Man convicted of murder sentenced to life in prison

A man convicted of first-degree murder has been sentenced to life in prison without parole by District Court Judge Richard Clogg earlier this month.

Randy Linderman, of Charles City, was found guilty of the 2017 murder of Jose Ramirez Berber following a jury trial in November 2018 at the Jasper County Courthouse. After the trial, Linderman hired new council who filed post-trial motions.

“One of the post-trial motions was claiming that they had newly discovered evidence that if the jury would have heard could have altered their verdict,” Jasper County Attorney Scott Nicholson said.

Nicholson said the evidence was then presented to the court in closed sessions. After the new evidence was presented, the state offered a rebuttal.

“The court denied both of their post-trial motions,” Nicholson said.

After the denial of the post-trial motions, the court was able to move to the sentencing where Nicholson said the jury’s verdict of first-degree murder meant the court had less discretion on the sentencing.

“Mr. Linderman was sentenced to life in prison without parole,” Nicholson said.

After the sentencing Nicholson said Linderman has already filed an appeal but he does not know what will be contained in those appeals until everything actually gets put together and he can look at them.

“The notice was filed, once you file the notice that gives you more time to develop your arguments,” Nicholson said.

After the sentencing and appeals are finished, Nicholson said Linderman will go to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center, sometimes referred to as Oakdale, to receive his classification.

“They are there for approximately 30 days while they are being classified as to what kind of offender they are and then they are sent to the appropriate prison setting in Iowa,” Nicholson said.

Contact Dustin Teays at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or dteays@newtondailynews.com