Second murder trial for Nicholas Luerkens set for March in Scott County

CEDAR RAPIDS - The second trial for Nicholas Luerkens, accused of stabbing to death his former girlfriend in a grocery store parking lot in 2015, has been set for March 19 in Scott County District Court.  

Last week, 6th Judicial District Judge Mitchell Turner granted the defense's request to move the retrial out of Linn County based on 'pervasive” pretrial publicity but he hadn't named the county or set a new trial date. The trial was originally set for December.

A jury convicted Luerkens, 35, in November 2015 in the fatal stabbing of Lynnsey Donald, 29, in the Marion Hy-Vee parking lot on April 21, 2015. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled in May that Luerkens should have a new trial because the judge should have allowed the jury to consider an insanity defense. In June, the Iowa Supreme Court declined to review that decision.

Turner ruled during the trial that the defense hadn't submitted sufficient evidence to present the insanity claim to the jury.

In his change of venue motion filed last month, Leon Spies, Luerkens' Iowa City attorney, cited extensive news and social media coverage following Luerkens' arrest, his trial and the Iowa Court of Appeals decision in May that overturned the first-degree murder conviction.

Spies also said in the motion that the press coverage created a 'presumption of prejudice but also an atmosphere of actual bias in Linn County.” There is a 'substantial likelihood” that Luerkens would not receive a fair and impartial trial in Linn County, he added.

Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden, during last week's hearing, didn't resist the motion.

Evidence at the 2015 trial, including a surveillance video of the attack, showed Luerkens stabbed Donald 32 times. He ambushed her in the parking lot as she was holding the hand of her 7-year-old son, who saw the stabbing and ran to his home. Luerkens then turned the knife on himself, saying he was going to jail and wanted to die, witnesses testified.

The defense never denied Luerkens killed Donald, only that he had diminished capacity at the time.

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