Jackson County District Attorney Patrick Green, left, speaks in Circuit Court. (Rogue Valley Times file photo)

District Attorney Patrick Green says no increase compared to recent years; ‘Ideally, the number would be zero in any given year’

A Medford man who assaulted an acquaintance May 7 in Hawthorne Park was sentenced Friday, bringing his case to an end, while two men facing murder charges had their cases pushed out another month or more.

William Kyle Triplett, 38, was sentenced to 70 months prison on Friday after changing an initial “not guilty” plea, on charges of first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and felon in possession of a firearm, to “not contest.”

Triplett was walking with a woman in Hawthorne Park on May 7, according to court records, when a man approached the pair and asked the woman, identified as the man’s girlfriend, to leave. Triplett and the man got into a verbal altercation that escalated into a shooting.

Triplett, who has extensive facial tattoos, was identified within minutes and indicted May 14 by the Jackson County Grand Jury. Triplett was also sentenced Thursday to three years’ post-prison supervision and informed that, if his victim dies within a year, he would be charged with murder.

Two cases on the docket for Jackson County Circuit Court on Monday involved two of a number of recent months’ murder cases.

Phoenix murder case

In one recent case, 60-year-old Eagle Point resident William Irvin Hastings was arrested June 6 on charges of second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse after a welfare check on Phoenix resident Julie Preston Hastings evolved into a suspicious death investigation. Court records show the pair were married in September 2023 and that the wife filed for divorce in May.

Court records show a court appearance for Hastings set for Monday afternoon was rescheduled to July 11.

Central Point murder case
William Carl Frombach, arrested on Veterans Day after police accused him of fatally shooting another man and critically injuring a Central Point woman, was due in court on Monday, but his case was continued to Aug. 25. 

Frombach, 46, was arrested by Central Point police Nov. 8, after he fled the South 4th Street home of his first victim, Devery Allen Bynum. He then allegedly shot and critically injured Central Point resident Elizabeth Hadley, who family members say still faces a long recovery. 

Frombach was indicted Nov. 14 on charges of second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree aggravated animal abuse with a firearm, and felon in possession of a firearm.

The cases involving Hastings and Frombach are part of five cases related to murder investigations that have occurred since late 2024.

Three cases that occurred over the past two weeks included Hastings; the June 5 arrest of Prospect resident Chad McPherson, charged with the murder of 47-year-old JR Antony Montelone III; and a case involving two teens involved in the death of a 26-year-old man in the Wilson Elementary School parking lot June 7.

In a fourth murder for 2025, Medford resident Rory Pomeroy died after he was found in the Lowe’s Home Improvement store parking lot along Crater Lake Avenue with traumatic injuries April 25. Christopher Shane Boyce faces charges of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter and is due in court Nov. 24.

DA Green comments

Jackson County District Attorney Patrick Green said despite a seeming uptick in violent crimes, recent crime statistics are not out of the ordinary.

“Ideally, the number would be zero in any given year, of course, but I don’t believe the last week is a sign of a new uptick in violent crime,” Green told the Rogue Valley Times last week.

“We had four murder cases in 2024. We have four so far this year. In 2022 and 2023, we had six each, which was still down from the three years prior to that in 2019, 2020, and 2021, where we had 7, 9, and 10 murders, respectively.”

Green applauded law enforcement for quick apprehension of suspects in recent cases, noting, “The public should also rest assured that we have great law enforcement agencies who — like in this last week — do a great job of solving these cases and making an arrest quickly so there is no further threat to the community.”

2023 murder case dismissed due to death of suspect

In a murder trial set for June 2, the case involving the rural Applegate killing of Jason Marc Kinney, 53, in April 2023 was dismissed due to the death of the man charged with Kinney’s death.

The Jackson County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that Michael Wayne Ray died June 4 at Providence Medford Medical Center. Ray had been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and was on hospice care at the time of his death.

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or buffy.pollock@rv-times.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal.