Judge won’t allow Renick lawyer to depose Boone County prosecutors
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Boone County judge won't let the attorney for Lynlee Renick to question a Boone County prosecutor handling the case of a key witness.
Judge Kevin Crane denied the request to interview a Boone County assistant prosecutor about any potential deals made between it and Brandon Blackwell. Crane said Renick's attorney, Tim Hesemann, did not need to bring in the prosecutor for a deposition, but could question the existence of any agreement between Blackwell and law enforcement during trial.
Blackwell is a major part of the Missouri State Highway Patrol's case against Lynlee Renick, who is accused of killing her husband Ben Renick in 2017 at their Montgomery County farm. The patrol interviewed Blackwell in January 2020, who said Lynlee Renick confessed to him years earlier that she killed Ben. Blackwell said he and Lynlee Renick were romantically involved with one another during her marriage to Ben and even had a child together.
Blackwell faces his own criminal case in Boone County. Prosecutors charged him with violating a protection order that Lynlee Renick took out against him in 2019. Hesemann pointed out that Blackwell was in jail without bond until three days after he spoke with the patrol about the Renick case. Both sides of that case agreed to let him out on bond with several conditions following his interview.
Both assistant attorney general Kevin Zoellner and assistant Boone County prosecutor Jennifer Rodewald said they had made no deals with Blackwell to testify in Renick's case in exchange for a favorable treatment in his criminal case. Blackwell's attorney Jeff Hilbrenner told ABC 17 News he could not comment.
Hesemann also asked the court to get a hold of medical records Blackwell filed in his criminal case concerning a "traumatic brain injury" he suffered in September 2019. The letter he wrote to the court said the injury made it difficult for him to remember events in the short term. Crane said Hesemann would need to petition the judge in that case to get the records.
Crane said he still planned to set a trial August date for the Renick case. A jury will come from Clay County to hear the case in Boone County. Whiel Zoellner said he expects the trial to last three days, Hesemann expected it to last a week. Hesemann asked the judge consider delaying the trial past August as he continues to review evidence.
