DES MOINES – A convicted murderer from Mason City was denied an appeal last week.
Michael Weatherspoon, now age 43, was found guilty back 1998 in the murder of Jerry Dean and is serving a life sentence. It was alleged that Weatherspoon killed Dean in a room at the Willow Inn as the two haggled over who would pay a stripper. Weatherspoon had gone to the Willow Inn and waited outside in a car with the stripper’s two children as she went inside to perform her act for Dean. As the story goes, Dean and the woman engaged in a lengthy discussion on her payment terms, and finally said he would not pay. Weatherspoon eventually entered the room, and after Dean picked up a knife, Weatherspoon punched him and took control of the knife and stabbed Dean 14 times. Dean died at the scene.
Weatherspoon had argued that Dean was mentally ill, violent and that the killing was self defense. A district court judge, Christopher Foy, had previously ruled that Weatherspoon was still not justified in the killing, despite Dean’s supposed condition.
An Iowa appeals court upheld that ruling last week, saying the Weatherspoon never pursued Dean’s mental health records during his trial nor during his first appeal.
“The failure of Weatherspoon to pursue these records in his criminal case or in his first application for postconviction relief serves as a bar to his pending application,” the court ruled.