Polk County jury convicts man of first-degree murder in killing of girlfriend
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A 43-year-old Iowa man has been convicted of first-degree murder in the beating and strangling death of his girlfriend last year in a Des Moines trailer.
A Polk County jury deliberated less than four hours Tuesday before declaring the Des Moines man guilty of killing Melissa Kay Dean when she tried to leave him.
Christopher Michael Phipps showed now emotion as the verdict was read.
No one in the week-long trial disputed that Phipps killed Dean sometime on Sept. 17-18, 2009. The dispute hinged on his level of guilt.
Prosecutors argued he was guilty of first-degree murder, which mandates a life prison sentence; his public defenders pushed for a manslaughter conviction with a lesser sentence.
After she died, prosecutors say Phipps loaded Dean's body into his pickup truck and drove her to a parking lot, where he called police.
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