Gregory Arraignment

GREGORY, CLARY, KANE, MANNING, LYONS

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 12/12/2008 at 08:11:12

Maquoketa Sentinel-Press
January 10, 1961

Gregory Murder Arraignment Delayed Until Monday
By Annette Melvold Assist. News Editor

Leonard Gregory, 19, Dubuque, is now scheduled for arraignment in District Court in Jackson County on Monday, Jan. 12 at 9 a.m. in connection with a first degree murder charge in the shooting death of Phil Clary, 34, of rural Zwingle. He had been scheduled to appear Friday, Jan. 9.

Jackson County Attorney Mike Kane expects to present testimony of a motive for the shooting at that time.

Trial information was filed Thursday, Jan. 8, in district court alleging Gregory committed first degree murder on Jan. 2 in the shooting death of Phil Clary.

The trial information contains a written statement given by Gregory to Jackson and Dubuque county authorities.

According to the statement Gregory was to receive $500 and a car from Clayton manning, Maquoketa, for shooting Clary.

Gregory, Manning and Clary drove in a car on a county gravel road northwest of Fulton on Friday morning where Gregory allegedly shot Clary in the back of the head with a 22 caliber pistol, according to information given in the statement and by Jackson County Sheriff Bob Lyons.

After the shooting, Manning and Gregory, thinking Clary was dead, took Clary from the car and pushed him into a deep ditch along the road.

Gregory apparently fled the scene and was later apprehended by Dubuque count authorities.

Manning drove to a relative’s house in Fulton and called Jackson County Sheriff Bob Lyons, summoning him to the scene of Clary’s body.

Lyons dispatched an ambulance from the Jackson County Public Hospital to meet him near the scene.

Clary was unconscious but still breathing when authorities found him. He died at 6 p.m. at Mercy Hospital in Dubuque after undergoing emergency surgery. According to the attending physician, Clary died of a gunshot wound to the head.

The Dubuque man is being held in lieu of $160,000 bond in the Jackson County Detention Center.

The charge of murder in the first degree is regarded as a class A felony punishable by life imprisonment under the new Iowa Criminal Code.

Prior to the shooting, Manning had been on a work release program while serving a one-year sentence for probation violation.

Manning’s work release was revoked and he remains held in the Jackson County Detention Center. He has not been charged in connection with the shooting as of Friday morning.