Supreme Court won’t review decision to overturn murder conviction of Nicholas Luerkens

The Iowa Supreme Court denied further review last week of an appeals court decision to overturn the first-degree murder conviction of Nicholas Luerkens in the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend in a grocery store parking lot in 2015.

The Iowa Court of Appeals overturned Luerkens' conviction in May, ruling he should have a new trial because the judge should have allowed the jury to consider an insanity defense. Luerkens, 34, was found guilty of stabbing to death Lynnsey Donald, 29, in the Marion Hy-Vee parking lot April 21, 2015. 

6th Judicial District Judge Mitchell Turner ruled during the trial that Luerkens' defense hadn't offered sufficient evidence to present the insanity claim to the jury.

Evidence at 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.

Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said Wednesday he is disappointed the court didn't grant the Iowa Attorney General's further review of the appeals decision, but that 'there will be prompt action to take this to trial again.”

He said he has talked to the Donald family and the trauma of a second trial will be devastating for them. It also will be traumatic for the several witnesses who will have to testify again about seeing the stabbing and their efforts to help Donald that day, he added.

A hearing is set for Tuesday to discuss a trial date, which Vander Sanden said has to be set within 90 days.

Appeals Court Opinion

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.

'He lost his way,” Cameron Luerkens, Nicholas' father, testified during trial, according to the ruling. 'He didn't know right from wrong.”

A family friend who was a mental health worker also recommended that Luerkens be committed based upon his behavior before the murder.

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.

Prosecutors argued Luerkens' premeditation was spelled out in a 'to do list” included in his journal, detailing his desire to kill Donald before the day of the crime, and cited an officer's testimony that Luerkens seemed 'lucid and coherent” when he spoke to him at the scene and in the hospital. Other witnesses also testified that Luerkens admitted to killing Donald after he stabbed her.

Prosecution's argument

In the application to the court for further review, Assistant Iowa Attorney General Aaron Rogers argued there's no question that Luerkens was mentally ill when he killed Donald, because he suffered from major depression. However, Rogers argued, Luerkens' depression didn't make him delusional or unable to understand the nature and quality of his actions or the difference between right and wrong, which is required to meet the legal standard for insanity.

Rogers said no reasonable jury would have concluded Luerkens was legally insane. He argued the court of appeals ignored all the 'overwhelming” evidence that Luerkens was legally sane, and the trial judge was correct in his ruling to not give the insanity instruction to the jury.

Rogers also cited Luerkens' journal and pointed out Luerkens took the biggest knife he owned and sharpened it before going to kill Donald. Luerkens then drove to the store and waited for Donald in the parking lot. Before she came out, he moved his car to a different row so she couldn't see him coming, he added.

'His planning and careful execution shows he knew the nature and quality of his acts,” Rogers argued.  

During the attack, Luerkens made statements, which are captured on a video, admitting he killed her and saying he doesn't want to live and he knows he is going to jail.

'He also knew right from wrong as a legal matter,” Rogers said. 'Why would he say he was going to jail? Because he knew he broke the law.”

Rogers said the appeals court focused on evidence suggesting Luerkens was mentally ill and not on evidence to prove Luerkens' illness caused him to meet the legal standard of insanity.

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