A Woodville man was again sentenced to up to life in prison Thursday following the second trial in a 2013
incident in which he killed one CSX worker and seriously injured two others.
Cody Rickard, 29, was found guilty after a Wood County jury deliberated approximately 2½ hours.
He was convicted on seven counts, including one count of murder, two counts of aggravated vehicular
homicide, two counts of felonious assault and two counts of vehicular assault.
Rickard was accused of driving a white Dodge Charger at a high rate of speed through a CSX construction
site in Bradner on Oct. 28, 2013. One of the workers he struck, Paul Castle, died of his injuries two
weeks later. Two others who were hurt, Jim Conley and Lewis Knott, sustained serious injuries.
Testimony from prosecution witnesses had stated that Rickard, after the crash, exited the vehicle and
seemed almost to be in a celebratory mood. A prosecution expert said that while Rickard likely suffered
from some mental illness, he knew right and wrong at the time of the incident.
Rickard pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and testimony from defense witnesses argued that he was
suffering from schizophrenia at the time and experienced delusions.
Rickard took the stand in his own defense on Thursday and discussed his state of mind that day, including
descriptions of hallucinatory visions.
Rickard said under cross examination that he was receiving “subliminal messages” through his television
and that an evil spirit within his mother, with whom he was living, was trying to gain power over him.
At another point, he said, “the TV just starts laughing at me.”
Later that day, while he was driving his car, he said that he felt “Satan testing me.”
“I know it sounds crazy,” he said later.
“It’s crazy because it’s not accurate,” Gwen Howe-Gebers replied. Howe-Gebers, who is now the Henry
County prosecutor, returned as co-counsel, prosecuting the case with Wood County assistant prosecutor
David Romaker Jr. She prosecuted Rickard in his original 2014 trial.
He later said that while driving on Ohio 105, “God had control of the car,” and that when he reached the
construction site, he saw a man standing by warning barrels who waved him through. He said instead of a
construction site he saw a pastoral scene with no people around. Rickard said he closed his eyes, “and I
put my faith in God” and drove.
He felt the vehicle banging about, he said, but “it was like Satan was trying to get me to open my eyes
and not believe in God.”
After the crash, Rickard said he exited the car, looked to the sky and said “Thank you, God, you’re real,
you saved me.”
Rickard reportedly ran down the nearby railroad tracks following the crash.
“He knew what he had done was wrong. He was running to try and get away,” said Howe-Gebers in her closing
argument.
In his closing, defense attorney J. Scott Hicks said that testimony of the CSX workers was inconsistent,
and he questioned the placement of barricades at the construction site. He also noted that all of the
prosecution and defense experts called to testify agreed that Rickard had suffered from some degree of
mental illness.
The jury began deliberations around 1 p.m. and announced they had reached a verdict at approximately 3:30
p.m.
Rickard was found guilty on all counts. His seven charges were part of two different cases, and
sentencing proceeded on the murder and felonious assault counts, the most serious charges in each case.
Rickard was sentenced to a total of 14 years on the felonious assault charges and 15 years to life on
the murder charge, all to be served consecutively, for a total of 29 years to life in prison.
Rickard requested appellate counsel after the sentence was pronounced.
This was the second trial in the matter for Rickard, who was previously found guilty of the same charges
by a Wood County jury in a 2014 trial, and was also sentenced to 29 years to life in prison.
Last summer, the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals reversed the 2014 conviction on the grounds that the
trial court had not found Rickard was adversely affected by his then-counsel’s failure to look into the
state of his mental health at the time of the incident.
