Homicide prisoner to be released from Moberly pending new trial
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Mid-Missouri prisoner will be released on bond from the Moberly Correctional Center, pending a new trial.
Charles Waddill, 54, is expected to be released on Friday, according to an email from Department of Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojman.
Waddill is being held at the Moberly Correctional Center. He pleaded guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident and evidence tampering in the 2019 killing of a pedestrian on Range Line Street in Columbia with his car.
He was sentenced to 11 years in prison but appealed the decision in January 2022 in the Boone County Circuit Court.
Judge Josh Devine ordered his conviction vacated and Waddill released from prison on the $100,000 bond he had already posted on Nov. 15, court records show. Another jury trial was ordered, records show.
Moberly Correctional Center Warden Rusty Ratliff argued in court since then that he couldn't release Waddill because Devine lacked jurisdiction to order Waddill's immediate release and that the order for the warden to "show cause" for not releasing Waddill was "inappropriate" and "premature."
Presiding Judge Brouck Jacobs signed an order for Waddill's release on Dec. 4 but the warden resisted the release. Waddill's attorney asked Jacobs to hold the warden in contempt the next day, leading Jacobs to order the warden to explain his actions.
A temporary stay order was filed on Wednesday, preventing Jacobs from taking further action.
The guilty plea was withdrawn after the court agreed to Waddill's claims of alleged denial of due process and ineffective counsel. A judgement alleges that Waddill's attorney, John Rogers, and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Nicholas Komoroski had a misunderstanding over the term "open" during their negotiations.
Court documents indicate that Rogers thought the term "open" would have been related to a sentence of "no more than seven years."
