Woman found guilty, man sentenced to prison for Iowa killing
Associated Press
6/22/2022
SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder for the strangulation death of another woman nearly two years ago in her Lake Park home.
A judge found 27-year-old Allison Decker, 27, of Sioux City, guilty Tuesday of the murder charge, as well as theft and conspiracy to commit theft in the death of 25-year-old Angel Bastman, the Sioux City Journal reported. Decker’s codefendant, 25-year-old Justice Berntson, also was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison for attempted murder in Bastman’s death.
Bastman’s body was found in her home on Dec. 22, 2020. She had been strangled with a belt.
Video: Three killed, including gunman, in shooting outside Iowa church (NBC News)
-
Death toll rises to 53 in truck smuggling tragedy
NBC News -
Rudy Giuliani allegedly slapped by supermarket employee in NYC
NBC News -
Houston funeral home offers help processing migrants' bodies
NBC News -
Three American tourists mysteriously die in the Bahamas
NBC News -
Women turning to medication abortions, following Roe v. Wade reversal
NBC News -
Boy Scouts help passengers from deadly Amtrak derailment
NBC News -
Dozens of migrants found dead in abandoned truck in Texas
NBC News -
Missing North Carolina man's boat washes ashore off Portugal
NBC News -
Amtrak train crash passenger describes moments during derailment in Missouri
NBC News -
Experts warn fights among states unlike anything since Civil War
NBC News -
19 children, 2 teachers killed in Uvalde, Texas school shooting
NBC News -
President Biden signs bipartisan gun bill into law
NBC News -
Employee killed at Atlanta Subway over ‘too much mayonnaise’ on sandwich
NBC News -
At least 46 people found dead in semi truck in Texas
NBC News -
At least 3 killed in Amtrak train derailment in Missouri
NBC News -
New cases of BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants spread nationwide
NBC News
-
Death toll rises to 53 in truck smuggling tragedy Two more victims from the overheated and abandoned semi-trailer truck full of migrants found in San Antonio were identified, raising the death toll to 53. The tragedy may be the deadliest human smuggling case in modern U.S. history.
NBC News
-
Rudy Giuliani allegedly slapped by supermarket employee in NYC A supermarket employee is being charged with assault after allegedly slapping Rudy Giuliani on the back at a Shoprite in Staten Island, New York. Giuliani was there campaigning for his son Andrew, who is running for Governor.
-
Houston funeral home offers help processing migrants' bodies Funeral home owner Gregory Compean and his staff carried out similar work with 19 bodies found in a truck in 2003. KPRC's Deven Clarke reports.
Investigators said Berntson and Bastman had been doing heroin together and argued the day before her body was found. The argument led to a fight between Decker and Bastman, and prosecutors said Decker strangled Bastman with the belt. Officials said Bernston did nothing to stop it.
After Bastman was killed, investigators said, Berntson and Decker stole electronics and other household and personal items from the house. Police spotted Berntson driving Bastman's missing rental car in Sioux City four days after her body was found, and he was arrested after a police chase led to him crashing the car.
