Sat., January 30, 2021
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This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Saturday Jan. 30 and Sunday Jan. 31
If I may offer a brief editorial on the weather before we begin: Black ice on wood steps is no joke. Also, as a related editorial comment: Ouch!
A shootout last year at the Sunset Village Mobile Home Park in Hiawatha that left three men injured and a fourth man dead will not lead to major criminal charges.
Prosecutor: No charges in shootout that killed Hiawatha man
January 29, 2021 GMT
HIAWATHA, Iowa (AP) No charges will be filed in the death of a Hiawatha man who was shot during a gun battle last year, Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said.
Joshua Lathrop died and three others were injured May 30 at the Sunset Village Mobile Home Park in Hiawatha.
Two brothers who were armed went to the trailer court after hearing that one of their girlfriends had been attacked. An intoxicated Lathrop confronted the brothers and several residents armed with bats and handguns joined the argument, KCRG-TV reported.
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CEDAR RAPIDS The man accused of killing Chris Bagley in 2018 is asking a judge to delay his first-degree murder trial set for next month because the prosecution didn’t provide crucial results of DNA testing, which includes a knife sheath from a possible murder weapon.
In a motion filed Friday, Leon Spies, the Iowa City lawyer for Drew Blahnik, 33, said the prosecution needs time to analyze lab reports and likely will need to obtain independent testing of items examined by the state and FBI crime labs.
Bagley’s body was discovered buried behind a house in southeast Cedar Rapids on March 1, 2019.
CEDAR RAPIDS The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has upheld a ruling in favor of police in the 2015 fatal shooting of a Cedar Rapids man who was shot 24 times by officers during a traffic stop for suspected drug activity.
The court affirmed U.S. District Chief Judge Leonard Strand’s ruling that the four officers involved didn’t violate constitutional rights or use excessive force against Jonathan Gossman, who refused to get out of a vehicle Oct. 20, 2015, after officers learned a shotgun was in the vehicle.
Strand made the summary judgment ruling last year in the lawsuit filed by Gossman’s mother, Twyla McElree, and his wife, Mikaela Gossman, against the city of Cedar Rapids and the police department.