Lasley trial begins with grisly descriptions of double murder with homemade machete

CEDAR RAPIDS - Gordon Lasley Jr. used a 3-foot homemade machete to stab and cut his parents to death on Feb. 5, a prosecutor told a jury in his opening statement Monday.

Lasley Jr. first struck his father Gordon Lasley Sr. in the living room. He stabbed his skull on the left side, behind his left ear and down into the spinal cord, also causing a wound to his upper arm, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Morfitt said.

Lasley Jr. then pursued his mother Kim Lasley who ran into the basement, trying to escape downward because her son was blocking the entrance upstairs.

Morfitt said Kim Lasley was struck six or seven times. Her son stabbed her in the chest, deep into her right shoulder - touching a lung, a stab wound to her upper right arm and wounds to her cheek.

Lasley Jr., 26, a member of the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The trial is expected to last nearly three weeks in U.S. District Court. The prosecution continues its case 9 a.m. Tuesday U.S. District Court. Jill Johnston, Lasley's attorney, said in her opening this was a 'story of a young man who did something unexplainable.” He was a 'victim who was attacked by a mental illness.”

Lasley's delusions and psychosis got the 'better of him,” Johnston said. A few short hours before the attack Lasley seemed happy. His girlfriend and their three children were over at his parents, where Lasley lived, and they were watching television and were smoking marijuana.

Johnston said Lasley wasn't violent or aggressive when smoking. It calmed him and made him 'mellow.” He had stopped drinking alcohol, which did make had made aggressive or violent in the past.

Johnston said Lasley's girlfriend left one their daughters with him that night and then received a call from him about 9:18 p.m. and he told her he killed his parents. At first, she didn't know what to think.

'She doesn't know if it's a sick joke or what,” Johnston said.

Lasley then went over to his brother's house and he acts 'strangely, paces in the kitchen,” Johnston said. He wasn't wearing any shoes or socks and despite the cold outside. Lasley continues to act strange and 'emotionless” after his arrest. He doesn't even tell police about the serious cuts on his hand, which had to be treated with surgery.

Johnston said the jurors would hear testimony from two psychologists who would say Lasley was psychotic and that he couldn't appreciate his actions that night. 'He was victim of a severe mental illness and was legally insane that night,” Johnston said.

Two Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation criminalists testified in the afternoon about DNA evidence at the scene and blood spatter. Photos and video of the grisly crime scene were shown to the jurors.

The photos showed blood throughout the living room area, a broken coffee table by the body of Lasley Sr., baskets turned over and blood spatter and stains on the sofa, table, blankets and walls.

Tara Scott, criminalist, testified most of the blood collected from the living room matched Lasley Sr. The blood swab from the machete was a mixture of people but the major contributor was Lasley Sr.

The spatter or drip stains on the stairs and walls going into the basement matched Kim Lasley.

Blood from Lasley Sr. was found on his son's shirt and shorts, as well as his grandaughter's socks. The young child was with her father, Lasley Jr., that night.