Trish Mehaffey

Luke Truesdell, accused of bludgeoning 4 people with a mental pipe, may have a mental disorder and lawyers are asking the court for mental evaluation. If granted, proceedings in the case would be temporarily delayed until the evaluation is completed and any restoration is needed.

Linn and Johnson county prosecutors say the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling that defendants must be able to confront witnesses face-to-face may impact some sexual abuse cases involving kids because they may no longer be allowed to testify outside of the courtroom.

Tramontez Lockett, 18, had messaged and arranged for Michael McCune, 16, to meet Feb. 18, 2023, at the Tan Tara Apartments in Cedar Rapids. McCune didn’t know Lockett had planned with three others to fatally shoot him that night because of past conflicts.

A Springville man who was charged last week with burglary for going into his girlfriend’s home without permission, has now been charged with offering her a $10,000 bribe if she drops the charges in the burglary case.

A Cedar Rapids man, initially charged with sex offender registry violation, has been charged with sex exploitation of a minor. The man contacted a person he thought was a 15-year-old girl for sex but it was actually a police investigator posing as the teen.

A Cedar Rapids man, who led police on foot chase after officers found a loaded handgun and marijuana, was sentenced this week to more than 5 years in federal prison. An investigation found he had possessed at least 10 guns since 2018.

“You are not the victim here,” a judge told a former Linn-Mar assistant track coach after Kameron Beets said his life had been “shattered.” by the sex abuse charges against him. Beets was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Iowa City man sets up fake email and social media accounts under UI police detective’s name to harass and retaliate against him for arresting and then testifying at protesters’ trials.

A Cedar Rapids man, charged in four separate Iowa City sexual assaults, pleaded to a lesser charge in one, with another charge dropped along with a drug charge, as part of plea agreement. He pleaded to a second drug charge and faces another five years in prison. He was previously sentenced to 44 years for two other sexual assaults.

Judge delays trial by two weeks for Marion who beat four people to death with metal pipe. Trial reset to Sept. 10. Prosecutors had scheduling conflict.

A judge sentences a West Liberty man to probation for stabbing man in large fight outside an Iowa City bar last year. He pleaded to a lesser charge and was given a deferred judgment.

A Cedar Rapids man was convicted for unintentionally causing the death of an Iowa City man who was fatally shot outside the H-Bar in 2022. The Iowa City hookah bar is prohibited from being open past 10 p.m., according to a recent court ruling.

A prosecutor said the prosecution was unable to provide a confession made by Curtis Padgett, who killed his friend, Dennis First, in 2007, to a witness because the witness died three months before trial. Padgett was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole.

Pierra Baugh, 34, of Cedar Rapids, pleads to lesser charges in the robbery and murder of Cordal Lewis, 19, in January 2022. She admitted to the planning and carrying out the robbery of Lewis with Kazius Childress, who fataly shot Lewis and was convicted in January.

A federal judge declared a mistrial when a jury in June deadlocked over whether a K-9 officer used excessive force when he deployed his dog on a 13-year-old boy who was misidentified as being involved in a stolen car incident in August 2020.