Two stories, posted back to back, by The Gazette today.
First, from Linn County:
A judge found a Marion father, who strangled his 5-year-old son in October 2024, not guilty by reason of insanity. He will serve no prison term.
Matthew Gerald Schleier, 46, was charged with first-degree murder for killing his son, Jack, on Oct. 29, 2024, in the family’s Marion home. Schleier claimed he was insane at the time and three experts who testified during his February trial said he was in a psychosis and couldn’t distinguish right from wrong.
This is the first time in at least 25 years, a judge or jury in Linn County has found a defendant not guilty by reason of insanity.
Then from Johnson County:
A former University of Iowa freshman who attacked and tried to kill a woman walking home from work on campus late one April night four years ago was sentenced Monday to 50 years in prison — nearly double the sentence his attorney requested.
“Relieved,” was how the victim described her feelings after leaving Ali Younes’ sentencing in the Johnson County Courthouse.
Younes, now 22, was living in the university’s Burge Residence Hall on April 25, 2022, when while walking late at night he saw a woman walking across the Iowa Memorial Union footbridge wearing expensive earrings, according to police records. They initially were headed in opposite directions, but Younes turned around and began following the woman — attacking her just after 10 p.m. near the Art Building West, where he tried to kill her with his bare hands.
The courtroom photos of Schleier show a well-dressed white man with a serious, remorseful look on his face, while those of Younes show a young Arab man, in a bright orange correctional system jumpsuit, with an slight smile.
The narratives here are pretty disparate.