Trial in 2014 Cedar Rapids murder rescheduled

CEDAR RAPIDS - A trial date has been reset to next year for Kendu R. Petties, who is accused of killing two people while they were babysitting in a Cedar Rapids home in 2014.

Petties, 31, pleaded not guilty last October to two counts of first-degree murder in Linn County District Court. Petties is accused of fatally shooting Quintrell Perkins, 22, and Sierrah Simmons, 20, on April 2, 2014. Petties, who was arrested in Arizona last September, remains in jail on a $2 million bail.

Attorneys met with court administration on Friday and set the trial for Feb. 13, 2017.

A criminal complaint states Petties fired multiple shots into a house at 1708 Fourth Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids. Perkins and Simmons were found dead inside the house when police responded that night.

A family friend previously told The Gazette that Perkins and Simmons were at the house baby-sitting Perkins' younger siblings that night.

Perkins and Simmons were not the targets that night, the complaint shows. Petties had planned to 'shoot and kill two other subjects inside the residence,” but they were not home. Petties fired a full, 10-round magazine of bullets into the house, as well as a single round that was in the chamber of the gun. Two of the bullets hit Perkins and Simmons, who were sitting in the living room.

Witnesses verified that Petties was the shooter, and he admitted to more than one person that he fired the shots, the complaint states.

A warrant in the double homicide was issued Aug. 14, 2014 and U.S. Marshals tracked Petties to Mesa, Ariz., where he was found Aug. 21, 2015 living with a girlfriend. He then was extradited to Cedar Rapids.