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Russell asks for change of venue

Mark Russell

A Fort Dodge man facing a possible life sentence for allegedly killing his ex-girlfriend’s mother is asking a District Court judge to move his anticipated jury trial out of Webster County.

Mark David Russell’s first trial for first-degree murder ended in a mistrial in August when District Court Judge Angela Doyle found that there was reason to believe the defendant was suffering from a mental disorder preventing him from understanding the proceedings and effectively assisting in his own defense, a day after jury selection started at the Webster County Courthouse. Doyle then suspended the proceedings and ordered that Russell undergo a psychiatric competency evaluation.

Russell, 31, is accused of bludgeoning 45-year-old Angela McLeod to death on Jan. 20, 2020, in Fort Dodge.

Matthew Moore, one of Russell’s attorneys from the special defense unit of the office of the state public defender, filed a motion on Tuesday, arguing that the pre-trial publicity of the case has tainted the Webster County jury pool.

“A change of venue is warranted where, as here, the ‘glare of publicity’ is focused upon a defendant accused of murder,” Moore wrote.

Moore wrote that “a number of potential jurors” in Webster County have already formed or expressed an opinion on Russell’s guilt and that the prejudice violates his rights to a fair and impartial trial.

Russell’s attorneys are seeking to not just move the trial out of Webster County, but to move it out of the Second Judicial District.

Moore also wrote that the negative public bias and prejudice caused by the pretrial publicity is “so pervasive that he cannot receive a fair and impartial trial in any county within the Second Judicial District.”

“Webster County is served by a variety of media sources, all of which have extensively covered this case,” Moore wrote. “Some of those media sources come from larger cities like Des Moines and Ames and others come from within Webster County.”

A new trial has not yet been scheduled, pending Russell’s competency evaluation at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center (Oakdale).

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