Defendant in 20-year-old Iowa City murder case denied lower bail

IOWA CITY - Murder defendant Steven Klein will remain in jail on a $1 million bail.

Judge Chad Kepros has denied Klein's request to lower his bail, according to online court records,

Klein, 54, is accused of killing 38-year-old Susan Kersten on Sept. 24, 1995. Kersten's body was found in a burning car that had been driven off a road and left in a field near Iowa City. However, police determined it was several blows to the head that had actually killed the mother of four.

Klein was a person of interest in the case for nearly 20 years. His arrest came July 17 after the Johnson County Sheriff's Office - with permission from County Attorney Janet Lyness - invited the cable TV program Cold Justice to come to Iowa City and look at the case. The program's crew - led by a former prosecutor and former crime scene investigator - arrived in Iowa on July 7 and Klein was arrested 10 days later.

During a bail review hearing Friday, one of Klein's attorneys, Quint Meyerdirk, argued his client knew he was the focus of a criminal investigation, yet never fled the state. Meyerdirk also demanded to know what new evidence the state had to support the first-degree murder charge after all these years.

No new information was disclosed during the hearing, but when the episode of Cold Justice was aired that night, it was revealed that one of Kersten's cousins was on the phone with her the night of the killing when she heard shouting and the line went dead. The timing of that phone call - about 8 p.m. - led investigators to rethink the timeline of the killing and rule out a neighbor of Kersten's as a suspect.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Klein would face an automatic life sentence.