After he was sentenced to life in prison for killing a taxi driver, an eastern Iowa man was in court again Tuesday, representing himself, in his latest murder trial.

Curtis Cortez Jones, 42, of Mount Pleasant, was sentenced to life in prison 10 days ago after he was convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of a cab driver in June 2017. He now stands trial in the April 2017 fatal shooting of a bail bondsman.

Prosecutors said it was not only desperation and greed but racial hatred that led Jones to rob and kill Jonathan Wieseler on April 22, 2017. During opening statements, Assistant Johnson County Attorney Mike Ringle told jurors an inmate housed with Jones said he admitted to shooting Wieseler in part because Jones "wanted to kill a white man."

"Curtis Jones also told (the inmate, a witness for the state) that he hates white men," Ringle told the all-white Polk County jury. "That he couldn't leave Iowa without killing a white man and that he wanted to shoot white men in the head."

Wieseler, 34, was found in a pool of blood by his fiancee April 23, 2017, the morning after he left his home. His throat was slit and he was shot in the head in his office at Lederman Bail Bonds.

Jones was arrested in November that year. In court Tuesday, he denied having any racial prejudices, noting that six of his children are biracial.

"I have no problem with white people, white men," Jones said. "You won't hear testimony from an honest citizen saying different."

The burly, bearded man, who told the jury he was "fighting" for his life, said there was no evidence that showed he committed the gruesome Iowa City killing. He accused the state's witness of lying, saying that inmate wanted to get out of his charges.

Jones had elected to represent himself at trial. He told jurors to not be "fooled or blinded by the horrific" crime scene photographs prosecutors planned to show.

"The pictures sicken me, so I understand how you will see them, but I'm not responsible for that," he said.

Authorities said Jones, a father of 12 who was paroled after a 2005 armed robbery, shot Wieseler in the head with a small-caliber gun during the 2017 robbery.

Jones was seen on surveillance video the day of the shooting within blocks of the crime scene, driving a car later searched by police, authorities said. Forensic testing showed evidence seized there had DNA from Wieseler and Jones, charging documents show.

Jones said while DNA may have been found, none of Wieseler's blood was found on Jones or in the car that was subsequently searched. He said there was no blood on his shoes, clothes or the box cutters recovered from the vehicle.

Recent crime news

"I stand before you being a victim of a detective's and an assistant district attorney's wrongful prosecution," Jones said. "Evidence will show that I've never met Mr. Jonathan Wieseler."

Ringle said Jones had been inside or near the bondsman's office the night of the killing, according to information from a cellphone tower that tracked his location.

Wieseler grew up in Sioux City and graduated from high school there in 2001 before moving to Iowa City, where he received undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Iowa. He was an avid reader and a huge Hawkeyes fan, family said.

About 10 of his family members and friends packed into two rows in the courtroom despite the nearly two-hour drive. A woman in the group said they did not want to comment.

Jones was sentenced to life in prison without parole earlier this month after a jury found him guilty of murder in the killing of Ricky Lillie, an Iowa City taxi driver. Jones got a ride from Lillie before shooting him in the head during a robbery in June 2017, police said.

► Follow the Des Moines Register on Facebook and Twitter

When he was sentenced, Jones called himself innocent and said he had been wrongfully convicted by an all-white jury. In the same courtroom, the victim's mother, Peggy Armstrong, said her family wished Iowa had the death penalty.

Jones was granted parole in November 2016 — years earlier than he was set to be released for a robbery conviction — after the Iowa Board of Parole ruled he was unlikely to be a detriment to the community. But records showed Jones was deemed a high risk to commit more violence and had escaped from a halfway house.

The Iowa Department of Corrections defended its decision to recommend parole for Jones, noting he had two job offers and a place to live with an aunt in Washington, Iowa. Within months, however, he was unemployed and had moved elsewhere, records show.

Jones was given a 40-year sentence after robbing a motel and a grocery store while brandishing a pellet gun in the Iowa City area in 2005. During the robberies, he tied up a hotel clerk and struck another employee in the head with his gun.

Automatic credit for good behavior shortened his sentence to 18 years; Jones served 11 years before he was paroled, records show. He had been placed at a Coralville halfway house in March 2016 and obtained a work-release job at a hotel.

After a month, Jones was accused of stealing a customer's credit card information and making fraudulent purchases, and the hotel fired him. Jones then absconded for two weeks, ignoring pleas to turn himself in before eventually surrendering.

Jones' first murder trial was moved from Johnson County to Scott County because of pretrial publicity. The second, for the same reason, was moved to Polk County.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.