Trish Mehaffey

A Palo woman accused of killing her stepmom in 2022 is on track to start May 13 in Benton County District Court. She is accused of suffocating her stepmom while her boyfriend choked her.

A judge on Friday delayed the sentencing for Duval Walker Jr., convicted of first-degree murder in March, so his lawyers can talk to a woman who says she witnessed the March 17, 2023, fatal shooting in a Marion bar but had not been interviewed by police. A prosecutor, who resisted the delay, said they had talked to the woman and she identifies Walker as the shooter.

After a Cedar Rapids man and woman led police on a high speed chase in Linn and Johnson counties, they drove into the Cedar River in an attempt to wade or swim across in escape but officers were waiting to arrest them.

A Vinton man pleaded to receiving child porn and faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and possibly up to 40 years in federal prison. He was already serving probation at a residential facility in Benton County for possession of child porn when he deceived a facility employee into letting his use her phone, which he used to download the illegal images.

Trials are reset for two men charged with kidnapping and killing Melody Hoffman, 20, of Marion, on Feb. 17. Dakota Van Patten, 18, of Cedar Rapids, will be tried Aug. 26, and McKinley Louisma, 23, of Hiawatha, will be tried tentatively Nov. 4, in Linn County District Court.

The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed the murder conviction of Reginald Little, who was involved in the April 20, 2020, robbery and fatal shooting of Kejuan Winters, 21, of Iowa City. Little is serving life in prison without parole.

An Iowa City man sentenced to 27 years in federal prison for distributing heroin resulting in death of a victim in 2021. Others also convicted in the drug investigation which started in 2019.

A prosecutor dismisses theft charge against a Cedar Rapids developer accused of stealing flooring from Menards. Eric Gutschmidt said he had receipts for items he was accused of stealing.

An Iowa City man was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for illegally possessing a loaded semi-automatic handgun that toddler discharges, shooting himself in the left eye. The child died later that day on July 3, 2022.

UI Police Detective Ian Mallory received an award Monday for his work to investigate an identity theft scheme that started in 1988. He considered both men involved as credible sources until DNA proved otherwise.

Judge denied moving trial for Andrew Shaw out of Linn County. Shaw is accused of hiring two men to kill Chris Bagley in 2018.

Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel says the electronic monitoring program for pretrial defendants and inmates sentenced to jail time has reduced jail numbers and the program is paying for itself. The inmates sentenced to jail but allowed to be out of custody with a GPS monitor are charged for the monitoring system. The pretrial defendants aren’t charged for the service.

Pamela Lovette, the mother of Cordal Lewis, told his killer she hopes he “burns in hell” for fatally shooting him Jan. 27, 2022 in southeast Cedar Rapids.

All the evidence has been presented in the Curtis Padgett murder trial, but none of the testimony explained the break that opened up the 16-year-old cold case.

The first year of Johnson County Civil Mental Health Court has been “challenging but rewarding,“ as officials identified some gaps for services that participants needed. The court had 12 participants in the first year.