A verdict of guilty Monday in the murder trial of Dennis Stonerook. Some three dozen people were in a Glenwood bowling alley the day in February that Stonerook walked in with a rifle and shot another man dead. The prosecutor, Mills County Attorney Marcy Prier, says the jury didn’t take long after it got the case Monday morning. The jury got the case about 9:30 Monday morning, and returned with a verdict about quarter to one. On February 13, Stonerook walked into the bowling alley and shot and killed Mark Mayberry. Stonerook’s estranged wife was there with Mayberry at the time. Stonerook’s lawyers argued that years of heavy drinking and a stroke 9 years ago had left his judgment impaired but the jury didn’t buy the insanity defense and found him guilty of first-degree murder. Preer says Stonerook’s lawyer tried to convince the jury he suffered from dementia and didn’t know the seriousness of his actions, but the jury wasn’t buying it. Prier says she’s pleased with the verdict, thinks that justice was done and that the jury followed the rules and came to the appropriate conclusion. Sentencing is set for the morning of October 31, but Prier explains that for first-degree murder, Iowa law mandates a sentence of life without parole, and the judge must hand down that sentence. The victim’s family will be allowed to give impact statements and address Stonerook, and then he’ll be sent to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale, where prison officials will determine where he’ll serve his sentence.
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