Pastor charged with first-degree murder of man tracked down at restaurant and shot over affair with wife just got a chance to get out of jail on $30,000 bond

Matthew Dedmon, Joe Newburn

Left: Matthew Dedmon (Christian County Jail). Right: Joe Newburn (Facebook).

A Baptist pastor turned accused killer who’s been behind bars in Christian County, Missouri, for more than two years without heading to trial was issued a $30,000 bond, giving him a golden opportunity to get out of jail in a first-degree murder case.

The Ozark Police Department has said that Matthew Lynn Dedmon, a now 49-year-old from Springfield, on the afternoon of May 28, 2022, shot 57-year-old Joe Newburn multiple times in the chest on the 100 block of West Church Street after he allegedly spotted his wife with the victim at a restaurant in the Ozark Courthouse Square Historic District and violently lashed out over an affair, leading to Newburn’s death the next day at Cox South Hospital.

After Newburn’s death, Dedmon was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action and kept in jail without bond for more than two years as the case was bogged down by a discovery battle and a lingering fight over a “motion to endorse” witnesses to testify at trial.

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