Stephen Gruber-Miller

sgrubermil@press-citizen.com

An Iowa City murder case may be taken up by the United States Supreme Court.

Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said the Iowa Attorney General's Office plans to file a petition for a writ of certiorari later this month asking the Supreme Court to review the case of Justin Marshall.

Marshall was found guilty in 2013 and sentenced to life in prison for the 2009 murder of Iowa City landlord John Versypt, but his conviction was overturned on appeal last year. Part of that verdict was affirmed by the Iowa Supreme Court in June when a new trial was ordered for Marshall.

Versypt, 64, was gunned down in a stairway at the Broadway Condominiums (now called Orchard Place) on Broadway Street in southeast Iowa City. Police and prosecutors said it was a robbery gone awry.

Marshall's new trial will be postponed until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to hear the case. Lyness said the Iowa Attorney General's Office has until Sept. 28 to file the application. The defense will then have 30 days to respond, and the court will make a decision on hearing the case.

Lyness said she can't remember any other Johnson County cases being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

PREVIOUSLY:

Marshall's attorney, Tom Gaul, said the Supreme Court typically decides during its term whether or not to take a case, but it technically could decide later. The court's term begins Oct. 3 and usually lasts through late June or early July.

The appeal will be handled by Marshall's Davenport-based appellate attorney, Kent Simmons, Gaul said, and the Iowa Attorney General's Office will handle the case for the state. Gaul said Simmons can argue either way on whether the Supreme Court should hear the case, but noted that the court gets a large volume of requests for review each term and few are granted.

Phone messages left for Simmons were not returned Tuesday.

At issue is the state's use of testimony from confidential informants during Marshall's original trial. While in prison, Marshall spoke to three other inmates about the crime, not knowing that their testimony would be used against him in court. Gaul argued that their testimony should not have been allowed since they were acting as "agents of the state" and Marshall didn't have an attorney present.

In its June verdict, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that testimony from one of the inmates, Antonio Martin, should have been excluded since he was deliberately eliciting incriminating information from Marshall. But that verdict may run counter to practices in other parts of the country, Lyness said, and the Iowa Supreme Court's split 4-3 ruling factored into the state's decision to seek further review.

"Usually the Supreme Court is more interested in looking at cases where there are different rulings in different jurisdictions ... especially if there’s a difference between federal circuits in terms of how they view certain testimony or certain evidence," Lyness said.

Still, Gaul cautioned that the Supreme Court has broad authority to decide what aspects of the case to focus on if it chooses to take up the appeal.

Prosecutors announced their intentions to request the review at a hearing at the Johnson County Courthouse on Friday. Other motions related to the case, including a potential change of venue, were discussed but postponed.

"It was decided that until we hear if the U.S. Supreme Court is going to do anything that those are kind of premature," Lyness said.

However, Marshall's lawyer, Gaul, is still going forward in requesting a bond review hearing for Marshall that could see his bond reduced from $1 million or lead to him being released pending the new trial.

"Obviously we would prefer that since his conviction was overturned that he be allowed to have some opportunity to post bond or to not be incarcerated while all this is moving along," Gaul said.

Lyness said prosecutors still feel the $1 million bond is appropriate, considering the seriousness of the first-degree murder charge against Marshall.

Two others were charged in Versypt's death. Charles Thompson was charged with first-degree murder, but proceedings ended in a mistrial when the prosecution inadvertently placed inadmissible evidence before the jury. Before a second trial could take place, Thompson agreed to a plea deal, in which he pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and agreed to testify against Marshall. He was credited for time served.

Courtney White eventually pleaded guilty to tampering with a witness and was credited for time served.

Reach Stephen Gruber-Miller at 319-887-5407 or sgrubermil@press-citizen.com. Follow him at @sgrubermiller.