(Des Moines, Iowa) — The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Red Oak man for first-degree murder. In their opinion released today (Wednesday), a three-judge panel from the Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s 2019 handling of the case, in which Toby McCunn was convicted of murdering Joshua Jordan at a Shenandoah home in April 2019. The decision comes five weeks after McCunn’s Attorney Mary Conroy argued for a new trial in the case, saying the jury in the trial was not instructed properly on what it could and could not consider in the case, namely their instructions on how to decide if the shooting was justified. McCunn’s defense claimed the shooting was an act of self-defense after Jordan pulled a gun first.

Assistant Attorney General Aaron Rogers – arguing on behalf of the state – said the actions of McCunn following the shooting did not point to self-defense. Authorities eventually took McCunn into custody several hours after the shooting following a brief standoff at another residence. Rogers says authorities found the gun used to kill Jordan hidden under a floor board in the attic, not something consistent with self-defense.

Toby McCunn

McCunn’s legal team had also asked for the conviction to be thrown out, claiming a juror in the case admitted to having prior knowledge of the events surrounding the incident. In the opinion authored by Judge Mary Tabor, the Appeals Court says the court did not commit instructional error, pretrial publicity did not compel a change of venue, seating a challenged juror did not warrant a new trial and that the court did not abuse its discretion in allowing testimony about prior bad acts by McCunn.

McCunn is currently serving a life sentence without parole at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.