Orange City, Iowa — An error by a judge in a Sioux County murder trial will result in a new trial for a Spirit Lake man.
Gregg Winterfeld was convicted in Sioux County District Court in April of 2nd Degree Murder in the shooting death of a Cleghorn man at a rural Sioux County residence. But his conviction has been overturned on appeal, and he faces a new trial.
Winterfeld had originally appealed his conviction on the grounds that his alleged confession, as well as several voicemail messages on his phone, were improperly allowed as evidence in his trial, but should have been suppressed.
The judge who presided over the trial discovered after the trial was complete that the original judge had erred in ruling that the prosecution and defense were each allowed six peremptions, or juror dismissals, during jury selection, when in fact the law allows each side ten peremptions. The judge then expressed his desire to rule on the error’s impact on Winterfeld’s motion for a new trial. At that time, Winterfeld’s attorney added the juror peremption to his grounds for appeal.
The judge in the case issued his ruling Wednesday, denying Winterfeld’s motion for a new trial on the issue of the alleged confession and voicemails, but ruled in favor of Winterfeld in the matter of the jury selection instructions, granting him a new trial on the charge of 2nd Degree Murder.
Winterfeld had originally been charged with 1st Degree Murder, but since the original jury returned a guilty verdict to 2nd Degree Murder, the judge’s ruling states that Winterfeld’s new trial will be for 2nd Degree Murder, since the original jury found him not guilty of Murder in the 1st Degree.
