Colorado & Denver News

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP/CBS4) ― Joyous family members were preparing to welcome Tim Masters home from prison Tuesday after special prosecutors said they would ask a judge to overturn his murder conviction and life sentence. The inmate was more "cautiously optimistic" about his expected release Tuesday morning.

"I'll believe it as soon as I walk out the door," Masters told CBS News' 48 Hours Monday night. "I've been saying that for the last few days, but when I walk out the door it will be real for me."

Masters, 35, was expected to be set free on a personal recognizance bond on Tuesday. He was transported Monday from the Buena Vista Correctional Facility to the Larimer County jail at about 3:35 p.m. to await his court hearing Tuesday.

Special prosecutor Don Quick said last week that DNA evidence pointed to someone else in the 1987 slaying of Peggy Hettrick in Fort Collins. Quick said he will ask a judge to set aside Master's 1999 conviction and vacate his sentence.

"I've had enough fame attributed to me for a crime I didn't even commit," Masters said during his jailhouse interview Monday night.

His defense team started the DNA testing thanks to a husband and wife team in The Netherlands that helped compare evidence left on Hettrick's clothing to Masters' DNA profile. They didn't match.

The DNA experts flew from Europe to be at Tuesday's hearing and talked to CBS4 Monday afternoon.

"For us it's emotional too," said Selma Eikelenboom-Schieveld, a forensic investigator "We never thought it would be that emotional, but it is."

Other investigators who have helped Masters' defense team also plan to be at Tuesday's hearing, including a former Fort Collins detective who actually testified for the prosecution during the original trial in 1999.

"I want this for him so bad," said Linda Wheeler-Holloway, a former Fort Collins investigator. "To finally give him back his life."

"We're so thrilled," said Masters' aunt, Betty Schneider. "We just love this kid, and we're glad he's coming home."

Schneider said family members were fixing meals, getting a special cake and buying him clothes.

She said prison workers at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex threw a party for Masters Friday after Quick announced his decision.

"Isn't that amazing?" she said.

Masters challenged his conviction as unfair, and Quick has acknowledged that the original defense team didn't get all the information it should have received.

Larimer County Larry Abrahamson said Monday that he will move quickly to determine whether charges against Masters should be dropped. He said he will also send a letter to all law enforcement agencies in his district asking that they review contested convictions in which defendants are still serving a sentence.

"Any case that may benefit from results of DNA testing procedures, not available at the time of the convictions, are to be reported to my office," Abrahamson said.

After years in prison for a murder he insists he didn't commit, Masters said he has "a little bit of excess baggage." He stopped short of saying anything specific about investigators who believed he was guilty and about prosecutors who took the case to the trial.

"You can pretty much imagine how I feel toward them," he told the Rocky Mountain News Sunday.

He's trying to focus on the future.

"I would like to at least have a good income and I don't think a year from now, a year from now is too soon, but at least in a few years, have my own house again," Masters said Monday night.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)