A man charged with assisted suicide in the death of a female companion in 2014 pleaded guilty this week.
James A. Zingg, 59, was given a suspended 10-year prison sentence and two years of probation, according to a court order signed Monday in Iowa. He pleaded guilty to a charge of assisted suicide in connection with the death of Gwendolyn N. Melloway, 47, in January 2014.
Zingg was prosecuted under a seldom-used Iowa law that dates to 1996. The law makes it a felony if someone “intentionally or knowingly assists, solicits or incites” another person to commit or attempt to commit suicide. Nebraska has a similar law on its books.
Officials said Melloway died on Jan. 21, 2014, two days after making a suicide pact with Zingg, then ingesting a lethal cocktail of pills. Zingg also took pills but did not die.
Zingg, in a telephone interview later that year, disputed the characterization, saying it was Melloway’s idea to swallow pills, and he went along with it.
“I just decided, what the hell, too, because I was pretty well drunk,” he said in a 2014 interview. “She ended up passing away, and I ended up in jail.”
A current phone number for Zingg was unavailable. At the time of the incident he lived in a trailer at Keys Transport, a trucking firm alongside Interstate 29 near the unincorporated community of McPaul, about 35 miles south of Council Bluffs. Fremont County Attorney Corey Becker said he now lives in eastern Nebraska.
Melloway was a devout Catholic, said her estranged husband, Gary Melloway said in 2014. She had been taking antidepressants and was in a “fragile” state emotionally after battling colon cancer for years, but her cancer was in remission, he said. The Melloways lived in northern California.
Zingg said he and Gwendolyn Melloway met online, playing a Facebook game called Gardens of Time. She moved to western Iowa in November 2013 to live with him.
They occasionally talked about suicide and going to “another dimension” after death, but he said both were in good spirits. “Nobody was depressed that I ever saw,” Zingg said.
The suicide and attempted suicide took place the night of Jan. 18.
A friend of Zingg’s learned of what happened and called authorities.
The pair were rushed to Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs just after 3 a.m. Jan. 19 in separate ambulances. Melloway died two days later.
The Iowa Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death a suicide caused by an acute drug overdose. After an investigation, Zingg was arrested in June 2014.
Becker, the current county attorney, said he consulted with Melloway’s family before reaching a plea deal.
“They wanted him to admit he assisted in her suicide,” he said. “And by him taking a plea deal, he did.”
http://www.nonpareilonline.com/news...cle_64f09310-ccba-5ea6-99e4-c46a1e673235.html
James A. Zingg, 59, was given a suspended 10-year prison sentence and two years of probation, according to a court order signed Monday in Iowa. He pleaded guilty to a charge of assisted suicide in connection with the death of Gwendolyn N. Melloway, 47, in January 2014.
Zingg was prosecuted under a seldom-used Iowa law that dates to 1996. The law makes it a felony if someone “intentionally or knowingly assists, solicits or incites” another person to commit or attempt to commit suicide. Nebraska has a similar law on its books.
Officials said Melloway died on Jan. 21, 2014, two days after making a suicide pact with Zingg, then ingesting a lethal cocktail of pills. Zingg also took pills but did not die.
Zingg, in a telephone interview later that year, disputed the characterization, saying it was Melloway’s idea to swallow pills, and he went along with it.
“I just decided, what the hell, too, because I was pretty well drunk,” he said in a 2014 interview. “She ended up passing away, and I ended up in jail.”
A current phone number for Zingg was unavailable. At the time of the incident he lived in a trailer at Keys Transport, a trucking firm alongside Interstate 29 near the unincorporated community of McPaul, about 35 miles south of Council Bluffs. Fremont County Attorney Corey Becker said he now lives in eastern Nebraska.
Melloway was a devout Catholic, said her estranged husband, Gary Melloway said in 2014. She had been taking antidepressants and was in a “fragile” state emotionally after battling colon cancer for years, but her cancer was in remission, he said. The Melloways lived in northern California.
Zingg said he and Gwendolyn Melloway met online, playing a Facebook game called Gardens of Time. She moved to western Iowa in November 2013 to live with him.
They occasionally talked about suicide and going to “another dimension” after death, but he said both were in good spirits. “Nobody was depressed that I ever saw,” Zingg said.
The suicide and attempted suicide took place the night of Jan. 18.
A friend of Zingg’s learned of what happened and called authorities.
The pair were rushed to Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs just after 3 a.m. Jan. 19 in separate ambulances. Melloway died two days later.
The Iowa Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death a suicide caused by an acute drug overdose. After an investigation, Zingg was arrested in June 2014.
Becker, the current county attorney, said he consulted with Melloway’s family before reaching a plea deal.
“They wanted him to admit he assisted in her suicide,” he said. “And by him taking a plea deal, he did.”
http://www.nonpareilonline.com/news...cle_64f09310-ccba-5ea6-99e4-c46a1e673235.html
