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Iowa early News Headlines: Sunday, 2/3/2019

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February 3rd, 2019 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 4:00 a.m. CST

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A trial date has been set for a man accused of killing an Iowa high school student almost 40 years ago. Cedar Rapids station KCRG reports that trial for 65-year-old Jerry Burns, of Manchester, has been set for Oct. 14 in Linn County. Burns has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Police arrested him Dec. 19, 39 years to the day after 18-year-old Michelle Martinko was killed. Her body was found the next day inside her family’s car at a Cedar Rapids mall.

MONTEZUMA, Iowa (AP) — A new trial date has been set for a former farmhand charged with first-degree murder in the abduction and stabbing death of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa. The Des Moines Register reports that a judge on Friday set trial for 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera on Sept. 3 in the Poweshiek County courthouse in Montezuma. Trial had been set for April 16. Defense attorneys said they needed more time to go through a massive investigation file from prosecutors.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Funeral arrangements have been set for a University of Iowa student who died this week in sub-zero temperatures that swept the Midwest. Television station KCRG reports that the funeral service for 18-year-old Gerald Belz will be held Monday morning at St. Jude Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids. Burial will be at St. Joseph Cemetery. Officials believe Belz’s death was weather-related. His body was found just before 3 a.m. Wednesday behind an academic hall on the Iowa City campus.

ADEL, Iowa (AP) — The last of several people charged in the starvation death of a 16-year-old Iowa girl has been sentenced to prison. Station KCCI reports that Josie Bousman was sentenced Friday to up to 14 years after she pleaded guilty to neglect and two child endangerment counts in the death of Sabrina Ray. Bousman lived in the home with the teen and was there when the teen died in May 2017. Sabrina weighed just 56 pounds at the time of her death.