20-year-old charged in triple homicide wants to keep his medical records from prosecutors

Assistant Public Defender Lindsay Garner speaks to her client, Alexander Ken Jackson, 20, as he appears June 16 for his initial court appearance via video conference, at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids. Jackson is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of his father, mother and sister. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — The 20-year-old Cedar Rapids man charged with killing his parents and sister last week wants to prevent prosecutors from accessing his medical records and any statements he made to emergency responders and other medical personnel who treated his foot for a gunshot injury that day.

Alexander Ken Jackson was charged with three charges of first-degree murder in the fatal shootings of his father, Jan Perry Jackson, 61; his mother, Melissa Ferne Jackson, 68; and his sister, Sabrina Hana Jackson, 19, on June 15 inside their northeast Cedar Rapids home.

Jackson, a Kennedy High School graduate and student at the University of Iowa, told police he awoke to the sound of gunfire and was shot in the foot as he struggled over a rifle with a masked intruder. A prosecutor, during a court appearance last week, said Jackson “concocted” that story to cover up the “execution” of his family.

Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter told The Gazette this week the family members, who were found in different rooms of the house, were shot multiple times and died from gunshot injuries.

Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter in the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)

Last week, Slaughter filed applications to subpoena witnesses who treated Jackson for his foot injury — Area Ambulance Service and Cedar Rapids Fire Department personnel. She also subpoenaed all of Jackson’s medical records from UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital and any names of staff involved in his treatment.

Sixth Judicial District Chief Judge Lars Anderson, the same day, approved the subpoenas in connection with the county attorney’s investigation.

Jackson’s three lawyers filed a resistance this week to the subpoenas, asking the court to quash those because the information sought is privileged medical information under Iowa law. There are only limited situations in which privilege is can be overturned in criminal cases, according to the defense motion.

The defense argued there is no provision in the law that allows the county attorney’s office to subpoena medical records in this way. They ask the court to deny the prosecution’s applications because there is no legal authority to give them access to the medical records.

Slaughter, in her resistance to the motion, said Jackson’s statements to medical personnel aren’t privileged because they were made in the presence of law enforcement, which destroys the “confidential nature of the disclosures” and the physician-patient privilege provided in Iowa law.

Police officers were actively investigating a triple homicide that Jackson reported as a home invasion or burglary, Slaughter said in her motion. Police were attempting to obtain information from the only surviving “witness” who was at the home at the time of the shootings. And the defendant wasn’t under arrest or in custody at that time, she added.

Slaughter also said the police officers were present as “casual observers” and were never asked to leave, so the patient-physician privilege was destroyed.

Anderson set a hearing to hear arguments Wednesday in Linn County District Court.

Jackson called 911 and told a dispatcher he and his father had been shot by a male intruder, according to the criminal complaint. Cedar Rapids police officers arrived at 8:23 a.m. June 15 to the home at 4414 Oak Leaf Ct. NE.

Officers found Jan, Melissa and Sabrina Jackson fatally shot. A criminal complaint stated that investigators found no evidence of forced entry or burglary at the home.

“The defendant denied shooting his family members but admitted his father had recently advised that he needed to find a job or move out of the residence,” Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said in the complaint.

Investigators found in the home a 22-caliber Browning semi-automatic rifle that police believe is the murder weapon, according to the complaint. Jackson said he and his father had left it on the fireplace after cleaning it the night before, the complaint stated.

Jackson remains in jail under a $3 million cash only bail.

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