Guilty Verdict Triggers Outburst in Courtroom

ZINZER, FORREST, DAWSON, ULM

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 3/7/2013 at 16:52:21

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; May 25, 1981

ZINZER CONVICTED OF FIRST-DEGREE MURDER

GUILTY VERDICT TRIGGERS OUTBURST IN COURTROOM

TOLEDO (May 21)--A Tama County District Court jury on Thursday found Jeffrey Allen Zinzer, 24, of Ferguson guilty of first-degree murder, and the verdict triggered an emotional outburst from Zinzer's wife and other family members.

Zinzer was accused of the Nov. 30, 1980, strangulation slaying of Penney Sue Belcher Forrest, 18, of Grinnell.

He showed little emotion when the clerk of court read the guilty verdict, which carries with it a mandatory sentence of life in prison. But Zinzer's wife Beverly had to be forcibly parted from Zinzer by a Tama County deputy sheriff. She then cursed Richard Searle, a Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) agent who had testified against her husband, and had to be restrained by the defendant's father, John Zinzer of Des Moines.

Workers in the clerk of court's office said later that she also shouted obscenities at Tama County Attorney Jeffrey Corzatt, who prosecuted her husband along with Assistant Attorney General Robert Blink.

A man identified as Zinzer's brother-in-law called the jurors "a bunch of vultures," and the defendant's mother wept on her husband's shoulder.

ESCORTS JURORS

Members of the jury were kept in the jury room until Zinzer's family members left. The jurors were later escorted out a back door of the courthouse by a Tama County deputy.

District Judge L. Vern Robinson set sentencing for 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 16. A routine pre-sentencing investigation will be conducted.

Barry Kaplan, the court-appointed attorney who led the defense, declined to comment following the verdict. But co-defense counsel Gail Bolivar said that "certain motions" would be filed before June 16, adding that an appeal of the conviction is "a definite possibility."

Friday's verdict made it clear that the jury was convinced by co-prosecutor Blink's dramatic closing argument that 30 seconds, which according to a pathologist was the minimum length of time it took to strangle Forrest, was sufficient "to make up your mind whether to kill someone."

Judge Robinson had given the eight-woman, four-man jury the options of finding Zinzer innocent, or finding him guilty of either first-or-second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter. First-degree murder requires premeditation, or "malice aforethought."

Although much of the evidence introduced during the trial was circumstantial, the state did produce a button from Forrest's coat which had been found in the rear of Zinzer's blue 1979 Ford van. Also produced were head and pubic hair samples which matched those of both Zinzer and Forrest, as well as bloodstains on the carpet and door of the van which proved to be type A -- the same blood type as that of Forrest.

NOSEBLEED

Beverly Zinzer's sister, Catherine Dawson of Des Moines, had testified that her son Teddy had suffered a nosebleed in the van when his aunt Beverly had stopped suddenly on East Fourteenth St. in the capital city sometime previously. It was the boy's type-A blood which the state had uncovered, the defense contended.

But Corzatt, in the state's final summation Wednesday, said the boy would not have fallen toward the rear of the van. Forward momentum, he said, would have sent the boy falling to the front instead.

It was the state's contention that Zinzer strangled Forrest because, in Blink's words, "he was going for sex and didn't get it."

Zinzer himself had testified that he left Slick Sully's Emporium, a Marshalltwow bar, shortly before 2 a.m. Nov. 30, and that Forrest was with him. The two planned to attend an after-hours party, he said.

According to Zinser's version, Penney Forrest was asleep in the rear of the van as he drove through Marshalltown attempting to locate the party. He parked the van in the parking lot of Tiffany's, another bar, crawled into the back and informed Forrest that he was unable to find the address. The two partically undressed, he said, and an argument ensued over whether Forrest could accompany him to his Ferguson home.

A "tussle" followed, during which Forrest tripped twice on a blanket, and Zinzer finally forced her out of the van, he testified. He then drove off, parked for a short time at a Marshalltown supermarket, and finally went home to Ferguson, Zinzer said.

But Blink contended that Zinzer in fact strangled Forrest, dropped her body along a dead-end road on the Joseph Kouba farm near Montour, then returned to Marshalltown in an attempt to find the party and establish an alibi.

The defense attempted to establish that Robert Ulm of Grinnell, who had driven Forrest to Marshalltown on Nov. 29, had both the motive and the opportunity to commit the murder. Ulm, the defense contended, was jealous because of Forrest's refusal to reciprocate his affections. Ulm denied involvement in the crime.

Forrest's body was discoverd by Kouba shortly after noon Nov. 30, lying under a cedar tree. The body was covered with brush and was nude from the waist down.

After talking with several witnesses and placing Zinzer under surveillance for a time, state officials questioned the Ferguson man in early December. He was arrested at his home on Jan. 16.

Since that time, Zinzer has remained in the Marshall County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bond. That bond has been continued, and Zinzer will remain in Marshall County until his June 16 sentencing.