A Des Moines woman has lost the appeal of her first degree murder conviction for killing her stepson. Shalonda Green was sentenced to life in prison after a jury found her guilty of pushing, choking, punching and kicking her stepson Charles to death two years ago. Her lawyers argued she shouldn’t have been found guilty of first degree murder because the beating happened “in the heat of passion” after the boy had disobeyed her. The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled there’s “no merit” to that argument as the evidence of her guilt is “overwhelming.” The Court also pointed out that Shalonda was a five-foot-eight inch woman, weighing 230 pounds, while her stepson was four-foot-four and weighed just 51 pounds when the beating occurred.
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