(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Court of Appeals denies the appeal of a woman convicted of murder in Marion County. Michelle Boat was convicted of first-degree murder for stabbing Tracy Mondabough to death as Mondabough sat in a truck outside her Pella home in May of 2020. Mondabough was seeing Boat’s estranged husband.

Boat’s appeal said she should have been allowed to remove a juror who had been a witness at the murder trial of the woman’s ex-husband. The Appeals Court ruling says the juror genuinely said she had no fixed opinion on the merits of the case and she could be impartial.

The ruling also denied Boat’s claim that improper instructions were given to the jury.

The Iowa Judicial Building. (RI photo)

Here’s the ruling: StatevBoat PDF