Both the prosecution and defense rested their cases in the Ricky Norwood murder trial on Thursday afternoon with closing arguments scheduled for nine Friday morning. Norwood is charged with the August 2015 shooting death of Dustin Rhynes whose body was found off the 800 block of East Haussler in Centralia.
Defense attorney Dennis Hatch was unsuccessful in getting a directed verdict at the end of the prosecution’s case. He claimed no physical evidence was presented and the case was all conjecture.
In denying the motion, Judge Mark Stedelin ruled the prosecution had established a conflict and confrontation and that the defendant had been identified getting into a van after running from the direction the gunfire was heard. He also noted the testimony from a jail informant earlier on Thursday who had testified that Norwood had told him while both were in custody that if his murder case was close he would put the blame on a now deceased man.
After losing the motion, Hatch presented his opening statement to the jury once again claiming that the prosecution had not met their burden of proof and had presented no direct evidence. He said there was no evidence of who fired the gun, no gun was ever found, and just testimony of lots of people running around. Hatch elected not to put Norwood on the stand.
His only witness had earlier been taken out of order to explain the reduction in federal sentence jail informant Dameon Brown could receive for providing his testimony on the comment Norwood allegedly made to him at the Marion County Jail. Federal court public defender Patrick Kilgore said Brown’s sentence could be reduced from five to 40 years, but the recommendation was up to the US Attorney’s office and had to be accepted by the judge.
Earlier in the day during the prosecution’s case Lorrie Ann Sharkey of Cormick Street in Centralia testified to being out on her porch at 9:15 the night of Rhynes death and saw what appeared to be a light from a gun being fired from near BCMW before seeing two men running. Sharkey said she could not recognize the men because it was dark. Rhynes body was later found about a block and a half away.
The final prosecution witness was former Illinois State Police DCI agent Travis Rinehart who had picked up the cold case three years after the murder in 2018 and testified about reinterviewing some witnesses and finding some new ones. His reopened investigation led up to the calling of a Marion County Grand Jury that issued the murder indictment.
After closing arguments, the jury will receive the case to begin deliberations.
