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No decision yet on a motion for a new trial in the Robert Reynolds murder case

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January 16th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

Attorneys for Robert Reynolds argued for a new case at a hearing Thursday afternoon, but the judge didn’t issue a decision on the request. The Daily NonPareil reports in a trio of motions, defense attorneys questioned the admissibility of a voice recording entered as evidence during Reynolds trial, questioned statements by Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber and questioned the jury selection process. Fourth District Court Judge Greg Steensland listened to arguments Thursday and is expected to make a decision today (Friday) or Monday.

In late November, a jury convicted the 63-year old Reynolds of first-degree murder for the death of 64-year old Patricia Kinkade-Dorsey, of Atlantic. Around 3 a.m. on April 8 at his Oakland home, Reynolds fatally shot Kinkade-Dorsey just above the right eye with a 9-millimeter handgun. Kinkade-Dorsey was a friend of Reynolds’ wife, Theresa, and was staying at the couple’s home.

The three had spent the previous evening drinking with the Reynolds’ neighbors, who left around 10:30 p.m. Around 3 a.m. Theresa Reynolds awoke to find her husband screaming at Kinkade-Dorsey in the kitchen. The fight escalated and ended with Robert Reynolds shooting Kinkade-Dorsey.

Joseph Reedy, who defended Reynolds with Eric Nelson, told Fourth District Court Judge Greg Steensland that a call allegedly made by Reynolds to his family after his arrest shouldn’t have been allowed at trial. The motion for arrest of judgement, asks the court to stop the judgement against the defendant.

At trial, during testimony from Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Rob Ambrose the prosecution played a jailhouse call from Reynolds to his mother and stepfather’s home. Ambrose had instructed crime scene technician Katie Pattee to pull audio from the call, which Reynolds made around 11:30 a.m. while in the holding section of the jail on April 8. As they did at trial, the defense argued that to verify the veracity of the call, the prosecution should’ve called an employee with the contractor that handles such recordings for the jail to testify.

During the trial, Steensland ruled that the call and Pattee’s testimony about the call would be allowed. Reynolds’ other attorney, Nelson, then made two other arguments as part of a motion for a new trial.The last argument centered on the jury. Nelson said that the jury selection process – culling jurors from east Pottawattamie County – systematically excluded minorities from the jury. He cited precedent that the defendant need not be a different race to file a complaint about a lack of minorities on a jury.

Steensland told the court he’d take the motions under advisement and make a decision in the coming days.