Updated at 5:45 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
An attorney speaking for Ron Reynolds and his now-grown son Jonathan Reynolds said a press conference with the two men might help them clear the cloud that’s been hanging over them for almost 13 years, especially after they were named last month by an inquest jury as responsible for the homicide of former trooper Ronda Reynolds in their Toledo home.
Ron Reynolds
That will happen tomorrow in the Olympia office of Cordes Brandt, attorneys at law.
Ronda Reynolds, 33, was preparing to leave her husband of less than a year when she was found with a bullet in her head, covered up by a turned-on electric blanket on the floor of a closet in their Toledo house. It was Dec. 16, 1998.
Ron Reynolds, principal of Toledo Elementary School, told deputies his wife committed suicide. His three sons, Jonathan, then 17, David, 14, and Joshua, 10, were allowed to leave as the first deputy arrived.
Olympia lawyer Rick Cordes said Ron Reynolds will be joined by his present wife and four of his five sons tomorrow.
Cordes will make some comments and he expects Ron Reynolds to speak, to present the Reynolds’ family point of view in some fashion.
Jonathan Reynolds
“I don’t know, I know he wants to say something – we’ve not rehearsed it – I don’t know that he knows exactly what he’s going to say,” Cordes said.
The attorney said he expects Jonathan Reynolds will answer questions, but won’t offer any prepared remarks.
“Not Jon, he’s the most vulnerable, and he’s just shy,” Cordes said. “He doesn’t want to get up in front of TV cameras.”
Nobody has been charged in the death, and the Lewis County prosecutor made it clear there is not enough admissible evidence to prosecute them criminally. The jury during last month’s coroner’s inquest was able to make its findings based only on a preponderance of evidence, a lesser standard than a criminal proceeding.
Newly elected Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said he held the inquest in an attempt to settle the controversial death.
Ron Reynolds’s then-attorney said his client lost his opportunity to clear his name when sheriff’s deputies neglected to perform gunpowder residue tests on him at the scene.
Ronda Reynolds
Initially labeled by the sheriff’s office and then-Coroner Terry Wilson to be a suicide, the manner of death has been changed repeatedly over the years back and forth between undetermined and suicide as it was reinvestigated, moved through a civil suit brought by Ronda Reynolds’ mother, Barb Thompson, and finally last month was deemed by the coroner to be a homicide.
The television show 48 Hours, chronicled the events during the inquest, and expect to air their story next spring.
The case was the subject for true crime writer Ann Rule’s book last year, that put forth a theory that Jonathan Reynolds or some of his friends were responsible.
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Read the most recent story, “Breaking news: Ron, Jonathan Reynolds arrested, and released” from Friday October 28, 2011, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Why would a women that was divorcing a man and had spent the day moving her things out and getting a plane ticket to leave the area in the morning get up in the middle of the night, take her electric blanket to keep warm and her pillow into her closet to shoot herself in the head? Did she plan on taking a nap first? That doesn’t even make any kind of sense what so ever and how the sheriffs could investigate this not once but twice and come up both times with suicide is pathetic. First women don’t as a rule commit suicide by shooting themselves in the head, they take sleeping pills or something more along those lines. Second why would she take a electric blanket and a pillow with her in the closet if she planned on shooting herself and why would she not use her own gun and where’s the suicide note???? It sounds more like she was awoke in the middle of the night and used the blanket to cover herself and was put in the closet and the pillow was used to help muffle the shooting of the gun. I find it really hard to believe her so called husband didn’t hear a gun shot just a few feet away from him either…nobody is that sound of sleeper. Sounds like the sheriffs must be very poorly trained and really shouldn’t be investigating something as serious as a murder case if they really believe what their saying could of ever happened and this has been going on for thirteen years at the expense of the taxpayers and even worst is the message it is sending to the creep that took her life.
Jonathan use to plague his ex girlfriends life with scenes at her work, in public etc. She was also scared to death of him. He was so bad that she had to leave state and go far far away to escape his wrath. Alot of people saw many of those moments. He wasnt shy then. And she is still gone.
How can they have the nerve to try to act so innocent when so many people that knew them believe so strongly that they murdered Ronda?
excuse me, Jon is not going to speak because hes shy. So thats why he is going into the singing biz. He gets in front of people and sings. He wants to be a entertainer???? SHY yes. and Rons attorny would not let him talk with out rehearsed it first. Same thing as always, they think we are so stupied.I know Jon has never been shy about verbally threating people when he dosnt get hisway.
Both Reynolds men could have told their side of the story if they had showed up in court and given evidence under oath. Insted they decided to take the 5th, during both civil hearings, and not give their so called side of the story.
Now they want to meet with the media in a lawyers officer and get this little missunderstanding taken care of… go figure.