I am not familiar with legal proceedings, so bear with me. I want to make sure I understand what you're saying. Basically, if they don't add any charges and CR is tried only for Murder One, then the prosecution must feel at least one of the below:
- They have a strong enough case for Murder One that they don't need to add lesser charges?
- That there are no lesser charges to be had (she died right where he approached her)?
- If he did kidnapped her, they can substantiate that in court only as part of the events leading to her death?
Is any of this supporting the idea that a sexual assault hasn't been proven?
Reading the Iowa Murder Statute, posted verbatim up thread, I don't think that the Jury has to actually vote guilty for a crime that lead up to, or contributed to, or set the stage for the death. As long as they are convinced that it did.
The lesser included charges or criminal acts are important, in that under the Felony Murder Rule, if the victim died because of certain criminal acts, then that person is guilty of Murder One. This is written into the Iowa Murder Law.
Recall that a careful read of the arrest warrant and/or its application includes 3 numeric codes, the third of which is a physical lesser included criminal act that supports the Murder One charge.
However, the evidence for the associated acts (the Felony Assault, the Attempted or Completed Abduction or Kidnapping, or the SA) have to be presented in court so the Jury can decide if the lesser crime(s) supports the Murder One charge, especially if the murder itself was not witnessed or not confessed to (as in "I blocked it out").
Of course, CR has already confessed to a continuous chain of behaviors starting with running with her and ending with her "body" in the trunk of his car. If he did not kill her, then who?
Also, if she was alive while he put her in the trunk, or attempted to, that forced confinement in my book constitutes kidnapping. The abduction occurred when he grabbed her on the street, and dragged her to his car. Two different lesser included acts that each support the Murder One charge under the Iowa Murder Statute as written.
I think that the AG has a strong case just as presented in the arrest warrant application. He will present additional facts to the Jury to convince them of his narrative. Providing a menu of Charges to the Jury could run the risk of conviction of a lesser included charge only.
JIMHIOO
(Hello, Alethea are you out there?)
I am NOT an attorney, though I have prepped and worked with many. I am not a WS VE, but I have appeared in open court, in Louisiana 20+ years ago, as an Expert Witness in PI Civil cases only. My only experience with the Iowa Court system was a night in a city jail, a chain gang perp walk across the street to court, and an appearence in front of a Magistrate!