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Bentler files arguments with Iowa Supreme Court
By AMY LORENTZEN/Associated Press Writer
DES MOINES - An Illinois man convicted of fatally shooting his parents and three teenage sisters says a judge should not have allowed socks he was wearing when he was arrested to be used as evidence at his trial.
Shawn Bentler was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder in May 2007 and is serving five life sentences. Prosecutors argued that he drove from his home in Quincy, Ill., in October 2006 and murdered his family in their rural Bonaparte home in southeastern Iowa.
Bentler is appealing his case to the Iowa Supreme Court. He asks the high court to reverse the conviction and sentence and send the case back to district court for a new trial.
A key piece of the prosecution's evidence at his trial was a pair of socks he was wearing when he was arrested. On them was a drop of his mother's blood placing him at the scene of the murders.
His attorney, public defender Theresa Wilson, argued in a brief filed Tuesday that the district court erred when it allowed the clothing to be presented as evidence at trial.
She said the seizure and initial examination of Bentler's clothing violated his constitutional rights. That's because investigators with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation didn't have a warrant to take the clothes from the custody of the Adams County jail, she said.
“The evidence clearly indicates the agents would not have sought a search warrant for the socks but for their discovery of incriminating evidence following the warrantless search and seizure of the socks,” she argues in the brief.
If the court doesn't find that Bentler can appeal based on the clothing suppression argument, he then argues that his trial lawyers were ineffective for failing to have the evidence excluded.
The state's arguments in the appeal are expected to be filed this week.
Shawn Bentler was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder in May 2007 and is serving five life sentences. Prosecutors argued that he drove from his home in Quincy, Ill., in October 2006 and murdered his family in their rural Bonaparte home in southeastern Iowa.
Bentler is appealing his case to the Iowa Supreme Court. He asks the high court to reverse the conviction and sentence and send the case back to district court for a new trial.
A key piece of the prosecution's evidence at his trial was a pair of socks he was wearing when he was arrested. On them was a drop of his mother's blood placing him at the scene of the murders.
His attorney, public defender Theresa Wilson, argued in a brief filed Tuesday that the district court erred when it allowed the clothing to be presented as evidence at trial.
She said the seizure and initial examination of Bentler's clothing violated his constitutional rights. That's because investigators with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation didn't have a warrant to take the clothes from the custody of the Adams County jail, she said.
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If the court doesn't find that Bentler can appeal based on the clothing suppression argument, he then argues that his trial lawyers were ineffective for failing to have the evidence excluded.
The state's arguments in the appeal are expected to be filed this week.
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