For most of the past year, 5th District Judge Barry Wood has presided over hearings leading up to this winter's murder trial in which a jury of Ada County residents will determine if Bellevue teen Sarah M. Johnson is guilty of slaying her parents on Sept. 2, 2003.
He will not determine Johnson's guilt or innocence in the trial, but he has the monopoly on law in the courtroom, and his decisions will shape the proceedings over the next six to eight weeks. If the jury finds Johnson guilty, Wood will also determine her sentence.
Wood, whose office is in the 5th District Courthouse in Gooding, took over as presiding judge on the Johnson case when 5th District Judge James May retired last winter. Wood has 18 years of experience on the bench in Idaho and has twice been elected to serve as administrative district judge for the 5th Judicial District.
Born in Nampa and raised in Homedale, where his parents farmed and ranched, he graduated from Homedale High School in 1969. In 1973, Wood graduated from the University of Wyoming with a degree in accounting, and then from the University of Idaho's College of Law in 1976.
After law school, he worked in private practice in Homedale and Caldwell for 10 years before becoming a magistrate judge in Lincoln County in 1987.
In January 1995, Wood became a district judge for Gooding, Jerome and Lincoln counties and moved his home from Lincoln to Gooding County. The other district judges first elected him to serve as the administrative district judge in September 1996. He served in that capacity until December 2000.
In January 1999, the Idaho Supreme Court appointed Judge Wood to serve as the presiding judge of the Snake River Basin Adjudication until December 2000 when he returned to the trial bench in Gooding, Jerome and Lincoln counties.
He was elected again to serve as administrative district judge in September 2003.
