Rogers man wins acquittal in death
Jurors in 2015 capital-murder case return with verdict after 12 hours
Cody Wade Wise of Rogers was acquitted on Thursday of capital murder in the 2015 shooting death of Ronald Lee Kultgen Sr. of Garfield.
A jury in Madison County Circuit Court in Huntsville deliberated about 12 hours before returning with the verdict, said Drew Ledbetter of Fayetteville, Wise’s attorney.
“He was found not guilty,” Ledbetter said. “He was acquitted, and he’s free.”
The jury wasn’t given an option to find Wise guilty of a lesser crime, such as first-degree murder.
“I’m disappointed in the verdict, but not in the jury’s effort,” said Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Durrett. “They clearly took their job seriously. They spent nearly 12 hours deliberating the evidence, so I appreciate their work and thank them for their service this week.”
During jury selection Monday, Ledbetter said another man had committed the crime.
“I’m going to tell this jury panel Daniel Phillips committed this murder,” Ledbetter said while interviewing a potential juror. “I just want you to know the facts that are coming.”
Phillips wasn’t charged in the case. When questioned during the investigation, Phillips told police Wise was
like a brother to him.
Wise’s trial began late Monday and concluded at midafternoon Wednesday.
After the jury returned with the verdict Thursday, Ledbetter said Wise and Kultgen were together the night of the slaying but that Wise didn’t kill Kultgen.
“Cody and Ronnie were in a car together riding from Rogers to Clifty in the early morning hours of April 15, 2015,” Ledbetter said. “There’s no dispute that they were driving together, but Cody didn’t kill him once they got there.”
Ledbetter said it wasn’t the jury’s job to decide what happened to Kultgen.
“I don’t know if the jury decided what happened to Ronnie, and it was not their job to decide what happened to Ronnie, but I’m glad they decided Cody Wise did not kill Ronnie,” Ledbetter said.
Kultgen, 53, had been missing for about four months when his body was found Aug. 29, 2015, in a rural area near Clifty, which is in Madison County.
Witnesses said they saw Kultgen getting into a car with Wise, then 27, and Chasity Humphries on April 15, 2015, according to an affidavit from Hunter Petray, a detective with the Benton County sheriff’s office.
“One of the witnesses stated that shortly after Ronald left in the vehicle, she received an incoming call from him on Cody Wise’s cell phone number,” according to the affidavit. “That witness stated that this was approximately 3:15 a.m. and that Ronald told her to get out of the house, and that things were going to get hot.”
Wise shot Kultgen in the head, causing his death, according to the charging document. Wise’s actions were premeditated and deliberate, according to the court document. Premeditation and deliberation are two of the requirements under Arkansas Code Annotated 5-10-101 for a conviction of capital murder.
Ledbetter said Kultgen had been shot twice in the head with a .22-caliber Beretta Bobcat pistol that belonged to Kultgen. Ledbetter said the murder weapon was never found.
“During the course of this investigation, several witnesses have come forward to state that Cody Wise informed them directly that he had killed Ronald Kultgen,” according to the affidavit. “Two of those witnesses stated that Cody Wise also informed them that he killed Ronald Kultgen with the help of Daniel Phillips and that the body was located on [Phillips] family land near Clifty. One of the witnesses stated that Cody told her that he and Daniel had both shot Ronald Kultgen.”
Ledbetter said Kultgen’s body was actually found on land adjacent to the Phillips family property.
Ledbetter said there were no eyewitnesses to the slaying.
He said prosecutors didn’t have a clear theory on what the motive would have been for Wise to kill Kultgen.
Ledbetter said the case dragged on so long because Wise came down with a life-threatening staph infection while in jail on an unrelated drug charge in 2015, and he was hospitalized at UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock for several months after being charged in the murder case.