Videos appear to show Travis Standlee fighting with man he’s accused of killing

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jurors in Travis Standlee's murder trial saw surveillance videos Friday that contradict his story to police that he doesn't remember getting in a fight with Raymond Ursino the night prosecutors say he strangled the man to death outside a downtown church.

Standlee, 44, is on trial this week in the first of two first-degree murder trials he faces. He is accused of killing Ursino, 56, on Sept. 5, 2015, and then Sharon Mead, 41, whose body was found Sept. 11 near Coe College. That trial is separate and set to begin in August

In a recorded police interview played for jurors, Standlee told an investigator he didn't know Ursino and didn't remember getting in a fight with him.

But other videos taken from surveillance cameras show a different story.

In one, men authorities identify as Ursino and Standlee are seen walking together. Then Standlee seems to be following Ursino. Both end up in the parking lot of the First Presbyterian Church, 310 Fifth St. SE., about 3 a.m.

The men look as if they get into a fight and fall to the ground. But only Standlee gets up about 28 minutes later and walks away.

The video is dark and trees obstruct the view of the fight, but both men can be made out by their specific hats — Ursino in a white ball cap and Standlee in an orange ball cap. And Standlee is carrying a guitar with its neck hanging close to the ground, which is how he told police he always carried it.

Cedar Rapids police investigator Nick Nolte, during the recorded interview Sept. 9, repeatedly asked Standlee if he got into a fight that night but Standlee denied it, even displaying his hands and arms and saying he didn't have any injuries.

'Surely, I didn't blackout,' he said in the interview. 'I don't remember a fight.'

But Standlee said he drank a lot that night — mostly beer and vodka.

At one point in the interview, he grew impatient.

'You're scaring me, sir,' Standlee said. 'Who was I fighting?'

Nolte continued asking if he remembered fighting by a church, and if the fight was over money or alcohol.

Standlee said he remembered a man attempting to steal his money while at a downtown bench, where he was playing his guitar earlier. He said he put the man in a headlock until the man gave up the money and then released him. There was also another man with him, Standlee said.

In the interview, Nolte showed him photos of Ursino and of the two of them at a convenience store and walking through an alley.

Standlee said he didn't remember and wouldn't have had time to get in a fight.

He said he walked to the DoubleTree by Hilton to catch a cab to a motel, but couldn't recall the name.

One of the surveillance videos shows Standlee walking to the DoubleTree after the fight.

In earlier testimony, Century Cab driver Joseph Wolf said he saw a man carrying a guitar case near Bricks Bar & Grill and the Cedar River Trail. It struck him as unusual, he said, because he had never seen anyone 'carrying something like that' so early in the morning.

Wolf testified he then got a call for a fare at the DoubleTree. The customer was the man he had seen earlier with the guitar, Wolf said.

The cab fare to the Aspen Inn was $14, which Standlee argued about, saying he had only $10. Wolf said he accepted it without a fight because Standlee was drunk.

The prosecution wraps up its case Monday and the defense will start.