Murdered Iowa City man’s former girlfriend, daughters left deal with loss

IOWA CITY — The mother of Tommy Curry’s four children said she repeatedly called him and left messages on April 28, 2021 and didn’t learn he had been fatally shot until the next day.

“He was left alone to die,” Shanel Franklin, his former girlfriend said in her victim impact statement during the sentencing of Renard Winfield Jr, 32, of Gary, Ind., who was convicted of first-degree murder in December. “I felt like nobody cared about me or his children.”

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Franklin said Curry, 31, of Iowa City, an Amazon driver, wasn’t perfect but he didn’t deserve to be murdered. He was the “daddy” to four daughters. They had three girls together and he took on the father role for her other daughter.

Franklin and her daughters have been alone in dealing with his death, she said in the statement read by Assistant Johnson County Attorney Oubonh White. It’s difficult on them and the youngest doesn’t understand what happened.

“She will scream out for him when she sees someone that looks like him,” Franklin said. “I want to take their hurt away but nothing helps.”

Sixth Judicial District Judge Jason Besler sentenced Winfield to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He had no discretion, but said it was the appropriate sentence based on the facts and circumstances of the case.

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He also ordered Winfield to pay $150,000 in restitution to Curry’s heirs or estate.

Winfield, during the hearing, said he wanted to give his “deepest sympathy” to the victim’s family, but he said justice wasn’t being served. He was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. There were “assumptions and a lack of evidence,” Winfield said.

He will continue to fight for his innocence.

Prosecutors: Winfield killed Curry as revenge for a 2020 shooting

A Johnson County jury in December found Winfield guilty of first-degree murder for carrying out what the prosecution called a revenge plot where he posed as a woman to lure an Iowa City man to his death.

Prosecutors said Winfield took out his revenge on Curry after Curry allegedly shot and injured Winfield in June 2020 — though no one was arrested in that incident because Winfield wouldn’t identify his shooter.

Iowa City police testified at trial that Winfield fired 15 bullets at Curry’s sport utility vehicle while Curry was parked in the Meadow Lark Apartment Complex, 2740 Lakeside Dr., Iowa City, waiting for his “date.” Police found 12 bullet holes in Curry’s SUV.

Dr. Dennis Firchau, a Johnson County medical examiner and associate professor of pathology at the University of Iowa, testified at trial that Curry died from a gunshot wound to his chest. Curry also had gunshot injuries to his left arm, left hand, head and scalp.

The bullet that hit Curry’s chest penetrated his left lung, heart and coronary artery, Firchau said. It also damaged his right pulmonary artery, right lung and then entered the soft tissue of his back. The injuries caused “massive” hemorrhaging in Curry’s chest cavity, which likely caused his death, he said.

According to trial testimony, numerous text messages and emails were exchanged between Curry and Winfield — posing as a woman — on an online dating site. Prosecutors said the fake emails were used to lure Curry to his death.

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Iowa City Police Det. Mike Smithey, who is certified as an expert witness in cellphone extraction and analysis, said both men used online accounts under pseudonyms. Investigators tracked the data information back to both men’s phones and learned Winfield, posing as a woman, contacted Curry through an online dating site, Plenty of Fish.

According to evidence, Winfield made a video of himself loading a gun just after he purchased the ammunition. Using cellphone data, Smithey determined the video was made in the parking lot outside the store.

Winfield’s internet activity revealed searches he did after the shooting for Iowa City police activity logs and multiple searches of news articles from television and newspaper websites of shootings in Iowa City. He also searched for Curry’s name in connection to a shooting.

Smithey testified he recognized Winfield’s email address under the fake name from a previous police case in June 2020 — which involved an investigation into Curry allegedly shooting Winfield.

During the investigation into Curry’s murder, surveillance videos from homes and businesses and traffic cameras showed Winfield, driving a white Dodge Journey SUV, left the apartment complex about 8:03 p.m., just a few minutes after 911 calls were made about the shooting. Investigators showed jurors a map of his path of travel after leaving the scene of the killing.

Winfield, in a police interview, denied killing Curry. He also denied knowing him. But messages between Winfield and another person revealed that Winfield stated Curry was the man who had shot him in 2020.

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