ALBANY, Ore. (Court TV) — A Linn County judge set bail at $2 million for an Oregon man accused of killing his girlfriend after a contentious bond hearing that stretched across several months and featured emotional testimony from the victim’s family.
Jerod Norman sits in court during a bond hearing on Nov. 6, 2025. (Court TV)
Jerod Lloyd Norman, charged with murdering 29-year-old Mariah Ashley-Winter King, will remain in custody unless he can post the substantial bail amount set by Judge Keith B. Stein.
The case centers on King’s death on July 18, 2024, at a residence on Nandina Street in Sweet Home, Oregon, located directly across from the police department. Norman called 911 that evening, reporting he had found King hanging in a workshop on the property, but investigators grew suspicious after discovering an unfired rifle round lodged inside her body.
The night King died
Officer Cody McPherson of the Sweet Home Police Department testified he responded to a welfare check at the residence around 9:30 p.m. on July 18, approximately 90 minutes before the 911 call. The check was initiated by King’s mother, Kimberly Lapham, who had concerns after seeing her daughter at a local marijuana dispensary earlier that day.
McPherson testified he saw Norman and a juvenile outside the residence. When he approached and asked to speak with King, Norman went inside. King refused to speak with the officer, yelling from inside a locked workshop that she didn’t need assistance.
McPherson described King as angry and erratic, cursing at him and making it clear she didn’t want him there. The officer said Norman appeared calm during the interaction, though his head was low, as if disappointed with the situation. McPherson left after three to five minutes.
At 10:48 p.m., Norman called 911. When officers returned, they found King with a rope around her neck. Norman appeared distraught, according to multiple officers who responded.
McPherson testified that Norman was very emotional and crying. He said Norman fell to the ground at one point, bawling his eyes out.
The bullet that changed everything
The investigation took a dramatic turn when medical examiners discovered a rifle cartridge that had penetrated through King’s vaginal wall and was found floating in her abdominal cavity.
Detective Sean Potter of the Sweet Home Police Department, the lead investigator, testified that when he informed Norman about the bullet during a January 13, 2025, interview, Norman immediately volunteered that it must have come from his rifle.
Norman also asked questions about the bullet’s location, including whether King had eaten it, before investigators disclosed where it was found.
Dr. Sean Hurst, Oregon’s Chief Medical Examiner, testified during an earlier session that inserting the bullet would have required a great deal of force and caused a great deal of pain. He ultimately ruled the manner of death as undetermined, neither confirming suicide nor homicide.
Kenneth Rosgen, a Linn County medical death investigator with 30 years of experience, testified that the scene was inconsistent with a typical hanging suicide. He noted the rope had no mechanism to support weight, and lividity—the pooling of blood after death—was found on King’s back rather than in her extremities as would be expected in a hanging.
Potter summarized that Rosgen’s findings indicated the scene was not consistent with a hanging suicide based on his training and experience.
A troubled relationship
Prosecutors presented evidence of domestic violence concerns in the relationship. Jeanette Taylor, an employee at the Going Green dispensary where King visited hours before her death, told investigators King appeared erratic and distraught and said things had become physical between her and Norman.
King’s toxicology report showed a blood alcohol content of 0.132, along with cannabis and Ritalin in her system.
Defense attorneys Gregory Scholl and Cameron Taylor argued King had a history of mental health struggles and suicidal ideation. They pointed to text messages showing King had threatened suicide in the past, including an incident approximately five weeks before her death.
The defense also highlighted that King had experienced a miscarriage earlier in 2024 and the death of her dog—both traumatic events that left her emotionally distraught.
Scholl questioned why Norman would leave a bullet inside King’s abdominal cavity if he was staging a suicide, arguing that such evidence would make no sense for someone trying to fake a hanging.
Potter acknowledged during cross-examination that he used deceptive interview techniques with Norman, including making statements that weren’t entirely accurate about evidence in the case—a practice he said is common in law enforcement interrogations.
Potter explained that investigators sometimes provide false information during interviews because suspects are not truthful with law enforcement.
Family fears for their safety
Three of King’s family members addressed the court, pleading with the judge to keep Norman behind bars.
King’s older sister, Micaela King, told the judge she feared for her family’s safety if Norman was released. She testified that her sister told her on multiple occasions that Norman had threatened her and that Norman had also threatened members of her family.
Kimberly Lapham provided the most detailed testimony, describing threatening text messages Norman sent her in August 2022. She read messages in which Norman threatened every member of the family, saying he knew where they were going and where they slept, and that he wanted to destroy their lives.
Lapham said her family sought a stalking order against Norman in 2022, and they were granted temporary restraining orders, though Norman successfully fought them in court.
She also told the judge that Norman listed his house for sale just six days after King’s death and moved in with a new girlfriend after the house sold. Lapham said she had been contacted by two different women who each claimed to have a child with Norman and expressed fear about his release.
Lapham testified her family had to wait an excruciating six months for law enforcement to make an arrest in the case, describing it as six months of worry, stress, and constantly looking over their shoulders.
James Bryant, the father of King’s children, also addressed the court. He testified that throughout Norman and King’s relationship, Norman trapped and manipulated her, and that she repeatedly voiced this to him.
Bryant said Norman made threats to kill King and her family in 2023, prompting a Child Protective Services investigation.
The judge’s decision
In setting bail at $2 million—double the typical starting point for murder cases in Linn County—Judge Stein cited the testimony from King’s family members.
Stein said the question was whether he believed the family’s account of what Norman said and the threats he made. The judge stated he believed them, which led him to set bail at $2 million.
Under Oregon law, bail can only be denied in murder cases if the proof is evident or the presumption is strong that the defendant is guilty. The judge’s decision to set bail, rather than deny it entirely, suggests he found the evidence substantial but not overwhelming.
Deputy District Attorney Coleen Cerda argued the state had met that burden, pointing to the bullet and the suspicious circumstances of the hanging.
Cerda noted that at approximately 9:30 p.m., King was alive with no injuries except for what her mother had reported on her neck. She argued that for King to hang herself, she would have had to shut off the lights, walk over and get the noose, put it around her neck, and do whatever was needed to hang herself.
The defense maintained Norman’s innocence, arguing his behavior was consistent with someone who discovered their partner’s suicide.
Scholl argued there was a lack of any incriminating statements or behavior from Norman. He said Norman’s statements were consistent with the tragedy of his partner’s suicide, and his actions were not consistent with those of a killer.
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