Woman wants new trial in Rock Valley murder

Another development in a case involving a controversial death at a Sioux County nursing home. A Rock Valley woman has a new lawyer and is asking for a new appeal of a murder conviction. Court records show her attorney filed an appeal notice with the Sioux County clerk of court’s office for 27-year-old Kristy Van Oort. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 87-year-old nursing-home resident Dick Post in Rock Valley. Post died in April 2002, and Van Oort was sentenced to fifty years in prison. Any flaw in the conviction or sentencing could give the new lawyer, Iowa City attorney Paul Miller, grounds to ask Iowa’s Supreme Court or Court of Appeals to review the case.