The death penalty trial of a northern Iowa woman opens in federal court today (Wednesday) in Sioux City. Opening statements will be held this morning in the murder trial of 41-year-old Angela Johnson. The Klemme (CLEM-ee) native is charged with helping boyfriend Dustin Honken in the drug-related slayings of five north-central Iowans in 1993. A federal jury convicted Honken of all five murders this past October, recommending the death penalty for killing 10-year-old Kandance Duncan and her six-year-old sister, Amber. Federal prosecutors say they have 80 people on their witness list, half of those being some of the same witnesses that testified in Honken’s trial last year. One of the key witnesses is expected to be jailhouse informant Robert McNeese, who in 2000 allegedly obtained details from Johnson of where the victims’ bodies were buried. Police shortly thereafter unearthed the victims from two different plots in rural Cerro Gordo County. Johnson’s trial is expected to last well into June.
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