CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – On Friday evening, KCRG-TV9 management learned of an incident involving morning news anchor Jay Greene. After investigating the relevant facts, the station determined Mr. Greene violated the station’s code of conduct and terminated Mr. Greene’s employment effective immediately. Out of respect for all the parties involved, KCRG cannot comment further on the situation.
From the Associated Press:
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines man has been sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison for killing a woman and her two children. Prosecutor Kevin Hathaway told a Polk County district judge Friday that the murder of Rosibeth Flores-Rodriguez was “horrific,” but the murders of her two children were worse. Judge David Porter sentenced Marvin Esquivel Lopez, 34, to consecutive life sentences in the 2019 deaths of the 29-year-old mother and 11-year-old Grecia Daniela Alvarado-Flores and 5-year-old Ever Jose Mejia-Flores. Esquivel Lopez was convicted in January of shooting the mother during an argument in his Des Moines home, then killing her children.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police have charged a Des Moines man with murder in the stabbing death of a woman found in an apartment. Officers and medics were called early Saturday to an apartment in southwest Des Moines on a report of an unconscious woman. They found a dead woman who appeared to have been stabbed. Officers detained 33-year-old Clarence Edward Reed at the apartment and later charged him with first-degree murder. Police will release the woman’s name after notifying her family. Police say it was the second homicide in Des Moines in 2022.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Investigators in Iowa say they used genealogical data to link the 1982 fatal stabbing of a woman to an Illinois trucker who was found shot to death in a shallow grave months later. Police in Council Bluffs, which sits on Iowa’s western border, said Friday that they believe Thomas O. Freeman killed 32-year-old Lee Rotatori at a local hotel in June of 1982. Rotatori, who had just moved to Council Bluffs from Nunica, Michigan, was stabbed once and was sexually assaulted. Police didn’t have any suspects after the killing, but they submitted DNA evidence to a lab that determined last year that it was Freeman’s. He was found dead in a shallow grave near Cobden, Illinois, in October of 1982.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A 21-year-old man has been sentenced prison for his role in the death outside a Sioux City bar last May. Lawrence Canady was sentenced Friday to 16 years for voluntary manslaughter and other counts in the death of 22-year-old Martez Harrison. The judge also revoked Canady’s probation from an earlier case and added five years to the sentence. Prosecutors said Canady and Harrison fought outside Uncle Dave’s Bar and when Harrison fell, another man shot him twice while Canady continued to hit him. Canady’s attorneys argued he acted in self-defense. The second suspect, 17-year-old Dwight Evans, is charged with first-degree murder in Hartez’s death.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats say they are hoping for a bipartisan vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. That won’t be easy, but some Republicans have expressed an openness to voting for Biden’s nominee, who currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and would be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. Democrats will also keep an eye on their own moderate flank, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. But neither has indicated, so far, that they would vote against Biden’s choice.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that allowing people charged with felonies to enter written pleas instead of appearing in court in person during the COVID-19 pandemic was appropriate and did not violate the rights of defendants. The court ruled Friday in the case of Timothy Basquin of Fayette, who was charged, pleaded guilty and was convicted of intent to manufacture or deliver methamphetamine. He entered a written plea in November 2020, when Iowa was experiencing a surge of virus cases and the court was allowing virtual procedures and written pleas. He appealed, saying court rules and due process rights required an in-person plea in open court. The court unanimously concluded its orders balanced the rights of defendants and public safety.
