Appeals court upholds Cedar Rapids man’s 3 convictions for killing his family

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the three first-degree murder convictions of Alexander Ken Jackson, 24, of Cedar Rapids, who killed his parents and sister on June 15, 2021.

Jackson, convicted of fatally shooting his father, Jan Jackson, 61, mother Melissa Jackson, 68, and sister Sabrina, 19, appealed his convictions — which carry life sentences — for lack of sufficient evidence to prove he was the killer, denial of a requested jury instructions and evidentiary rulings during trial.

The appeals judges found the evidence presented by the prosecution was sufficient to identify Jackson as the shooter. They considered the evidence that the murder weapon belonged to the family and the process to load the gun was unusual enough that a trained firearms police officer had to look up the instructions on the internet.

The appeals court also cited how the shooter would have to reload the gun several times for the number of gunshot wounds to each victim; that Jackson’s palm prints were found on the gun and that the gun’s storage box was found under Jackson’s bed.

Jackson’s story about an intruder being the shooter also wasn’t plausible because he had no defensive wounds, nothing was disturbed in the house and there was no sign of forced entry.

“From this evidence, the jury could conclude the killer was not a random intruder who found a gun with an unusual loading mechanism inside the home, knew how to load the gun, decided to shoot three of the four Jackson family members in the head, but did not search the house for valuables,” the court stated in the ruling.

The court also rejected the other arguments, but did say the trial judge shouldn’t have admitted officer testimony about what neighbors and construction workers said they saw because it was hearsay. However, the court concluded no prejudice resulted from it, given the other evidence properly admitted, the limited instruction to the jury and the “overwhelming evidence of Jackson’s guilt.”

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