Iowa Supreme Court upholds Gathercole conviction

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Iowa Supreme Court, in a ruling released Friday, upheld the conviction of a Cedar Rapids man found guilty of attempted murder and robbery who appealed partly because of a news story's errors.

In May 2014, Theodore Gathercole was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the June 2013 attempted murder and robbery of Frederick Rottmiller. Gathercole had been found guilty of stabbing Rottmiller in the abdomen, front and back of his neck and one eye.

According to the 22-page Iowa Supreme Court ruling, during the trial The Gazette published an article online that contained inaccurate information about evidence presented at trial. Gathercole's defense moved for a mistrial or a poll of the jury to determine their exposure to the article. The state resisted the motion and the court agreed, finding the article did not prejudice Gathercole, that the inaccuracy appeared in the text of the article, not a headline; and that the jury was admonished daily to avoid media accounts.

Gathercole appealed his conviction on the basis of insufficient evidence and also argued the district court should have declared a mistrial. The Iowa Court of Appeals upheld his conviction.

The Supreme Court, which reviewed only the mid-trial news account issue, let the appeals court decision stand.