Missouri Ozarks pastor charged with murder shot wife's lover at point-blank range: police

A Baptist pastor in Missouri's Ozarks was issued a $30,000 bond after spending two years in jail for allegedly shooting his wife's lover. 

Matthew Dedmon, now 49, shot 57-year-old Joe Newburn multiple times in the chest on May 28, 2022 after he allegedly spotted the other man with his wife in a car outside the Iguana Roja Restaurante in the Ozark Courthouse Square Historic District, Ozarks First reported. Dedmon had suspected Newburn was having an affair with his wife, the outlet reported.

Newburn died the next day at Cox South Hospital, the Ozark Police Department wrote in a Facebook post.

The Heritage Baptist Church pastor was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. For two years, he had been kept behind bars without bond. 

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In September 2022, Judge Laura Johnson wrote that letting Dedmon out on bond would put the public in "grave danger."

"The evidence is that Defendant possessed a loaded gun on the square in Ozark outside a busy restaurant, and that gun was discharged three to four times, resulting in the victim’s death. This put everyone on the square in grave danger," Johnson wrote in her decision, obtained by Law & Crime. "There was evidence that this conduct was out of character for Defendant, which causes concern about Defendant’s decision-making and judgment."

"The seriousness of the charge increases the risk that Defendant will not appear," she continued. "For these reasons, the Court will detain Defendant without bond."

For two years, Dedmon's attorneys and state attorneys clashed in a legal fight over a "motion to endorse" witnesses and discovery. 

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However, on Oct. 1, the judge granted Dedmon $30,000 bond, provided that he wear a GPS monitoring device and remain on house arrest. 

According to a defense filing seeking his release on bond, Dedmon's attorneys argued that the state's slowness to endorse witnesses violated their client's rights under Missouri's constitution. 

"This case has been pending for well over two years. Counsel for Defendant has worked diligently during that time to ready this case for trial. Just as Counsel for Defendant believed that depositions were concluded (as she had deposed all endorsed witnesses) and the matter was finally ready to set for trial, the State filed its motion to endorse, [redacted]," the filing read.

"The Defendant adamantly opposes this motion to endorse. However, the Defendant submits that should the Court grant the State’s motion to endorse, in whole or in part, that the Defendant should be granted release on bond due to the State’s inexcusable act of late endorsements, which if allowed, will cause an inevitable lengthy delay of the Defendant’s trial."

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Christian County Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Tuohy could not be immediately reached for comment. 

As of Wednesday morning, Christian County Jail records did not indicate that the pastor had been released. His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

The shooting victim, Newburn, had "always been the guy next door that everyone wanted to know," could "build a bike better than Schwinn" and "build a hot rod as if he some day would be in Nascar," according to his online obituary. He is survived by two children and a "host of grandkids."

Dedmon's murder trial is scheduled to begin on March 3, according to Ozarks First.