News Update

POSTED: Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009

Chehalis jury sides with family in trooper death

CHEHALIS, Wash. A jury in Lewis County ruled Tuesday the county coroner was wrong to conclude that a former state trooper who was leaving her husband committed suicide.

The 12-member jury reached an unanimous verdict in the case of Ronda Reynolds, whose 1998 death was ruled a suicide by Lewis County Coroner Terry Wilson.

Reynolds' mother, Barbara Thompson, filed a civil lawsuit because she believed her daughter's death was a homicide and hoped the jury would overrule the coroner.

Thompson cried quietly Tuesday as the verdict was read in her favor, The Daily News of Longview reported.

Reynolds was a 33-year-old former state trooper in the process of breaking up with her husband when she was found dead from a gunshot wound on Dec. 16, 1998, at her home.

Her husband, Toledo Elementary School Principal Ron Reynolds, told investigators he found his wife's body that morning under an electric blanket in their walk-in closet off the bedroom of their Toledo home. He told authorities he did not hear the gunshot and was not involved in the death.

Thompson worked to fight the coroner's conclusion. During the trial, her team called an array of witnesses, including firearms and pathology specialists.

After the verdict, Wilson said he would not reconsider the cause of death on Reynolds' death certificate.

"They told me not to say anything," Wilson told The Daily News. "I have to talk to my lawyer."

Jurors faced three questions in the case:

- Was the coroner's determination of suicide accurate? Jurors said "no."

- Did you find the coroner's determination of suicide more likely than not? Jurors said "not likely."

- Did you find the coroner's determination of suicide arbitrary and capricious? Jurors said "yes."

Lewis County sheriff's investigators and Wilson ruled the case a suicide 11 years ago. The state attorney general's office reviewed the case in 2006 and agreed with that determination.