Appeals court upholds Johnson County murder conviction despite factual errors in opinion

The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of an Iowa City man who continued to profess his innocence at sentencing.

Brandon D. Brown, 30, is serving a life sentence for the murder of Donelle Lindsey in June 2012. He asserted in his appeal there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction because nothing showed he was the shooter, and the court erred in denying his motion for a new trial.

Brown also contended the court abused its discretion because it didn't grant a mistrial when a Gazette reporter in the courtroom published information online about a prospective juror. He argued the fear of publicity was an issue because the jury was required to talk about race and gun violence during jury selection. He said this prevented him from having a fair and impartial jury.

The court denied all the claims made by Brown in his appeal, but the ruling got some facts of the case wrong.

It states the trial was in November 2014 instead of November 2013.

The court also said new expanded media coverage rules were in place at the time of the trial, but the updated rules didn't go into effect until May 2014.

The court discussed the new rules because expanded media coverage of jury selection is banned. The reporter went against the rules and he was asked to remove the juror's information immediately. The court ultimately found that didn't result in prejudice that prevented Brown from a fair trial.

The judge at the time of the trial asked all the reporters in the courtroom, who were live blogging, not to cover the remainder of the jury selection and all agreed.

Steve Davis, Iowa judicial branch communications officer, acknowledged in a statement that the opinion included inaccuracies and said it would be amended to correct errors and be refiled before on or before June 10, which is the next filing date for appeal opinions.

According to testimony in Brown's trial, Lindsey had spent the day with his friend, DiMarco Harris, at a west side apartment complex, while Brown spent the afternoon with friend Byron Fisher.

The four men later in the day got together. While Harris and Fisher offered different accounts, both agreed Brown shot Lindsey several times at close range.

A medical examiner testified Lindsey was shot five times, with two of the bullets piercing Lindsey's heart, liver and kidney.

A third state witness, Nicole Blosser, testified she drove Brown to Chicago the night of the shooting and heard him confess to the shooting.