Defendant in Cedar Rapids homeless murder says his rights were violated

CEDAR RAPIDS - Travis Standlee, convicted in June of killing a man, told a judge Monday he didn't think he had a choice but to talk with an investigator who questioned him last year at a homeless shelter about a second murder charge he now faces.

Standlee testified during the hearing that he didn't know Jeff Holst, a Cedar Rapids police investigator, was audio recording the interview on Sept. 16 and 22, 2015, and he didn't believe Holst would have allowed him to leave an office area at the Des Moines shelter.

Holst testified that Standlee wasn't read his Miranda rights because he wasn't in custody or arrested until after a second interview. Holst said Standlee voluntarily talked with him both times, and his recording device was in plain sight.

Standlee, 44, is asking the court to keep out statements he made during those interviews about victim Sharon Mead because he wasn't read his rights and didn't have a lawyer present.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Patrick Grady didn't make a ruling Monday. He will file a written ruling later.

Standlee, charged with first-degree murder, is accused of strangling to death Mead, 41, whose body was found Sept. 11, 2015, by a bus stop near Coe College.

Standlee also was charged with first-degree murder in the strangulation of Raymond Ursino, 56, on Sept. 5, 2015. He was convicted in early June by a jury of second-degree murder. He faces up to 50 years in prison on that verdict.

A criminal complaint shows both Ursino and Mead had been strangled and had 'strikingly similar injuries.” The complaint also shows investigators found finger prints on a can near Mead's body.

Standlee, who had been staying at the Des Moines shelter on and off for a few months before he was arrested, acknowledged during the hearing that he denied being under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he talked to the investigators on Sept. 16, but that he had been drinking vodka that day.

He also said he understood the questions, even if he wasn't 'clear headed,” and he assumed Holst was recording the interview.

Standlee said he wanted to tell Holst whatever Holst wanted to hear in the first interview because he thought he was going to be charged with Ursino's death and he didn't want to go to jail.

Holst testified he told Standlee he could leave at any time in the first interview. He said he even let Standlee go to the bathroom and didn't follow him. Standlee was 'friendly and talkative” during the interview.

During a second interview, Standlee was still friendly until they got into the details, Holst said. Then Standlee became upset.

Holst showed Standlee photos of himself and Mead together on the night of her death.

He said he arrested Standlee in connection with both deaths after the second interview.

Judge Grady granted Standlee's motion to move this second murder trial out of Linn County based on pretrial publicity from his previous trial. The second one is set for Oct. 24 in Scott County District Court.