Iowa City man accused of killing landlord in 2009 to take plea

IOWA CITY - An Iowa City man set to be retried this month in the fatal shooting of landlord John Versypt in 2009, has instead reached a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Justin Marshall, 26, charged with first-degree murder, filed a motion Thursday asking the court to set a plea and sentencing hearing as soon as possible. The motion doesn't provide details of the plea agreement.

Marshall, who planned to represent himself at trial, asked his former attorney, Thomas Gaul, to file the motion. Sixth Judicial District Judge Sean McPartland appointed Gaul to provide standby counsel for Marshall.

Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.

Marshall was convicted by a Johnson County jury of first-degree murder in 2013 for the fatal shooting of Versypt, 64, at the Broadway Condominiums in Iowa City. Authorities said Marshall intended to rob Versypt, but ended up fatally shooting him in the head and hand.

That conviction was overturned in 2015 by the Iowa Court of Appeals, which ruled testimony of a jail informant should not have been permitted during Marshall's trial. The Iowa Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeals' ruling, but prosecutors sought a review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In January, the Supreme Court declined to review the case, and Marshall was scheduled for retrial beginning May 22 in Scott County - a change of venue based on pretrial publicity.

Earlier this year, it was anticipated Marshall would take a plea deal, but instead he showed up in court on March 9 and told McPartland he wanted to represent himself at trial. At that time, he asked for the trial to be delayed. The judge granted Marshall's request.

Marshall also had been seeking a ruling to bar two other witnesses who testified at his first trial from testifying during the second trial. McPartland had not yet ruled on that matter.

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