DES MOINES, Iowa – Officials with the U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa, say a Des Moines man was sentenced today (Wednesday) to 384 months in federal prison after a jury convicted him of charges related to firearms straw purchasing and illegally possessing firearms and a machinegun.

According to public court documents and evidence presented at trial and sentencing, believing that a group of people contained a rival gang member, Dontavius Rashawn Sharkey, age 27 and a member of the C-Block gang, open-fired with two firearms into a crowd of people attending a baby shower at a Des Moines apartment complex.  Three teens were struck by Sharkey’s bullets, causing serious injuries to each.  All three survived.  As noted in the government’s sentencing memorandum, “[h]is motive, that a rival gang member happened to be in that crowd, was unconscionable.”

Following the shooting, Sharkey, a convicted felon, recruited an individual to illegally purchase him multiple firearms from various gun stores in the Des Moines area.  One of those firearms was recovered by law enforcement on November 2, 2022, during a search warrant at Sharkey’s Des Moines residence.  During that search warrant, Sharkey ran from police with this loaded firearm, which he had converted to a machinegun with an auto-switch.  Sharkey was captured by an ATF K-9.

Twenty-four months of his sentence resulted from the revocation of his federal supervised release. Sharkey was serving a term of federal supervised release at the time he committed these crimes.  He had been released from federal prison on February 17, 2022, after serving a 60-month sentence for felon in possession of a firearm.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Sharkey will be required to serve three years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

“The Des Moines Police have enjoyed a long-standing working relationship with the ATF, FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office,” stated Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert. “This partnership continues to pay dividends in our community, whereas violent criminals are held accountable for their actions. The collective efforts in this particular case are certainly impressive, and we vow to continue pooling our resources in a relentless pursuit of those individuals who compromise the safety our of citizens through gun violence.”

“The ATF has no greater mission than keeping firearms out of the hands of violent criminals. This case not only demonstrates the lengths to which criminals will go to acquire firearms, but more importantly, ATF’s expertise and commitment to investigating such violations of federal law,” said Bernard Hansen, Special Agent in Charge, Kansas City Field Division, ATF. “With our law enforcement partners and the United States Attorney’s Office, we will continue to work tirelessly to bring those who disregard the safety of our communities to justice.”

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement.  Assistant United States Attorneys Kristin M. Herrera and Adam J. Kerndt prosecuted the case This case was investigated by the Des Moines Police Department – Intelligence Division; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.  Des Moines Police Detective/ATF Task Force Officer Brian Minnehan was the lead agent in the investigation.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. PSN, an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime, is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

(Radio Iowa) – Who better than a dentist to recommend food you can really sink your teeth into? A University of Iowa pediatric dentistry professor has compiled a cookbook that includes family recipes dating back more than a century and 100-percent of the proceeds go to an Iowa charity. Dr. Michael Kanellis says his book, “Iowa Mike’s Family Recipes,” contains 247 pages of tasty kitchen concoctions that cover a range of cuisines and cultures.

“I did this kind of as a project for myself during the pandemic, to try to round up all the recipes that we use on a weekly or monthly basis and self-publish it into a single cookbook,” Kanellis says, “and then one of the third-year dental students at the college thought it might be a good idea to have a fundraiser.”

During just two recent noon-time sales on the Iowa City campus, Kanellis says the cookbook has already raised more than $1,400. All the proceeds from the sale go to a fund at the College of Dentistry to help pay for dental care for kids that don’t have dental insurance,” he says, “or who maximize their benefits and still have more treatment needs.”

His family has a long history with food, as Kanellis’ uncle opened a restaurant, The Majestic Lunch, in Cedar Rapids in 1916. He’s revised and added to the original cookbook, combining recipes he’s accumulated over decades in three-ring binders, recipe boxes and hard drives. It includes Greek, Mexican and Midwestern comfort foods.

“I never liked pork chops until I came across a recipe for baked pork chops that is just amazing and now we eat that a lot, which I’m surprised, so you know it’s good if you don’t like it to start with and then you love it when you taste it,” Kanellis says. “There’s some pasta recipes in there that are incredible. There’s a lot of appetizers, too.”

You can order the book on Amazon, but if you do, Kanellis says it’ll cost more and it won’t benefit the UI’s Pediatric Smiles Fund. Instead, he urges people to contact him directly at: michael-kanellis@uiowa.edu to order the cookbook for $20.

DES MOINES – Gov. Kim Reynolds has issued an extension of a proclamation that authorizes the use and deployment of all available state resources, supplies, equipment, and materials to continue to assist Dallas County and the Perry Community in their response to and recovery from the tragic January 4th shooting at Perry High School. The proclamation extension is effective immediately and continues through March 6, 2024. 

The Department of Public Safety, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other state agencies have been supporting the community since the shooting on January 4th. The proclamation activates the emergency authorities of all state agencies, prompts enhanced coordination processes at the State Emergency Operations Center, and removes any administrative barriers to providing state resources and assistance in the days and weeks ahead.  

You can view the full proclamation here. 

(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