Duncan found guilty of wife’s murder

After three hours of deliberation Friday afternoon, a jury in Spencer returned a verdict of guilty in the murder trial of a man accused of killing his wife. Seventy-two-year-old Harold Duncan was convicted in the January 2003 shooting of his wife in what prosecutors said was an attempted murder-suicide. Duncan’s attorney argued the couple had struggled over the gun before Kay Duncan was shot in the chest and back, and that she’d fired the shot that left her husband with a head wound. But Clay County assistant attorney Mike Houchins said the jury reached the right verdict. Sentencing is set for Monday morning in the Clay County courthouse. Under Iowa law, the sentence for first-degree murder automatically is life in prison, and the case is also automatically appealed.