The state will be dismissing murder charges filed against Rocky Dodson, due to a major shift in the confidence level attached to information provided from certain sources during the investigation. The charges are being dismissed in a way that will allow the state to refile them if circumstances change.
The 53-year-old Dodson, a former high school principal and head basketball coach at Omaha, is accused of killing his then 36-year-old wife, Amanda, in early March 2022.
The oft-delayed jury trial was set for July 1 in the Boone County Courthouse in Harrison.
14th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge said information initially obtained from the state Medical Examiners’ Office, for example, made prosecutors feel confident that the victim had not died from any type of accident.
Recent discussions with Medical Examiner’s staff and others involved in the case caused prosecutors to be much less confident as to what led to Amanda Dodson’s death, as compared to the initial information provided in the early days of the investigation.
Ethredge said the testimony from the ME’s office was key to the case and if that testimony could not provide a cause of death with certainty, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for a jury to convict.
Dodson’s attorney, Shane Wilkinson of Bentonville, recently filed a 17-page motion to suppress evidence in which he wrote, “the simplest and most likely explanation for Amanda Dodson’s death is that she was extremely intoxicated and fell down and struck her throat on some object such as a countertop.”
The defense attorney points out that while the probable cause affidavit says the injury to Amanda Dodson could only have been caused by her husband, the evidence did not support that theory.
Wilkinson wrote that “there is no way to reach the conclusion that Rocky Dodson inflicted the injury without restoring to unconstitutional speculation and conjecture.” He said the information currently available does not even show beyond a reasonable doubt that a murder occurred.
The defense attorney said at the time the probable cause affidavit was presented to a judge to approve the issuance of a search warrant, the toxicology report on the victim was not available.
When it was completed, the report showed Amanda Dodson had a blood alcohol level of 0.468 at the time of her death which is potentially fatal.
Wilkinson said if all of the information had been placed in the affidavit, “there would have been no probable cause to issue an arrest warrant for Rocky Dodson or to issue any search warrants.”
Instead, Wilkinson writes, the full evidence shows that Amanda Dodson was a chronic alcoholic who suffered an unexplained throat injury while she was severely intoxicated.
The defense attorney concludes, “to make the leap that Rocky Dodson murdered his wife defies logic and renders the text of the Fourth Amendment mere wallpaper.”
Wilkinson wrote “the mere possibility or suspicion that Rocky Dodson struck his wife is not a lawful basis for his arrest and for the subsequent searches.” In his suppression motion, Wilkinson claims there is nothing to show Amanda Dodson’s injury had to be caused by a human agent.
MURDER REPORTED
Boone County sheriff’s deputies were called to the Dodson residence along Stonegate Drive in Omaha March 6, 2022, and discovered Amanda Dodson’s body on the living room floor.
Amanda Christine Dodson was born in Mountain Home and held jobs in the Omaha and Cotter School Districts.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the woman’s body “displayed severe bruising on the legs, arms and areas of the upper torso.”
Rocky Dodson contacted 911. He claimed he discovered his wife deceased when he woke up about 9 a.m.
He told investigators his wife had returned home in the early morning hours of March 6. He said he had let her into the house, put her on a couch and gone to the couple’s bedroom.
He did admit that he was the only one in the house with his wife at the time of her death. In a summary of the evidence, an investigator opined that, “Rocky Dodson was the only person present who had the ability to inflict the blow on Amanda Dodson that caused her death.”
Wilkinson said that statement showed the investigator was focused on murder and disregarding any other possibility such as a fall.
MEDICAL EXAMINERS’S REPORT
The woman’s body was sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office. The doctor who conducted the autopsy initially reported she had “found external bruising and hemorrhaging at the front of the neck, severe edema (swelling) completely through the neck muscles in the area of the Adam’s apple as well as fractured, broken and crushed tracheal cartilage.”
The doctor said in her opinion the blow to the neck would have immediately caused the victim what was described as “severe distress.”
She said the injuries would have led the victim to have significant breathing problems due to a reduction in the intake of oxygen.
In addition, the injuries would have “caused the victim to wheeze, cough or gurgle.”
The doctor said anyone present at the scene should have been aware that the victim was in serious distress, but Rocky Dodson did not mention to investigator that he had noted his wife in any distress.
The doctor said, in her professional opinion, the injuries suffered by Amanda Dodson resulted from “blunt force” trauma.
Dodson, who has been free on a $250,000 bond, has consistently denied that he was responsible for his wife’s death.
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