A Baptist pastor in Missouri’s Ozarks was issued a $30,000 bond after spending two years in jail for allegedly taking pictures his spouse’s lover.
Matthew Dedmon, now 49, shot 57-year-old Joe Newburn a number of instances within the chest on Could 28, 2022 after he allegedly noticed the opposite man together with his spouse in a automotive exterior the Iguana Roja Restaurante within the Ozark Courthouse Sq. Historic District, Ozarks First reported. Dedmon had suspected Newburn was having an affair together with his spouse, the outlet reported.
Newburn died the subsequent day at Cox South Hospital, the Ozark Police Division wrote in a Fb submit.
The Heritage Baptist Church pastor was charged with first-degree homicide and armed legal motion. For 2 years, he had been saved behind bars with out bond.
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In September 2022, Decide Laura Johnson wrote that letting Dedmon out on bond would put the general public in “grave hazard.”
“The proof is that Defendant possessed a loaded gun on the sq. in Ozark exterior a busy restaurant, and that gun was discharged three to 4 instances, ensuing within the sufferer’s dying. This put everybody on the sq. in grave hazard,” Johnson wrote in her determination, obtained by Legislation & Crime. “There was proof that this conduct was out of character for Defendant, which causes concern about Defendant’s decision-making and judgment.”
“The seriousness of the cost will increase the chance that Defendant is not going to seem,” she continued. “For these causes, the Court docket will detain Defendant with out bond.”
For 2 years, Dedmon’s attorneys and state attorneys clashed in a authorized combat over a “movement to endorse” witnesses and discovery.
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Nevertheless, on Oct. 1, the decide granted Dedmon $30,000 bond, offered that he put on a GPS monitoring machine and stay on home arrest.
In response to a protection submitting searching for his launch on bond, Dedmon’s attorneys argued that the state’s slowness to endorse witnesses violated their consumer’s rights underneath Missouri’s structure.
“This case has been pending for effectively over two years. Counsel for Defendant has labored diligently throughout that point to prepared this case for trial. Simply as Counsel for Defendant believed that depositions had been concluded (as she had deposed all endorsed witnesses) and the matter was lastly able to set for trial, the State filed its movement to endorse, [redacted],” the submitting learn.
“The Defendant adamantly opposes this movement to endorse. Nevertheless, the Defendant submits that ought to the Court docket grant the State’s movement to endorse, in complete or partially, that the Defendant ought to be granted launch on bond as a result of State’s inexcusable act of late endorsements, which if allowed, will trigger an inevitable prolonged delay of the Defendant’s trial.”
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Christian County Prosecuting Lawyer Kristen Tuohy couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
As of Wednesday morning, Christian County Jail data didn’t point out that the pastor had been launched. His legal professional couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
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The taking pictures sufferer, Newburn, had “all the time been the man subsequent door that everybody wished to know,” may “construct a motorcycle higher than Schwinn” and “construct a sizzling rod as if he some day could be in Nascar,” in response to his on-line obituary. He’s survived by two kids and a “host of grandkids.”
Dedmon’s homicide trial is scheduled to start on March 3, in response to Ozarks First.