Marion man to serve 10 years in beating death of Hiawatha man

A Marion man was sentenced Tuesday in Linn County District Court to 10 years in prison for beating to death Daniel Meade, who he described as a close friend.

“I want to express my deepest sorrow and sympathy,” Polley said before a judge pronounced his sentence. “He was a close friend of ours. This was a freak accident and no true harm was intended.”

Meade's daughter, Lindsey, 17, said in an emotional victim's impact statement how the death of her father has changed her life forever.

She pictured running into his arms for a “big bear hug” when she graduated from high school and then thought of how she would go off to Coe College and follow in his footsteps.

“I fantasized about my wedding day as he walked me down the aisle,” Lindsey Meade said. “He was my childhood hero.”

That hero is gone now and none of those things will happen because of “what Kim Polley did that night,” Lindsey Meade said. “Nothing will ever be the same.”

Kim Polley, 42, pleaded guilty last month to voluntary manslaughter in the death of Daniel Meade, 50, of Hiawatha, in December 2008. He was charged with second-degree murder but reached a plea agreement with the Linn County Attorney's Office the morning the trial was to begin.

Polley was also ordered to pay $150,000 to Lindsey and $24,061 in pecuniary damages, which covers medical expenses for Meade. Meade didn't have a will at the time of his death and Lindsey is his only child.

Former Linn County Attorney Harold Denton, who is now retired, said after the pleading in June that testimony at trial would have shown Polley hit Meade with his fists an unknown number of times and ruptured Meade's two vertebral arteries in his neck.

Interim Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden, who handled the sentencing, said Meade died from blunt force trauma but there was no evidence that Polley intended to kill Meade.

Vander Sanden said it was unclear why the Polley attacked Meade that night.

Polley didn't explain what happened that night but said he indulged in casual drinking that night and said he had a drinking problem and had entered a program in jail.

“My first step to recovery is humiliation,” Polley said. “I hope to mend my sinful ways. I'm humbling myself…. and I'm very sorry. I ask for forgiveness.”