Woman charged with murdering stepdad gets exonerated
TRENTON » A woman who was charged as an accomplice in the October 2016 slaying of her stepdad Bill Blackwell has now been exonerated of murder charges as a grand jury found no sufficient evidence connecting her with the grisly Ewing homicide.
Being jailed for 10 months on high monetary bail, Daphne Conklin Norwood, 46, was released Oct. 31 on her own recognizance days after a grand jury cleared her of murder charges and weapons offenses by dismissing those counts with a no-bill.
Norwood still faces prosecution, however, because the grand jury last month handed up an indictment charging her with fourth-degree counts of hindering another person’s apprehension and obstructing the administration of law. She could serve up to 18 months in prison if convicted on those counts.
Meanwhile, her husband Lewis Norwood, 43, remains locked up on $1 million cash bail on allegations he fired the fatal shotgun blast into Blackwell’s head about 3:10 a.m. Oct. 23, 2016, killing the 58-year-old man outside his Ewing Township home on the 200 block of Homecrest Avenue.
A Mercer County grand jury on Oct. 20 handed up an indictment charging Lewis Norwood with firstdegree murder, weapons offenses, hindering prosecution and obstructing the administration of law, according to court records.
Police originally charged Daphne Norwood with accomplice liability murder and weapons offenses in connection with the slaying of her stepdad Bill Blackwell, but the grand jury determined the state had insufficient evidence to justify prosecuting her as an accomplice.
At the time of the murder, Daphne Norwood was home in Washington, D.C., and talking on the phone with her husband two minutes before her stepfather was gunned down, prosecutors previously said.
Authorities also said cellphone records and ping data show Lewis Norwood was located in Ewing at the time of the murder and that he spoke again with his wife about 10 minutes after the slaying. He returned home to his wife in Washington, D.C., and the married couple within a week of the murder left the nation’s capital and headed further south. Alabama authorities in mid-November 2016 eventually detained the Norwoods there and both defendants were eventually extradited to New Jersey to face prosecution here.
Lewis Norwood, a parolee with a long rap sheet, “had a very tumultuous relationship with Mr. Blackwell,” Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Borgos said at Daphne Norwood’s bail hearing last year.
The homicide victim Bill Blackwell was a father and factory worker who lived on Homecrest Avenue in Ewing for more than 20 years. People who knew him described him as a quiet, private person who loved race cars. They said he was an avid bowler and a very neighborly person who used to plow snow for others on the block during the winter months. He was married to Daphne Norwood’s mom Linda M. Blackwell, who died in 2015 at the age of 62.
When authorities committed Daphne Norwood to the Mercer County Correction Center on Dec. 14, 2016, she was being held on $750,000 full bond or cash bail. Later that month, a judge lowered the monetary bail to $250,000 cash or bond. She remained held on the high monetary bail until Oct. 20, when a Superior Court judge lowered it to 10 percent of $20,000 cash bail in light of her being cleared of accomplice liability yet indicted on low-level crimes of obstruction, according to court records.
Another Superior Court judge on Halloween, however, ordered for Daphne Norwood to be released on her own recognizance as she awaits final resolution of her hindering and obstruction case. The matter can be brought to a trial and potentially end in an acquittal or conviction, or the matter can be resolved with a plea deal or with prosecutors dismissing all charges.
Public defenders Jennifer Sellitti and Kathleen Redpath-Pérez as co-counsel are representing Daphne Norwood, while Lewis Norwood is being represented by pool attorney Steven C. Lember.