MARSHALL COUNTY: County looks for ways to cut budget / LOCAL & STATE, A3
WEDNESDAY
Feb. 17, 2010
MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA
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Attempted murder trial underway in Marshalltown
By KEN BLACK
BREAKING NEWS.
TIMES-REPUBLICAN
This story first appeared
as Breaking News at
timesrepublican.com
The attempted murder trial of
Marshalltown resident Terry Hunt,
47, began Tuesday in Marshalltown,
with prosecutors
describing a man
who, in a rage, tried
to take his own
mother’s life, according to the state.
“To this day, she
still has headaches
Hunt
and vision concerns
that arose from that night,” said
Assistant Marshall County Attorney
Paul Crawford, who was in charge of
prosecuting the case.
Here is how Crawford described
the incident that led to the charges:
The problems with Hunt’s mother
began the day of Jan. 7, 2008, when
Hunt and his mother Sandra Uhde,
went to Wal-Mart to return some
items.
On the way home, prosecutors
say he began asking for money. His
mother eventually gave him $10,
which he used to go down to the
local convenient store and purchase
beer.
Later, he insisted on more money
and she eventually gave him $200
from her savings account.
He left the home again, returning
around midnight, asking his mother
to let him inside the home. Uhde was
so alarmed by her son’s behavior that
she called the police, according to
Crawford. Once there, Hunt told
police all he wanted was another
$20. His mother gave him $25 and
he left again.
The next time he returned home
was approximately 2:45 a.m. At first,
Crawford said Hunt acted angry, but
then later convinced his mother all he
wanted to do was come inside and go
to sleep.
She unlocked the door with a
phone in one hand, not fully trusting
her son. Once inside, he began
assaulting her, throwing her up
against door and even trying to choke
her, Crawford said. The phone was
knocked out of her hand, but somehow it managed to dial the number of
one of Hunt’s friends, who did not
pick up the phone but saw a short
time later that a call had been missed.
The first three minutes of the
assault were caught on an answering
machine. The friend of Hunt immediately called the police, who returned
to the scene to find the assault still in
progress, according to the officer.
Although the officer said he did
not see any blows thrown, when he
walked into the house, Hunt was
standing over his mother who was
cowering on the floor and covering
her face in a defensive position.
Hunt was taken into custody and
the officer described Uhde as being
severely beaten, with an eye almost
swollen shut and numerous bruises
and cuts.
Aaron Hawbaker, the defense
Today
attorney, said that the facts of the
case are not largely in dispute.
Rather, it is the intention that is in
dispute.
“If murder was his intent when he
walked in there, he had ample opportunities to do so,” he said.
Hawbaker blamed Hunt’s actions
on the fact that he had significant
brain surgery that caused mental illness. The problems were further
intensified because of substance
abuse. “What the evidence will show,
as I understand it, is the brain in Mr.
Hunt misfires, and it becomes much
harder to control when Mr. Hunt uses
alcohol and drugs,” Hawbaker said.
The trial continues Wednesday.
———
Contact Ken Black at 641-753-6611 or
kblack@timesrepublican.com
Police: Suspect
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Members of the Marshalltown City Council review preliminary figures of the city's upcoming expenses for the
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we’re encountering in this
budget year is that we’re drawing down on our cash balances
a lot,” said Finance Director
Lori Stansberry, citing an
example. “For our road use tax,
BUDGET | A3
COACH | A3
Iowa pharmacy board to discuss medical marijuana
By MOLLY HOTTLE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OBITUARIES • A6
CUSnapshot
11 year, including Marshalltown.
The city’s total projected
expenses for all funds will run
approximately $32.5 million,
around $1.6 million higher than
last year.
“One of our concerns that
ALLISON — A tearful
former football player told
Iowa police that he repeatedly
shot his high
school coach
because he
believed him
to be a devil
who turned
students ‘‘into
dead people,’’
Becker
according to
an interview with the murder
suspect recorded just hours
after Ed Thomas’ death.
The scratchy, muddled
audio recording of 24-yearold Mark Becker’s confession
was played to a packed Butler
County courtroom on Tuesday, the second day of his trial
for first-degree murder. Becker has pleaded not guilty by
reason of insanity.
Prosecutors say Becker
calmly walked into the weight
room at Aplington-Parkersburg High School on the
morning of June 24 and killed
Thomas in front of a group of
teenage students.
‘‘I put one in his head,
then I put two more in his
head, then I put one in the
knee,’’ Becker said in the
recording of his interview
with Division of Criminal
Investigation agent Chris
Callaway less than two hours
after Thomas was shot dead.
‘‘I emptied the clip and left it
empty.’’
Dr. Jenni McLemore of the
State Medical Examiner ’s
Office, testified that Thomas
suffered four gunshot wounds
to the head, another to the
knee, one that went through
his left hand and a shot that
grazed his chin.
As McLemore spoke,
prosecutors put up pictures of
Thomas’ body using a projector. The coach’s grown son,
DES MOINES — Iowa likely
won’t be the 15th state to legalize
medical marijuana any time soon,
but there has been plenty of talk
about the idea with two bills in the
Legislature and a possible recommendation on legalization
Wednesday by the state pharmacy
board.
Although both legislative
measures are considered dead for
the session, backers said support is
growing and some expect the Iowa
Board of Pharmacy to add to the
momentum when it discusses the
issue and considers recommending
whether marijuana should be
allowed for medical use.
‘‘We’re supposedly the drug
experts and so, I would hope that
the Legislature would consider the
recommendation valuable to
Sen. Steve Sodders, D-State Center
Does not support
any bill or legislation
legalizing marijuana
for medical use, saying other drugs could
do what is needed
without having to
resort to marijuana.
Sodders
them,’’ said Lloyd
Jessen, executive director of the
Iowa Board of Pharmacy.
Medical marijuana initially
came before the pharmacy board
in 2008 when the American Civil
Liberties Union of Iowa and others
petitioned the board to remove
marijuana from the Legislature’s
Schedule I classification. To be
classified as Schedule I, a drug
must have a high potential for
abuse and no safe medical use.
The board rejected the request,
then took up the matter again in
Rep. Mark Smith,
D-Marshalltown
Opposes approving the use of medical marijuana and
believes the therapeutic benefits do
not outweigh the
problems of using
the drug.
Smith
2009 at the order of a Polk County
judge. The judge issued his order
in response to a petition by the
ACLU, ruling that the board must
review the classification and
decide whether marijuana has an
accepted medical use.
The board again declined to
reclassify marijuana but agreed to
hold four hearings throughout the
state, followed by a scientific
review and possible recommendation to the Legislature.
If it backs the use of marijuana
as medicine, it would be the first
Rep. Annette
Sweeney, R-Alden
Said there are
pros and cons to
approving the use of
medical marijuana
and is unsure what
side she would take
if she had to vote
on a bill.
pharmacy board in
the nation to do so before voters or
lawmakers make such use legal.
Peggy Whitworth, one of two
board members who are not pharmacists, said the panel had devoted tremendous time to the issue.
‘‘We’re doing the research,
we’re listening to the people,’’
Whitworth said. ‘‘We’re reading
and reading and reading.’’
Whitworth, of Cedar Rapids,
pushed the board to study the
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MARIJUANA | A3
2 sections, 20 pages
Vol. CXXXIV No. 48
Copyright 2010.
Marshalltown Newspaper, Inc.