By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer issued a statement today assuring the public he is working diligently to make a charging decision in Ronda Reynolds’ death, and he will announce it the day before the coroner’s announcement explaining why the arrest warrants were suspended.
[1]Jonathan Meyer, Lewis County Prosecutor
After telling a packed courtroom on Wednesday afternoon he would issue arrest warrants within 24 hours for the two men just named as responsible for Reynolds’ 1998 homicide, Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod suddenly this morning announced he put the warrants on hold.
McLeod said only a legal issue “came to light”.
The seven-day coroner’s inquest in Chehalis ended this week with a panel of five concluding the death almost 13 years ago was homicide; and Ron Reynolds and his son Jonathan Reynolds were responsible.
McLeod acknowledged this morning he is required under state law to issue the warrants.
The attorney representing Jonathan Reynolds, indicated today he didn’t file any legal documents to stop the process. Ron Reynolds’ attorney hasn’t returned calls for comment.
[2]Warren McLeod, Lewis County Coroner
The attorney representing Ronda Reynolds’ mother, Barbara Thompson, said he had no idea what was going on.
Royce Ferguson, designated by the coroner as “an especially interested party” to the inquest, sent an electronic letter to McLeod’s legal counsel today inquiring about the delay.
In it, Ferguson noted, state statute [3] provides that following a finding of homicide by an inquest jury, “the coroner shall issue a warrant for the arrest of the person charged, returnable forthwith to the nearest magistrate.”
“Forthwith commonly means ‘without delay’,” Ferguson wrote.
Ferguson’s inquiry didn’t get him any answers.
Coroner McLeod has said he would provide the answers a week from today in a courtroom when his inquest is “reconvened.”
That is scheduled for 9 a.m. next Friday morning in a Lewis County District Courtroom.
Prosecutor Meyer in his news release today said he has not made a charging decision in the case.
He’s spent numerous hours reviewing the case file and inquest materials and will continue to use the “methodical and diligent process” his office strives for in every case, he wrote.
But Meyer will know his answer by next Thursday, he wrote.
He will announce it at a press conference on the ground floor of the same building at 10 a.m. that day.
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Read background on the inquest, here [4]
Read state statutes regarding county coroner, here [5]
Read “Ex-trooper’s husband put on leave from school principal post” from KOMOnews.com today at 2:41 p.m., here
Read “Ruling on trooper’s death: more suspense in unprecedented case” from Crosscut.com today, here [6]