Judge excludes some statements Megan Staude’s father made about dumping newborn in ditch

WARREN COUNTY, Iowa — A preliminary ruling by the judge in Megan Staude’s murder trial means some statements made by her father, who is also charged with murder, won’t be admissible as evidence.

Megan Staude, 26, and Rodney Staude, 66, are each charged with first-degree murder in the death of Megan’s newborn son. Investigators say Megan admitted to giving birth to the baby in the family’s Norwalk home on February 24, 2023. Court documents claim Megan put the baby in a box and didn’t care for him for two days, despite hearing the child crying.

Megan allegedly told police the baby was still alive on February 26, 2023, when she and Rodney put the child in a trash bag. Online court records say Rodney admitted to discarding the bag in a ditch south of Norwalk. The newborn’s body was discovered on March 9th, a day after an acquaintance to the Staudes tipped Norwalk Police off about the situation.

Megan’s attorney filed a motion in Limine in February, seeking to exclude statements Rodney made as hearsay. The statements were made to Tammy Wardell, a QuikTrip employee, during two visits to the store on February 26, 2023. That’s the same day Rodney allegedly dumped the baby’s body in a ditch. Those statements were relayed during Wardell’s deposition.

According to Judge Charles C. Sinnard’s ruling, Rodney and Wardell would often talk when he stopped at QuikTrip. During Rodney’s first visit around 3:30 a.m. on February 26, 2023, he allegedly told Wardell his daughter had the baby and was not sure what she was going to do but had thought about leaving the baby in a ditch somewhere.

Wardell told him not to do that and to bring the baby to her because she worked at a safe place, and she would call someone who would take the baby with no questions asked. She also offered to take the baby to the fire department, but it seemed Rodney shrugged the suggestion off.

Rodney returned to the store about two hours later and the ruling says he admitted to Wardell, “We took him to the middle of nowhere, and we left him.” He then asked Wardell to keep that information to herself because he didn’t want to get in trouble with law enforcement.

Judge Sinnard determined Rodney’s statements to Wardell were not made in an attempt to further the conspiracy of the crime, he was confiding in someone he spoke to often.

“It was only after he had told her what they had done, which would, in fact, increase the risk that the crime would be discovered, that he asked her not to say anything. The statements about committing a crime without seeking Wardell’s knowing or unknowing assistance in the conspiracy cannot be said to be in furtherance of the conspiracy,” stated Judge Sinnard in his ruling.

The judge said if the State could provide more facts to show the statements were made in furtherance of the conspiracy at trial, he would reconsider admitting them.

At a pretrial conference held Monday, Judge Sinnard confirmed Megan’s trial start date for July 8. The trial has been moved to Black Hawk County because of pretrial publicity.

Megan and Rodney’s cases were severed, and Rodney’s trial remains on hold after he was ruled incompetent to stand trial in February of 2024. He is being evaluated and is receiving treatment to restore his competency so he can face the charge against him.

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