A north-central Iowa man lost his bid to make a mental-competence defense, in his trial for shooting another man in front of witnesses one day 14 months ago. Jurors found Jesse Keith of Iowa Falls man guilty of first-degree murder. Keith shot Paul Cory several times in front of his home in Iowa Falls on June 17, 2005.
Three days of testimony centered on Keith’s mental state at the time of the shootings. No one disputed that Keith shot Cory at least 8 times, after an argument with Keith’s girlfriend, Kelsey Christensen. It took the jury 6 and-a-half hours to reach their verdict at the courthouse in Eldora.