Prosecutor says Donahue ‘caught red-handed’ in robbery, deputy shooting

CEDAR RAPIDS — Stanley Donahue shot Linn County Sheriff’s Deputy William Halverson “over and over and over and over again,” a prosecutor told jurors Monday during closing arguments in Donahue’s attempted murder and robbery trial.

“It felt like 100 shots to Deputy Halverson,” said Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks. “He thought it was a dream.”

Halverson couldn’t feel his legs and thought he might be paralyzed. He looked in his shooter’s eyes.

There’s no doubt Donahue committed the crime, Maybanks said.

He was “caught in the act. Caught on video. Caught red-handed.” Every single crime charged is on video, he said, and all the testimony showed Donahue was the suspect and none of it indicated he wasn’t.

Donahue is charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, attempted murder of a peace officer, two counts of false imprisonment, willful injury, attempt to elude, disarming a peace officer, trafficking in stolen weapons and possession of a firearm as a felon. He is accused of robbing the Casey’s in Coggon on June 20, 2021 and shooting Halverson, who responded to the alarm — wearing a protective vest that saved his life.

Donahue also is accused of pointing a gun a one of the two Casey’s employees and forcing both into a cooler during the robbery.

The jury started deliberations about 1:30 p.m. Monday. They left the courthouse about 4:30 p.m. and will resume deliberations at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

The trial started nearly two weeks ago, Feb. 7.

During Maybanks closing arguments, he played snippets of the surveillance video from the store to emphasize his points, such as the suspect pointing a gun at Jacob Christianson, an employee at the time, as Christianson was emptying the cash register and giving the money to Donahue.

Maybanks called Christianson a “man with ice in his veins” because he stayed calm and submitted to “Donahue’s demands” in order to keep himself and Maddie Stepanek, another employee, safe that night.

Donahue took cash, change, gift cards, cell chargers, numerous cartons of cigarettes and a garbage bag of items from the store, Maybanks said. The robber also took personal items — wallet and purse — from the employees.

The stolen items were found in a cornfield near where Donahue was arrested June 21, 2021, in Coggon, Maybanks pointed out. The nearly $300 in cash and change was found in his pockets and other stolen items were found in a van he crashed while fleeing.

Maybanks, showing video of the robber firing 10 shots — at close range — at Halverson, said the intent was to kill Halverson. Halverson was shot seven times in the torso and legs. There was only one person — Donahue — inside the store when Halverson arrived.

Donahue’s fingerprint was found on the magazine of the Sig Sauer, which was Donahue’s gun and found in the van, Maybanks noted. Testing showed the shell casings and slugs from the store came from that gun. Halverson’s service Glock was also found in Donahue’s van.

Maybanks said investigators knew the suspect’s name, had his van and had four witnesses, which was “icing on the cake. This isn’t a case of whodunit.”

Peter Stiefel, Donahue’s lawyer, said in his closing argument that there is reasonable doubt that Donahue is the suspect. Even if it’s the “tiniest” of doubt, he told the jury, “that’s reasonable doubt.”

The prosecution must show Donahue is the one who committed the robbery, Stiefel said. And he repeatedly raised the prospect that Michael Gomire, who is Donahue’s brother from Chicago, could be the suspect.

Gomire wasn’t a suspect in this case, investigators testified at trial, and hasn’t been charged.

Stiefel laid out a “scenario” about a “possible explanation” of why Donahue might not have been the robber. He said Donahue and Gomire may have come to visit their sister in Ryan, near Coggon. Donahue doesn’t have a bank account and so took money with him when he traveled.

After the van crash at on the Buffalo Creek bridge, both air bags deployed — possibly indicating a passenger was in the van, Stiefel said. Deputy Matt Oltmann testified he didn’t know if the air bag would deploy if there wasn’t someone in the seat, so there’s reasonable doubt about whether Donahue was the only one in the van, Stiefel said.

Stiefel also pointed to the tracking by a police dog that didn’t led to Donahue as a cause for doubt. He suggested the canine lost the track because it wasn’t Donahue who left a scent in the cornfield where the stolen items were found. It was someone else.

He then pointed to identification as being an issue because witnesses may have been mistaken. Professor James Lampinen, with the University of Arkansas, testified as an expert witness that a head covering hinders identifying someone’s face. Lampinen said identification is less reliable when it’s “cross race” — when a witness is a different race than the suspect.

The employees said they didn’t see Donahue’s entire face because he was wearing a hoodie. They described the suspect as having a big nose and big lips, Stiefel said.

Stiefel said the suspect had every chance to kill Halverson. But when Halverson asked the suspect not to kill him, the suspect didn’t.

Stiefel asked the jurors to acquit Donahue of all 10 charges.

Maybanks, on rebuttal, said reasonable doubt doesn’t include the word “possibility.” The defense, he said, was going into “storytelling and possible scenarios.”

“This isn’t story time, unless there is evidence to back it up,” Maybanks said.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com