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Judge orders new murder trial for Ricky Norwood

By Austin Williams Jan 30, 2025 | 12:19 PM

Marion County Resident Circuit Court Judge Mark Stedelin has overturned the murder conviction of Ricky Norwood of Centralia and ordered a new trial.

Stedelin made the decision following an investigation into jury misconduct during the trial held in October 2023.   Norwood had never been sentenced due to the jury misconduct allegations.

Norwood was found guilty of the August 2015 death of Dustin Rhynes of Centralia.   Rhynes was found lying near a garage on East Haussler Street with a single gunshot wound to the back.   His murder had gone unresolved for years.

State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth says the judge began looking into jury misconduct when a friend had overheard conversation about a jury doing their own investigation and learning Norwood was serving time in federal prison at the time of the trial on unrelated charges.   The jury then reportedly told others on the panel.   Jury members are not allowed to consider past convictions when hearing a trial.   Stedelin has held hearings for three days to gather testimony from jury members on what transpired before issuing his decision on Wednesday.

Hudspeth says he will retry the case with a pre-trial conference scheduled for February fifth to set some preliminary dates.  He notes during the original trial it was difficult to track witnesses due to the murder occurring in 2015.    Hudspeth expects that issue to be only worse now.