Gov. Terry Branstad’s spokesman is defending the state’s release of a convict charged with killing his mother and kidnapping a woman 36 hours after leaving prison.  Spokesman Tim Albrecht said Monday that state officials did everything in their power to protect the public from 21-year-old Kirk Levin.

Albrecht says Department of Corrections officials identified Levin as needing “special attention in the community,” and notified the Sac County sheriff and Levin’s past victims about his release. He says officials had no basis to seek Levin’s commitment for mental health treatment once his prison term for burglary ended, despite discovering a notebook in which he fantasized about rape.

Levin is charged in the Jan. 3 death of his mother in Early in northwest Iowa. Police say he also kidnapped a 21-year-old woman.