Trial starts next month for former mall guard charged in fatal Coral Ridge Mall shooting

CEDAR RAPIDS - The murder trial of Alexander Kozak, accused of fatally shooting 20-year-old Andrea Farrington last summer inside the Coral Ridge Mall, is on track to start April 12 in Story County District Court.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Christopher Bruns had a pretrial hearing with attorneys Friday to go over remaining issues before pretrial trial, moved out of Johnson County last year due to pretrial publicity, is expected to last more than two weeks.

Kozak, 22, of North Liberty, charged with first-degree murder, is accused of shooting Andrea Farrington, 20, three times in the back on June 12, 2015, as she was working at the Iowa Children's Museum information desk.

Police haven't revealed a motive. But a civil suit filed in January against the mall and security company that employed Kozak as a guard asserts Kozak harassed and threatened Farrington before the shooting.

Court documents show Kozak told police after being arrested that she broke up with him that day; but no one has confirmed the two had any relationship.

The civil suit says Farrington complained to the security company about Kozak harassing and physically threatening her. He had access to her phone number because the company had it on file, the suit says.

The company instructed Kozak to stay away from her and assigned him to a different patrol area of the mall, according to the suit, but Kozak didn't comply.

Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said Friday there were no problems to report with the state's experts from the Iowa Medical Classification Center who evaluated Kozak, as requested by the state and ordered by Judge Bruns. Kozak is claiming diminished capacity or responsibility. Lyness said one expert already has a preliminary report on his findings and another evaluated Kozak Friday morning.

Bruns previously set strict deadlines for the evaluations to ensure the trial remains on track.

According to a motion filed Thursday by Lyness, she argues one of the defense's experts, William Logan, was unable to diagnose Kozak with a mental illness. She argues the expert's opinion is 'irrelevant” because there's no finding of a mental condition to make a diminished capacity claim.

Lyness also states in the motion that the other expert, Andrew High, a communications studies professor, can't testify about Kozak's mental condition and it would also be 'irrelevant.”

Bruns didn't rule on this motion yet because defense attorney Alfredo Parrish hasn't filed a response. Bruns also asked Lyness to provide more case law to back up her argument.

The attorneys told the judge that Farrington's family members who may testify during the trial will be allowed to sit through the entire trial. Typically, any witnesses aren't allowed to sit in the gallery during the trial until after they have testified.

Parrish said he may call those same witnesses to testify.

There also was discussion about whether the playing of surveillance videos and audio recordings of Kozak's police interviews by the jurors during deliberations, if they choose, would be limited. Those exhibits would be evidence and usually jurors are allowed to review those in reaching a verdict.

Bruns said he would rule on that later.