A man who pleaded guilty to murder and 11 other counts for killing a western Iowa sheriff’s deputy and wounding another during a jail escape has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. A Pottawattamie County District judge issued the sentence today (Tuesday), after 24-year-old Wesley Correa-Carmenaty entered guilty pleas to first-degree murder, attempted murder, escape, kidnapping and other crimes. His trial was set to begin today (Tuesday), but his attorney informed authorities last week that Correa-Carmenaty would change his plea.

Authorities say Correa-Carmenaty had just been sentenced on May 1st to 45 years in prison in an unrelated murder case when he grabbed one of the deputies’ guns while being transferred to the county jail. He shot them both and used the jail van to escape. One of the deputies, 43-year old Mark Burbridge, died from his injuries. Another Deputy, 59-year old Pat Morgan, was seriously wounded.

Correa-Carmenaty was recaptured that day in Omaha, Nebraska, after carjacking a woman at gunpoint.

An Iowa native who now lives on the faraway island of Guam says the fear is fading after last week’s nuclear threat by North Korea’s leader. Jeff Nelson is originally from Jewell and is an associate pastor of a church on Guam. Nelson says Kim Jong Un’s threat was specific, that he planned to aim a missile to detonate within 25 miles of Guam’s U-S military installation, Anderson Air Force Base. “At first, everybody was a little shaken but as the days progress, even today, things have started to back off and the tension is not nearly as high,” Nelson says. “You can feel a kind of collective sigh of relief around the island.”

Nelson says the island’s residents received a brochure from the Guam government on what to do if there was a nuclear attack. “There were some instructions that went out, there was written material and they’ve gotten to the point where even on social media, they will send things out,” Nelson says. “All of the TV and radio stations were on top of it. They were just trying to make sure people were prepared for the worst if something did happen.”

He says people are a little more relaxed now, compared to when the threat was made last week. “The rhetoric has calmed down a little bit and both sides have pulled back a bit,” Nelson says. “The tension level is not nearly as high today.”

Guam is 2,000 miles from North Korea, where the missiles were to have been fired. North Korea’s leader says he’s received a report from his army on its plans to fire missiles toward Guam. He says he’ll watch the actions of the United States for a while longer before making a decision.

(Radio Iowa)

A northeast Iowa woman is recovering from a life-threatening scare last (Monday) night. A woman survived after her car went into the Mississippi River in Lansing on Monday. The Allamakee County Sheriff’s Office says they received a report of a car in the water around 5:30 p.m. The sheriff’s office says 51-year-old Michelle Timmons from McGregor was able to get out of the car and swim. Other people helped her out of the water. Timmons was taken to Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon and held for evaluation.

(Radio Iowa)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – A judge has accepted the guilty pleas of a man charged with killing a sheriff’s deputy and wounding another while escaping from an Iowa jail.
Twenty-four-year-old Wesley Correa-Carmenaty entered the guilty pleas today (Tuesday) to murder, attempted murder, escape, kidnapping and other crimes. His trial was set to begin Tuesday, but his attorney informed authorities last week that Correa-Carmenaty would change his plea in Pottawattamie County District Court in Council Bluffs.

Authorities say Correa-Carmenaty had just been sentenced on May 1 to 45 years in prison in an unrelated murder case when he grabbed one of the deputies’ guns while being transferred to the county jail. He shot them both and used the jail van to escape.

He was recaptured that day in Omaha, Nebraska, after carjacking a woman at gunpoint.

(Update 11:15-a.m. w/statement from Dave Wiederstein: “The Board’s decision to make my office a full-time position is regrettable, but regardless, I will not be the full-time County Attorney.  I have the option of remaining in office until October 14, or I can serve the remainder of my term still on a part-time status.  The Board can expect cooperation from me in making the transition a successful one for the benefit of the citizens of Cass County.”)

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Tuesday), voted unanimously to make the County Attorney’s job a Full-time position, with a base salary of $100,000 per year. The change won’t be in effect however, until Jan. 1^st, 2019, since the current four-year term expires after the Nov. 2018 elections. It is currently a part-time position, with an Assistant County Attorney also in-place.

Prior to their vote, the Board opened the matter up to discussion. Supervisor’s Steve Green and Steve Baier, said concern over public safety is the main reason they want to make the job full-time. Green said he personally “Has not made much of a harder decision in his life. He said “The way I’m feeling is not a reflection on our current county attorney, it’s a reflection on the system structure and how complex the issues and public safety issues are. I feel that the citizens of Cass County are going to be better served in a full-time status. It’s a reflection of our times and a reflection of the justice system and all the other myriad of things is required to do.”)

Green said “I think we need 40 hours on behalf of the citizens.”  Steve Baier said he’s hearing from constituents and law enforcement on the matter, and they have a desire to have more felony cases prosecuted. He said we need to go to court and “get some of the bad elements dealt with as the law provides. I don’t think there’s any way that having a full-time county attorney necessarily guarantees that, and that’s one of the issues too, but I think that’s important.”

Board Chair Gaylord Schelling said the issue with Cass County Attorney Dave Wiederstein is, and always has been, increasing the number of prosecutions. He said he spoke with Wiederstein six months ago, and nothing’s changed with regard to the number of prosecutions.

In other business, Supervisor Green said the Cass County Public Safety Board has agreed, with permission from the 9-1-1 Commission, to temporarily make Cass County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Kennon acting 9-1-1 Director to replace Rob Koppert, who resigned last month. The position will be reviewed on a month-by-month basis for a period of a year. At that time, if the Board and Kennon agree, it would become a permanent position for Kennon. The position pays $20,000 in addition to his current salary.

DES MOINES, Iowa – The field of crime scene investigations is growing both in terms of size and complexity. With that in mind, Des Moines Area Community College is offering a CSI certificate this fall for the first time.

Criminal Justice Professor Danielle Galien says it’s the only lab-based CSI program in the region. “A lot of the programs here in Iowa are sociology-based. So, you’re studying more about why people commit crimes and not how to properly document them or looking at the nuts and bolts of what made up a crime and how it was committed and where to look for fingerprints,” she says.

Galien says a student will be able to obtain a CSI certificate from the college with about one year’s worth of hands-on course work. Fall class offerings in the program include CSI Photography and CSI One. Classes start at DMACC on August 24.    

Galien says the field is ever-changing. There’s a lot of focus these days on how to get evidence off of mobile devices. She says phones have really become mini-computers that hold a wealth of information that can be useful in investigations. “It really tells us a lot about a person, what their intent and their thought process is, and can place them in areas and they might not even know it or think that they’ve deleted all that information and it never truly goes away,” she explains.

Galien says crime scene investigators are in demand in both public and private organizations and businesses. She says starting salaries for crime scene investigators in a metropolitan area like Des Moines are about $50,000 a year. Openings are still available in the fall semester classes.

(Iowa News Service)