An April trial date is set for a Le Mars man charged with murder for a stabbing at his downtown Le Mars apartment last month. Thirty-five-year-old Jody O’Keefe, in a written arraignment, pled not guilty to murder in the first degree. O’Keefe is accused of fatally stabbing 32-year-old Samuel Toliver in the neck and chest with a butcher knife on January 24th.
Police have said the men worked for different contractors on a construction site south of Le Mars, but they have not released a motive for the stabbing. A judge has set an April 22nd trial date. O’Keefe remains in the Plymouth County Jail on one-million dollars bond.