Judge convicts Cedar Rapids man in 2007 fatal beating, stabbing of his friend

CEDAR RAPIDS — Nearly 17 years after a maintenance man made a gruesome discovery, a judge Monday found a Cedar Rapids man guilty of first-degree murder in the fatal beating and stabbing of Dennis First, 64, on May 11, 2007, in his apartment.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill, following a four-day non-jury trial, read his written 12-page verdict for Curtis Padgett, 42, in open court. In it, he pointed to “extremely compelling” scientific evidence of Padgett’s fingerprint on a knife sharpener found with the murder weapon — a paring knife with a 3- to 4- inch blade — and Padgett’s boot print found in a wet blood droplet on the victim’s floor in his Hawthorne Hills apartment in southwest Cedar Rapids.

Thornhill also wrote he considered circumstantial evidence showing Padgett cried on the anniversary of First’s death and demonstrated to his ex-girlfriend how he was killed.

The two — Padgett was 26 at the time — had been neighbors at the Hawthorne Hills Apartments, where a maintenance man discovered the body after initially knocking to no avail on First’s door.

Padgett didn’t show any visible reaction Monday to the verdict. He did seem upset when talking to one of his lawyers afterward. He will be sentenced July 9 to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Linn County District Court.

First’s daughter attended Monday’s verdict reading but left the courtroom immediately following the hearing.

Assistant Linn County Attorneys Molly Edwards, after the hearing, said she felt the scientific evidence was strong in this case and that the judge seemed to agree. Besides Padgett’s print on the knife sharpener and a boot print found in blood, no other suspect’s prints or DNA was found at the scene.

Edwards also said she couldn’t say for sure why this had remained a cold case for so many years, but she noted three witnesses died over the last few years and some evidence was not allowed at trial.

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Judge’s verdict

Padgett waived his right to have a jury trial, leaving Thornhill to reach the verdict.

Thornhill, during the hearing, said the scientific findings were “compelling.” They included a fingerprint that matched Padgett on a knife sharpener in a kitchen drawer where the murder weapon and blood-soaked oven mitts, used to conceal the killer’s identity, were found.

The judge also pointed to the evidence of a footwear impression taken from First’s apartment, which matched a pair of Padgett’s boots found in his apartment. The boot impression, which was unique because of stippling — bumps in the design created by hand or by an acid etching poured over the mold to create the pattern — on the sole that was found in a blood droplet.

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A retired Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation criminalist, during the trial testified that the boot would have to come into contact with the blood while it was wet to leave the footprint, Thornhill noted. This, along with Padgett’s fingerprint, placed him at the scene.

Thornhill, in his ruling, also relied on the circumstantial evidence. Witnesses said they had not seen on May 10, 2007 — the day before the body was found — that First had any trauma to his head, neck or body that day.

There was no forced entry into his apartment, which would indicate First knew his killer.

According to testimony at trial, First died from at least two sharp force injuries — stabbing injuries made by a knife or another sharp object — on the right side of his neck. The wound was about 6 inches in length and about 1 to 1.5 inches deep.

The stabbing injuries penetrated his neck muscle and jugular vein, causing his death, a medical examiner testified. First also had multiple blunt force injuries to his face and head, which contributed to his death.

He had large bruising and abrasions to his right and left cheeks, abrasions to his chin area, nasal bone fracture and bruising, scrapes and abrasions to his lips inside and outside. His mouth also had cuts and hemorrhaging, as if someone struck him in the mouth, Dr. Johnathan Thompson, a deputy state medical examiner testified.

First also had hemorrhaging of his brain and bruising and bleeding underneath his scalp, consistent with someone striking his head with an object.

He also suffered broken ribs — the result of “multiple blunt blows,” Thompson described, which could be caused by someone stomping on him.

Thornhill said Padgett also “exhibited behaviors and made statements that, taken together, point to defendant’s consciousness of guilt.”

There was testimony from Padgett’s ex-girlfriend, Katherine Zimmerman, that on the anniversary of First’s death, Padgett would cry. She said she asked if he killed First, but he denied it, adding he wouldn’t tell her because she would “snitch on me.”

Zimmerman also testified Padgett made suicidal statements during Memorial Day weekend in 2010 while drinking alcohol, Thornhill noted. At some point, she testified, Padgett put a knife to his neck and said that is how “Dennis died.”

Thornhill said First was assaulted, causing him to lose unconsciousness, and was “incapacitated” in his bed. Padgett went into the kitchen to grab a knife, handling the sharpener in the process and leaving his left index fingerprint on it. Padgett also grabbed the oven mitts to conceal his fingerprints and then walked back to the bed.

Padgett used one hand for leverage and with the knife in his other hand “repeatedly sliced the right side the victim’s neck causing a gaping 3.5 inch-long wound. This knife would cut through both tissue and muscle and punctured the victim’s jugular vein in two places.”

In the process of slicing First’s neck, the knife slipped and made a cut in the bed, “further corroborating the conclusion that the victim was lying down incapacitated when defendant was making these cuts.”

“By the time the defendant finished slicing Dennis First’s neck, the oven mitts he was wearing were soaked in blood,” Thornhill said in the ruling. There was also a blood trail left on the floor as he went from the bed to the kitchen and back.

Padgett acted with malice aforethought in killing First and his conduct was premeditated, the judge ruled. The “severity” in which victim was beaten showed Padgett acted with an “evil and unlawful purpose, beyond simple rage in the heat of passion.”

“Defendant’s actions in seeking out, securing and then using a knife to cut the victim’s neck were done willfully, deliberately and with premeditation,” Thornhill ruled.

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