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Attorney: Murder verdict a win for public safety

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November 8th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Chicago attorney says a jury verdict finding a former western Iowa woman guilty of murdering a man in 2001 is a victory for public safety. Stephen Komie on Tuesday praised Sac County Attorney Ben Smith and state investigators for securing Monday’s conviction of Tracey Richter, of Omaha, in the death of 20-year-old Dustin Wehde at her home in Early, Iowa. Komie represented Richter’s first husband, John Pitman III, in a bitter divorce and custody proceeding in the 1990s. Prosecutors say Richter tried to frame Pitman and Komie in a murder-for-hire-scheme in which she had Wehde write in a pink notebook they’d hired him to kill her and her son. Komie says he was surprised to learn last month he’d been framed and he’s “thrilled” Richter had been convicted.