Here you will find samples of my writing from my time in Iowa.

Gibbs trial, day two: ‘He just kept taking hits’ – I covered seven first-degree murder trials while I was in Iowa, and this was the last one I ended up covering. Every trial I covered was emotional, but this was one of the hardest, since the victim was so well-loved and he shared many friends in common with the person who shot and killed him. At issue in this trial was whether the victim had assaulted the suspect’s sister, which would have made it self-defense. The suspect was convicted of second-degree murder. Additionally, I took my own photos during this trial.

It’s not over – In 2012, the sister and mother of a man who had been killed reached out to me because the man who killed their loved one was up for parole. They wanted to keep the man who devastated their family in prison. I wrote this story about their efforts, which ultimately proved unsuccessful, but I’m grateful that they trusted me to tell their story.

Dogs perish, man suffers minor injuries in Otho fire – Tragedy was unfortunately a major part of my job in Iowa. It included the fire in this story, which led to the death of the homeowner’s dogs. I took the photos printed in this article, and I also captured this video while on scene.

Green light – In the summer of 2014, a casino was approved for Jefferson, Iowa, and on the day of its approval, I was sent to town to get local reaction. I was surprised to see that business owners, residents, city and county leaders were almost unanimously in support of the casino. In fact, the one person I did find who was against it didn’t even want to tell me their name. My editor later told me she really enjoyed my work on this article.

Last day on the bench – One of the last stories I wrote while in Iowa was a feature on Judge Thomas Bice, who had reached the mandatory retirement age for judges in the state. When I learned of his retirement, I knew I wanted to write a story about him, so I reached out to the judge and set up a time to talk. We spent about 30 minutes talking about his career on the bench, his memories and his plans for retirement; which included serving as a part-time judge.