Federal inmate testifies Travis Standlee told him about killing homeless woman in 2015

DAVENPORT - A convicted federal inmate testified Wednesday that Travis Standlee admitted to him that he had killed Sharon Mead after she had rejected his romantic advances on Sept. 11, 2015.

Steven Peterson, 36, being held at the Linn County Jail last year for a firearms conviction, said Standlee told him he met Mead and her boyfriend Royce Carlson by the Cedar River that night. They started drinking together until Mead and Carlson got into an argument over 'jealousy” and Carlson left.

Standlee said he and Mead then went to Coe College and Standlee started kissing Mead but she pushed him away, Peterson said. Standlee then became frustrated and tried to kiss her again. She pushed him away again and he grabbed her neck - 'trying to hold her down and stop her from fighting it,” he said.

Peterson testified Standlee told him he blacked out at this point and when he came to Mead was lying there - 'looking weird like she passed out.”

'I said did you kill her?” Peterson said. 'He said yes.”

Standlee, is on trial this week for first-degree murder in Scott County District Court. He is accused of strangling Mead, 41, a homeless woman, to death at a bus stop on First Avenue and College Drive on Sept. 11, 2015. Her body was found behind the bench, according to testimony Tuesday.

Standlee was convicted in June of strangling Raymond Ursino to death on Sept. 5, 2015 and is serving up to 50 years in prison. The second trial was moved to Davenport because of pretrial publicity to ensure Standlee receives a fair and impartial jury.

The prosecution continues its case 9 a.m. on Thursday and closing arguments may start in the afternoon.

Tune back in and follow Gazette reporter Trish Mehaffey's live coverage from the courtroom Thursday.

Peterson said Standlee told him after Mead was dead he went to the store to buy food. Peterson asked him why and Standlee said because 'it's the last thing the cops would think I would do.”

Peterson said he didn't want to hear why Standlee was in jail and he repeatedly told him that but one day Standlee just blurted it out.

Peterson, who has spent 19 years in prison for manslaughter, burglary and thefts, was grilled by the defense about his criminal history and why he wanted to come forward, after claiming he didn't. He repeatedly said he wasn't getting a reduced sentence because of his testimony. He will serve 40 months in federal prison for a firearm conviction following his pending state sentence for theft and burglary.

'I'm trying to change and I wanted to clear my conscious,” Peterson said.

Cedar Rapids police Investigator Jeff Holst testified about surveillance video that pieces together a sort of timeline of Standlee and Mead's interaction that night that seem to match up with what Standlee admitted and what Carlson and Peterson told investigators.

Different surveillance videos show Standlee and Mead going into Sam's Liquor about 1 a.m. to buy beer and then another shows Standlee walking from the area of the bus stop on Coe College campus about 3:41 a.m.

The jury also saw video footage of Standlee walking into the Kwik Shop on Center Point Road about 4:21 a.m. and buying, what appears to be food in a to-go box, as Peterson said he did after Mead died. The next video was taken from a police vehicle that was at the bus stop when Mead's body was found and it shows Standlee walking by the area about 5:28 a.m.

Holst explains to the Davenport jury that someone could walk from the bus stop on College Drive down to the Kwik Shop on Center Point Road NE and 42nd Avenue, and then come back the same way - passing that bus stop.

In earlier testimony, Dr. Michelle Cattelier, an associate medical examiner with the Iowa State Medical Examiner's Office, said Mead died of strangulation.

She couldn't determine the time of death but rigor mortis, a sign of death, was prominent in Mead's jaw and smaller muscles, and these reactions usually set in after 12 hours of death but that can vary, depending on the individual.

Mead also had livor mortis, which is discoloration of the skin from the pooling of blood, which can occur in 12 to 24 hours.

Cattelier, identifying photos for the jurors, said Mead had a large area of bruising and purple discoloration on her right shoulder blade and her left shoulder also had bruising. She also had blunt force injuries and scrapes to her head, above the hairline and forehead. Her hands had abrasions and bruising on the top, which indicate they could be defensive wounds.

What indicated strangulation was petechiae hemorrhaging of the eyes, which are pinpoint sites of bleeding, Cattelier said. Mead had petechiae on the outside and inside of the eyelids, in her mouth and under the jawline. It could also be seen in the multiple layers of her neck, around the carotid artery. She also had bruising on the outside of the neck, Catterlier said.

Cattelier said Mead was intoxicated with .203 blood alcohol content level, which is almost three times higher than legal driving limit of .08, but that didn't cause her death. Mead had no other serious health issues.