What is up with the Johnson County Attorney's office? They seem to have bungled a number of cases over the years:
The Iowa Court of Appeals has overturned the first-degree murder conviction of Justin A. Marshall, accused of shooting landlord John Versypt in 2009 in Iowa City.
The court found, in a 46-page opinion released Wednesday, Marshall should have been allowed to keep the jury from hearing testimony from a jail informant working on behalf of prosecutors.
Marshall, 24, was convicted Feb. 6, 2013, of first-degree murder after police said he attempted to rob Versypt on Oct. 8, 2009, and ended up shooting him in the hand and head. Versypt, 64, was a landlord in the Broadway Condominium complex, now called Orchard Place, on Broadway Street in southeastern Iowa City.
The ruling is a blow to the Johnson County Attorney’s office, which bungled the 2011 prosecution of a second defendant, Charles Thompson, by showing a part of a police video a judge had said could not be used at trial. Thompson later pleaded guilty to accessory to a felony. Courtney White, 27, originally charged with murder in the case, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of tampering with witnesses or jurors.
“It’s very disappointing,” Dana Christiansen, first assistant Johnson County Attorney, said about the Appeals Court decision.
During Marshall’s trial, prosecutors said he admitted to three inmates in the Muscatine County Jail he was the gunman and had killed Versypt in a robbery gone wrong. Other witnesses corroborated facts that Marshall confessed to while in jail, prosecutors said.
One of those witnesses, Carl Johnson, was being held at the jail on federal drug charges in 2011 when Marshall was arrested in Texas and brought to Iowa to stand trial for Versypt’s death. Johnson had signed a deal with federal prosecutors to provide information on other suspects in exchange for the possibility of a lighter prison term, the opinion states.
Iowa City police “asked Johnson to provide information concerning Charles Thompson, Justin Marshall, and Courtney White,” the opinion states. “When Johnson was out of his cell ... he engaged Marshall in conversation. In the course of those conversations, Marshall told Johnson that he wanted to rob the landlord, but it went wrong and the landlord got shot.”
On appeal, Marshall’s attorney said the informants were acting as agents of the state and so Marshall should have had legal counsel when he spoke with them.
The appeals court agreed in Johnson’s case: “We determine the District Court should have granted the motion to suppress as to one of the defendants.”
Judge Thomas Bower concurred specially.
“These circumstances resulted in the functional equivalent of an interrogation by law enforcement,” Bower wrote. “For those reasons, I concur in the reversal of this matter due to my lack of confidence Marshall received a fair trial.”
The case was reversed and sent back to Johnson County District Court, which means Marshall may be retried on murder charges. However, if an appeals court opinion renders some evidence inadmissible in court, a prosecutor has discretion whether to pursue the same charges.
“This ruling, as it stands, means there was testimony that would not be available in a second trial,” Christiansen said. “That would have to be taken into account if that case comes back to us.”
The Iowa Attorney General has the option to apply to the Iowa Supreme Court for further review of the Appeals Court decision, an option being considered by the agency, Spokesman Geoff Greenwood said.
http://thegazette.com/subject/news/...viction-in-iowa-city-landlord-murder-20150610
The Iowa Court of Appeals has overturned the first-degree murder conviction of Justin A. Marshall, accused of shooting landlord John Versypt in 2009 in Iowa City.
The court found, in a 46-page opinion released Wednesday, Marshall should have been allowed to keep the jury from hearing testimony from a jail informant working on behalf of prosecutors.
Marshall, 24, was convicted Feb. 6, 2013, of first-degree murder after police said he attempted to rob Versypt on Oct. 8, 2009, and ended up shooting him in the hand and head. Versypt, 64, was a landlord in the Broadway Condominium complex, now called Orchard Place, on Broadway Street in southeastern Iowa City.
The ruling is a blow to the Johnson County Attorney’s office, which bungled the 2011 prosecution of a second defendant, Charles Thompson, by showing a part of a police video a judge had said could not be used at trial. Thompson later pleaded guilty to accessory to a felony. Courtney White, 27, originally charged with murder in the case, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of tampering with witnesses or jurors.
“It’s very disappointing,” Dana Christiansen, first assistant Johnson County Attorney, said about the Appeals Court decision.
During Marshall’s trial, prosecutors said he admitted to three inmates in the Muscatine County Jail he was the gunman and had killed Versypt in a robbery gone wrong. Other witnesses corroborated facts that Marshall confessed to while in jail, prosecutors said.
One of those witnesses, Carl Johnson, was being held at the jail on federal drug charges in 2011 when Marshall was arrested in Texas and brought to Iowa to stand trial for Versypt’s death. Johnson had signed a deal with federal prosecutors to provide information on other suspects in exchange for the possibility of a lighter prison term, the opinion states.
Iowa City police “asked Johnson to provide information concerning Charles Thompson, Justin Marshall, and Courtney White,” the opinion states. “When Johnson was out of his cell ... he engaged Marshall in conversation. In the course of those conversations, Marshall told Johnson that he wanted to rob the landlord, but it went wrong and the landlord got shot.”
On appeal, Marshall’s attorney said the informants were acting as agents of the state and so Marshall should have had legal counsel when he spoke with them.
The appeals court agreed in Johnson’s case: “We determine the District Court should have granted the motion to suppress as to one of the defendants.”
Judge Thomas Bower concurred specially.
“These circumstances resulted in the functional equivalent of an interrogation by law enforcement,” Bower wrote. “For those reasons, I concur in the reversal of this matter due to my lack of confidence Marshall received a fair trial.”
The case was reversed and sent back to Johnson County District Court, which means Marshall may be retried on murder charges. However, if an appeals court opinion renders some evidence inadmissible in court, a prosecutor has discretion whether to pursue the same charges.
“This ruling, as it stands, means there was testimony that would not be available in a second trial,” Christiansen said. “That would have to be taken into account if that case comes back to us.”
The Iowa Attorney General has the option to apply to the Iowa Supreme Court for further review of the Appeals Court decision, an option being considered by the agency, Spokesman Geoff Greenwood said.
http://thegazette.com/subject/news/...viction-in-iowa-city-landlord-murder-20150610
