get Irons released. Moore’s godfather, Reginald Williams, made a pivotal discovery when he uncovered a document within the O’Fallon Police Department’s evidence files – an unidentified fingerprint from the crime scene. That piece of evidence turned up several years after the original court trial concluded.

The revelation led to an appeal last October in which his lawyers made the case that no physical evidence connects Irons to the crime. They also argued that police mishandled the original case in several ways.

Moore says she never truly felt like Irons would not have his conviction overturned.

“There’s something about truth that just makes you believe it’s going to happen – when you have the facts right in front of you,” says Moore. “I’ve heard Jonathan say this, like he just had to keep believing ‘If we get the truth in front of the right people who want to do the right thing, they’ll do it.’ When I decided to use my platform and my voice, I was just shining a light with the resources that I had on the facts that were already there, trying to put it into the hands of people who could do something about it.”

Irons was represented by a powerful group of four attorneys from the high-profile law firm of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry in St. Louis.

Moore thinks Irons’ win and George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis can change history.

“This is an issue of long-term dehumanization that has been expressed intentionally through systems in our country. And so because I think we are beginning to talk more about the root of systemic racism, which is centered on dehumanizing people, we can start to weed out the dehumanizing practices through these systems. Changing systems doesn’t make sense until you get to the heart behind that system.”

Moore, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time NCAA champion and four-time WNBA titlist, launched a non-profit inspired by Irons. Win With Justice educates people about prosecutorial misconduct and aims to redefine what a win is in the criminal justice system.

Previous stories:

WNBA star in Missouri courtroom to help imprisoned friend score ‘Win With Justice’
https://wp.me/p16gMv-vHX

Cole County judge orders mystery fingerprint to be cross-checked in violent 1997 burglary case
https://wp.me/p16gMv-vWk

Maya Moore to sit out second WNBA season to push for Missouri man’s prison release
https://wp.me/p16gMv-w4Y

Missouri man in prison for violent 1997 burglary could be a free man soon
https://wp.me/p16gMv-whE

Missouri man in prison for violent 1997 burglary could be a free man soon

March 16, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

A St. Louis area man locked up for a 1997 home burglary could leave prison walls soon. Last week, Cole County Judge Daniel Green of mid-Missouri ordered to have the convictions overturned of Jonathan Irons, who is serving 50 years for a crime he has maintained that he did not commit.

Jonathan Irons (2019 photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Corrections)

Green’s decision follows the Missouri State Highway Patrol not being able to analyze an unidentifiable fingerprint withheld from Irons’ court trial. Green’s order is pending any objections from Attorney General Eric Schmitt and St. Charles County prosecutor Tim Lohmar.

During the break-in at a home in the St. Louis suburb of O’Fallon, the burglar fired several gun shots, seriously injuring the victim in the head. A fingerprint was pulled from the only door to the burglarized home. It did not belong to Irons or to the homeowner.

That evidence was not included into Irons’ court trial all those years ago. It turned up years after the trial was over when Reginald Williams, a friend of Irons, found a document in evidence files from the O’Fallon Police Department detailing a second fingerprint.

Irons, who was 16 years old at the time of the crime, thinks the print could have cleared him as a suspect in the case. His attorneys have argued other misconduct occurred by the police investigator in the case, who fell ill during the trial and later died. The prosecution argued during the trial that Irons was seen the day of the burglary with a gun in the neighborhood where the crime happened.

WNBA star Maya Moore, a Jefferson City native, has been fighting alongside Irons and her local family for years to get Irons released. Moore has played eight seasons for the Minnesota Lynx. Last year, she announced she was taking a break from the game, in part to try and help Irons walk away from prison as a free man soon.

“That’ll be a sweet day,” she says during a conference call with reporters. “We want to see that day very soon.”

Moore says the battle has been worth it.

“This has been the most significant thing I have invested in,” says Moore. “I feel privileged to be able to walk with Jonathan and stand and use my voice for people like him who haven’t had a voice. It’s just an honor. It’s been hard. It’s been emotionally and mentally just challenging.”

Moore started a non-profit organization, Win With Justice, which aims to, in part, redefine what a win is in the criminal justice system and shines a light on wrongful convictions. Whether she goes back to the game is still up in the air.