Marshall’s attorney wants change of venue in Iowa City landlord death

IOWA CITY - The attorney for a man scheduled to be retried next month in the slaying of an Iowa City landlord in 2009 is seeking a change of venue.

According to court documents, Thomas Gaul, who is representing 25-year-old Justin Marshall, believes his client will have a better chance getting a fair trial outside of Johnson County.

'Given the nature of the trial and the pretrial publicity from the first trial where the defendant was convicted, it is safer to have the trial in a different venue,” Gaul wrote in a motion filed Tuesday.

Marshall was convicted of first-degree murder in 2013 for the Oct. 8, 2009 fatal shooting of John Versypt at the Broadway Condominiums. Authorities said Marshall intended to rob Versypt, but ended up shooting him in the head and hand. The Iowa Court of Appeals in 2015 overturned Marshall's conviction, arguing the testimony of an informant shouldn't have been permitted. The Iowa Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeals ruling, but prosecutors sought a review by the U.S. Supreme Court. In January, the Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Gaul is also seeking to suppress statements Marshall made to Iowa City police in 2012. According to his motion, Marshall went to the police station after being told he was a suspect in a forgery investigation. However, Gaul said police instead questioned Marshall about the Versypt homicide.

'During the interview ... the Defendant told police that he was done talking with them and he did not want to talk anymore,” the motion states. 'Despite this, the police continued to interrogate the Defendant and allegedly got him to make an admission that he was lying to police.”

Gaul also wants any evidence obtained through jail informants suppressed.

A ruling on the two motions has not been filed and a hearing has not yet been scheduled. Marshall is scheduled to go to trial on March 13.

l Comments: (319) 398-8238; lee.hermiston@thegazette.com