Charly Haley

chaley@dmreg.com

MARSHALLTOWN, Ia. — Josh Hauser showed a photo of his children sitting next to their grandmother’s gravestone as he told a courtroom in Marshalltown on Monday about all the experiences his family has missed, and all the pain they have felt, since his mother was murdered 22 years ago.

For his six children, visiting their Grandma Becky has always involved visiting the cemetery, he said. His loving mother has missed weddings, graduations, Christmases and other meaningful family events with her four children and her grandchildren, he said.

“My mother will never get her life back,” Hauser said during one of several emotional testimonies by members of his family at the courthouse Monday.

They were providing victim impact statements before the resentencings of the three men convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Hauser, who was shot and stabbed in her car Oct. 4, 1994, after stopping for what had appeared to be a traffic stop.

Jayson Speaks, Burt Smith and Derek Smith were all 15 years old when they were found guilty for Hauser’s death and sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole.

But the three were resentenced Monday to life in prison with eligibility for parole, based on a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling that declared it unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to life without parole.

Through several emotional statements, the Hauser family said Monday that the resentencing of Hauser’s killers strips them of some closure they felt knowing that the men could never be released from prison. They also emphasized that the murder still hurts them after 22 years.

“While the courts have the ability to take away these life sentences, I will forever have mine,” Josh Hauser said.

Several of Hauser’s family members compared the pain her death has caused to a life sentence, saying they think about her every day. Her parents, her husband, some of her children and other relatives spoke.

Josh Hauser talked about how he has suffered nightmares and a panic attack in the years after his mother’s death, a result of the trauma. Denise Lynk, Rebecca Hauser’s sister-in-law, said she feels like vomiting every time she has to drive along the road where Hauser was murdered.

“I lost my wife, my best friend, my love,” said Dan Hauser, Rebecca’s husband.

Some family members cried during the hearing.

“My mind is constantly searching for answers to the unanswerable question: Why?,” Lynk said. Other family members posed the question as well, and some asked for apologies from Speaks and the Smith brothers, who were all in the courtroom during the family’s statements.

Upon being resentenced, all three men apologized to the Hauser family, expressing regret for their actions.

“I feel shame,” Burt Smith said. “I feel like I have betrayed a community, and like I have betrayed my family.”

Jennifer Miller, Marshall County attorney, who was representing Hauser’s family, also apologized to them, acknowledging during the court hearing how painful it was for them to relive Rebecca's death.

“The state will resist any request for parole from any of these defendants in the future,” Miller said.

Judge James Ellefson also recognized how difficult the hearing was for Hauser’s family before he separately sentenced each defendant to life with the possibility of parole.

“The killing was brutal. It made absolutely no sense,” he said.

Several of Hauser’s family members said they believe the law changes that led to the resentencing are unfair.

Even at age 15, Hauser’s killers should have known murder was wrong, her family members said.

The hearing Monday came after federal and state court rulings that radically changed the sentences young killers are eligible to receive. The life-without-parole sentences that Speaks and the Smith brothers had received after their first-degree murder convictions are typically the mandatory sentence under Iowa law for that crime.

But the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 banned mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile killers, in a ruling based partly on scientific evidence that children's brains are developing through their teenage years and they often lack maturity and impulse control. An Iowa Supreme Court ruling in May took life-without-parole sentences entirely off the table for the state's juvenile killers — leaving decisions about releases from prison entirely with the Iowa Board of Parole.

To support the Hauser family Monday, Lyle Burnett attended the resentencing. His brother, Tim Burnett, was murdered Nov. 29, 1992, at the Drake Diner in Des Moines. Joseph White Jr., who was convicted in that killing, is scheduled to be resentenced next month, Lyle Burnett said.

"My family, along with everybody's family that has to go through this, this just kills us," he said of the resentencings. "It's just so unfair. ... You kill somebody, it should be life without parole."

On Oct. 4, 1994, Speaks, the Smith brothers and another friend stopped Hauser's car on a rural county road, using emergency lights on top of the group's Chevrolet Blazer. The teens were all from Kirksville, Mo., and were trying to run away to Canada. Speaks suggested getting a new vehicle when the Blazer began having problems near Marshalltown, leading the group to rob Hauser.

It was Burt Smith who shot and stabbed Hauser, 32, after she asked to see identification from Speaks, who had approached her car after she pulled over, according to trial testimony.

Later, the Blazer broke down, and the teens called their parents in Missouri and asked to be picked up. Their parents contacted police in Marshalltown, and the runaways were briefly held at the station and released before they became suspects in the slaying.

The fourth Missouri teen involved in the killing, Blake Privitt, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and robbery charges and is serving a maximum 75-year sentence at a correctional facility in Rockwell City. He was most recently denied an opportunity at parole in December.

Register reporter Grant Rodgers contributed to this story.