Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad announced Friday he has commuted the life prison sentence of Rasberry Williams, a 67-year-old who has served 38 years in prison after a 1974 shooting outside a Waterloo pool hall. “Mr. Williams’ record while incarcerated has been extraordinary,” Branstad stated in an April 26 letter to the Iowa Board of Parole. [...]

Testimony has resumed Friday morning in the Iowa City murder trial of Justin Marshall, accused in the fatal shooting of a landlord at the Broadway Condominiums on Oct. 8, 2009. The 16 jurors chosen to hear this case spent Thursday listening to their first full day of testimony, which included witnesses like Janet Versypt, the [...]

  School districts looking into installing guards and security equipment in schools may have nothing but good intentions. But they should take a minute to think before spending precious school funding on gear they hope will keep our children safe. As Sandy Hook reminded us, it’s critical that schools have emergency plans and practice them. [...]

  By Melissa Harmeyer —-     The tragic shootings at Sandy Hook not only made me grieve for the loss of life but also confirmed one of my worst fears: Occurrences like this seem to be becoming the new normal for our youth in America. I work in Chicago Public Schools as a high [...]

Edward Cusic said his mother was holding a gun and said, “I’ll send you straight to hell,” before he hit her with a crowbar inside the house they shared in Cedar Rapids. In a 25-minute jailhouse interview Wednesday, Cusic said he only meant to injure his mother the night she died and claimed he was [...]

An attorney for a young man charged in a double-homicide in Manchester wants part of a police interview kept out of his client’s trial. Brandon L. Ahlers, 20, is charged with two counts of aiding and abetting first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Richard Sweet, 55, and Janet Sweet, 62, both of Manchester. He is [...]

Gov. Terry Branstad announced Thursday that he has denied four applications from convicted felons serving time in Iowa’s prison system seeking to have their sentences commuted. The latest applicants denied commutation included: Nikkolas Kion Kemp, 29, who was convicted of first-degree robbery for a crime he committed in November 2001 in Polk County; DeMarcus Montrell [...]

A 6-year-old boy who has accused his grandmother of starting a fire that killed his cousin is competent to testify in her murder trial, a judge has ruled. Lillie W. Williams, 50, of Coralville, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 14-year-old Raymone Bryant. Prosecutors allege that Williams intentionally started a fire at 720 [...]

Investigators returned Thursday to the Cedar Rapids neighborhood where a teenage girl was shot and killed. Latasha N. Roundtree, 19, a standout basketball player during her time at Cedar Rapids Washington High School, was shot around 10 p.m. Saturday in the 600 block of 16th Street SW. She died at an Iowa City hospital a [...]

Prosecutors have filed a first-degree murder charge against a former resident at a Fayette care facility after the man he is accused of attacking died this week. Matthew T. Braun, 35, is accused of assaulting 57-year-old Kris A. Simpson, formerly of West Burlington, on Sept. 17 at the Prairie View Residential Care Facility, 18569 Lane [...]