Thomas Rhodes. (photo from KQWC)
A former Iowan is being released from a Minnesota prison after spending nearly 25 years behind bars.
Sixty-three-year-old Thomas Rhodes was accused of the 1998 murder of his wife. The Minnesota Attorney General on Friday vacated Rhodes’ conviction of first- and second-degree murder for a lesser conviction of second-degree manslaughter. Rhodes was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree intentional murder after Jane Rhodes fell overboard and drowned during a nighttime boat ride on a lake at Spicer, Minnesota in July of 1998.
The new examination found that Jane Rhodes’ death was not inconsistent with an accidental fall. The Minnesota Conviction Review Unit decided the medical evidence used in the Rhodes conviction was flawed. The state says there is sufficient evidence to support Thomas Rhodes’ conviction of second-degree manslaughter. Rhodes is a native of Duncombe and graduated from Webster City high school in 1977.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)