Nebraska man’s first-degree murder trial moved to Scott County

A judge has ordered the trial of a 32-year-old Nebraska man accused of killing a maintenance worker at an Iowa County rest stop near Victor to be moved from Iowa County to Scott County due to pretrial publicity.

Court records indicate that Peter I. Riggs, 32, filed the motion for a change of venue because he believed that he would be unable to receive a fair trial due to the extensive television and newspaper coverage of the case.

Riggs, of Columbus, Neb.,  faces life in prison without parole if convicted of the first-degree murder charge he faces. He is accused of shooting and killing Jeffrey McAdam, 46, of Victor, on May 29, 2010, in the men's restroom at the Interstate 80 westbound rest stop at Victor.

“I find that there is a substantial likelihood a fair and impartial trial cannot be preserved with a jury selected from Iowa County,” Judge Nancy Baumgartner wrote in her ruling filed last week in Iowa County District Court.  “The TV news stations that cover Iowa County had extensive coverage of the crime when it occurred. The coverage has continued, including the several letters written by the Defendant not only offering to plead guilty, but confessing to the crime.”

Trial is currently scheduled to begin Oct. 17 in Davenport.

A statement Riggs made to DCI agent Darrell Simmons in the hours following his arrest in Johnson County will also be suppressed from the trial, Baumgartner ruled, because the Simmons didn't do enough to insure Riggs – who has mental deficiencies – understood each of his legal rights. Video evidence showed the agent started the Miranda warnings by asking if he understood, but Simmons continued to read each one without pausing to ask whether Riggs understood each right.

“He did nothing to insure that the Defendant understood the rights being read to him, other than to talk slowly,” Baumgartner wrote in her 14-page ruling.

“I find, under the totality of the circumstances, that the Defendant's waiver of his Miranda rights was not knowingly, intelligently or voluntarily made,” she continued in the ruling.

Four letters that Riggs wrote to the Clerk of Court – each expressing a desire to plead guilty – will also be excluded from the upcoming trial because the offers and pleas were never accepted as valid pleas by the court, Baumgartner ruled.