Nicholas Luerkens to be retried in ex-girlfriend's fatal stabbing Dec. 4

CEDAR RAPIDS — A judge on Tuesday set the retrial of Nicholas Luerkens, convicted in the fatal stabbing of his former girlfriend in 2015, for Dec. 4 in Linn County District Court.

6th Judicial District Judge Mitchell Turner and the lawyers discussed possible dates Tuesday during a case management hearing, at which Luerkens waived his right to a speedy trial within 90 days.

Webb Wassmer, Luerkens' lawyer at hearing, asked that the trial not be set until November or early December because the family may be hiring another lawyer and a new expert to testify about Luerkens' mental state at trial.  

In June, the Iowa Supreme Court denied further review of an appeals court decision in May to overturn Luerkens' first-degree murder conviction in the fatal stabbing of Lynnsey Donald, 29, in the Marion Hy-Vee parking lot on April 21, 2015.

Luerkens was sentenced to life in prison without parole.     

The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that Luerkens, 35, should have a new trial because the judge should have allowed the jury to consider an insanity defense.

Turner ruled during the trial that Luerkens' defense hadn't submitted sufficient evidence to present the insanity claim to the jury.

Evidence at the 2015 trial, including a surveillance video of the attack, showed Luerkens stabbed Donald 32 times. He ambushed her in the parking lot as she was holding the hand of her 7-year-old son, who saw the stabbing and ran to his home. Luerkens then turned the knife on himself, saying he was going to jail and wanted to die, witnesses testified.

Iowa Court of Appeals Judge Amanda Potterfield, who wrote the May opinion, cited the accounts of Luerkens' parents regarding their son's mental state declining when he started taking Paxil, a drug prescribed to treat depression.

Testimony also was presented that Luerkens suffered from clinical depression and severe alcohol use disorder. Toxicology reports showed that he had cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, alcohol, THC and methorphan in his system at the time of the killing, the ruling states.

In its appeal argument, the prosecution presented evidence that Luerkens was aware of what he had done and the consequences of his actions. He didn't meet the legal standard for insanity, a prosecutor argued.  

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