The convicted murderer filed a motion through his attorneys earlier this week in Kossuth County, according to online court records.

Ricke was convicted last month of killing Algona Police Officer Kevin Cram. He is being held in the Hamilton County Jail awaiting his sentencing, which is scheduled for Aug. 21.

In their filing, Ricke’s attorneys claim the court “erred in overruling defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal as there was insufficient evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Defendant acted with malice aforethought or premeditation. Specifically, the State’s witnesses testified that Mr. Ricke showed no prior animosity or desire to harm Officer Cram. That approximately 90 seconds passed from the time the defendant left the presence of Officer Cram to the shots being fired which was not sufficient time for the defendant to form malice aforethought or premeditation.”

The filing says the prosecution did not prove that Ricke killed Cram with premeditation, and that the jury verdict “is contrary to the evidence.” It also claims the verdict “is not supported by the weight of the evidence.”

Ricke was found guilty of first-degree murder by a Dickinson County jury on July 11, which took less than an hour to deliver its verdict.

Ricke, of Algona, killed Cram on Sept. 13, 2023, when Cram attempted to serve an arrest warrant for third-degree harassment on Ricke at the home of his mother. Following an initial interaction with Cram, Ricke returned with a gun and shot Cram eight times.

Cram died of multiple gunshot wounds.

The sequence of events and shooting were recorded by Cram’s body camera.

During the trial, the defense attorneys said in closing arguments that while body and dash cam footage showed that Ricke shot Cram, what it did not show was if Ricke had acted “willfully and premeditatively or with malice,” which is necessary for a charge of first-degree murder.

The first-degree murder conviction means Ricke will spend his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The trial was moved from Kossuth County to Dickinson County due to concerns that pretrial publicity would impact the ability to find an impartial jury.