Trial of man accused of killing Susan Kersten delayed again

IOWA CITY — Steven Klein's trial for the 1995 murder of Susan Kersten has been delayed again.

At a pretrial conference on Friday, both the prosecution and Klein's defense filed a joint motion seeking to continue the trial. Judge Chad Kepros proposed continuing the trial until July 25, a date all attorneys said should be acceptable.

Klein is accused of killing Kersten on Sept. 24, 1995. Her body was found in a burned out car outside of Iowa City, but authorities quickly determined she was killed by several blows to the head. Klein was a person of interest from the beginning of the investigation, but was not arrested until earlier this summer.

His arrest came at the conclusion of a visit from the cable television program Cold Justice, which investigates cold murder cases with local authorities. Klein was arrested on July 17, 2015 10, days after TV crews arrived in Johnson County.

Kersten's episode of Cold Justice aired last summer. It was not mentioned during Friday's brief hearing.

Klein was scheduled to go to trial in April. First assistant Johnson County attorney Dana Christiansen said during the hearing that going to trial in April was 'unrealistic.' One of Klein's attorneys, Quint Meyerdirk, agreed.

After the hearing, Christiansen said the age of the case — including tracking down materials related to the 20-year-old investigation — was contributing to the length of the discovery process, but that they were not facing any major hurdles in preparing for trial.

The hearing was attended by two of Kersten's children. Afterward, April McIntire, a victim's advocate with Horizons Survivor's program, read a statement on behalf of the family.

'We are confident the justice system will hold the defendant accountable for the murder of our mother and are ready for this process to move forward for all of us to feel justice was served,' McIntire read.

First-degree murder is a Class A felony. If convicted, Klein would face a mandatory life sentence.