Zinzer Sentenced to Life in Prison

ZINZER, BELCHER, FORREST

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 3/8/2013 at 11:21:18

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; June 18, 1981

ZINZER SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON

TOLEDO (June 16)--Jeffrey Allen Zinzer, 24, of Ferguson was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for the Nov. 30, 1980, strangulation slaying of Penney Sue Belcher Forrest, 18, of Grinnell.

Judge L. Vern Robinson pronounced the sentence shortly before 11 a.m. in Tama County District Court, denying an appeal bond and overruling defense motions for a new trial and an arrest of judgement.

Zinzer, who has grown a beard since his May 21 conviction, sat quietly as the sentence was pronounced. Life imprisonment is mandatory for first-degree murder under Iowa law.

Members of Zinzer's family also were silent during the proceedings--unlike the outburst which took place when the jury of eight women and four men returned the guilty verdict last month.

Before court convened Tuesday, Zinzer talked softly with his wife Beverly and their son Jeremy. Following the sentencing, authorities hustled him from the courtroom.

Co-defense attorney Barry Kaplan said an appeal will be filed within the mandatory 60-day period, and the judge said Kaplan would be retained as Zinzer's court-appointed counsel.

Prior to the official pronouncement of sentence, Robinson was reminded by Kaplan of a pre-sentence investigation which indicated that "some harm could come" to Zinzer if he was sent to the Iowa State Penitentiary at Ft. Madison. He did not elaborate.

Zinzer will serve his life sentence at Amamosa.

Penney Forrest's partially clothed body was found shortly before noon Nov. 30 on a farm along a dead end road near the Tama-Marshall county line.

During Zinzer's trial, witnesses testified that Forrest was last seen alive in the company of Zinzer following the closing of a Marshalltown nightspot. The two left the scene in Zinzer's van, the witnesses said.

Subsequent examination of the van found bloodstains of the same type as Forrest's, along with several fibers and hairs which investigtors tied to the couple. Prosecutors contended that Zinzer strangled Forrest after she refused to have sexual relations with him, and that he then dropped her body on the Tama county farm, covering it with a blanket and some brush.

Zinzer, testifying in his own behalf, claimed that Forrest had wanted to go home with him, that he refused, and that they then had a "tussle," after which he forced her out of the van. He denied killing her.

Zinzer was arrested at his home in Ferguson on Jan. 16 of this year.