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WC murder trial begins

Bassett to be tried for 2018 homicide

-Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Elijah Decious Jury selection for Zackery Bassett's first-degree murder trial in Webster City started Tuesday. The trial comes nearly a year after it was initially scheduled to start. Attorneys attended a pre-trial meeting on March 11, 2020, just days before the pandemic prompted emergency declarations that delayed jury trials until this month.

After a nearly year-long delay caused by the pandemic, Zackery Bassett’s first degree murder trial commenced Tuesday.

Bassett is accused of killing his girlfriend, Andrea Sokolowski, on Sept. 22, 2018, at 639 ½ Second Street, an apartment in downtown Webster City. The defendant has pleaded not guilty.

The 50-year-old victim, who will be referred to strictly as the “decedent” at trial per the defense’s request, was the protected party of a no contact order. The order is one of several items stemming from what criminal complaints paint as an arduous history of domestic violence in the couple’s relationship.

Several pieces of evidence stemming from the nature of their relationship have been points of contention between state and defense attorneys as the case heads towards what’s estimated to be about a 10-day trial, barring COVID-19 complications.

The state intends to submit the protective order between Bassett and Sokolowski and documents regarding requests to lift the no contact order as evidence at trial, which may go towards helping them illustrate motive in their case.

Bassett, 34, was previously convicted of domestic assault against Sokolowski, an incident in which she was found with red grab marks on her arms, chest and back, and blood on her right elbow from a cut. District Court Judge Amy Moore ruled that the 2018 conviction would be more prejudicial to the defendant than probative as a piece of evidence, siding with defense arguments.

Criminal complaints detailing the victim’s death portrayed Bassett as violent and controlling, with multiple incidents of alleged domestic violence for at least a year and a half prior to the victim’s death.

Details in the complaint for Bassett’s murder charge allege that Sokolowski had told friends about being strangled, stalked, and injured before she died. In one instance, the complaint said she told a friend that she feared Bassett would kill her.

The 2018 complaint said that the state medical examiner’s findings included hemorrhaging near the victim’s right carotid artery, petechial hemorrhage patterns around the eyes and face and contusions on the upper arms.

Petechiae, pinpoint red spots, can be a sign of asphyxiation.

In a Tuesday morning ruling, Moore granted the state’s motion barring the defense from bringing Sokolowski’s third operating while intoxicated conviction into the trial.

If state attorneys bring any statements from Sokolowski into trial, defense attorney Paul Rounds made it clear that he intended to highlight the victim’s past convictions for “crimes of dishonesty” to impeach her credibility — two theft convictions and one conviction for filing a false police report — per rules of evidence for admitting hearsay from deceased witnesses. Hearsay is any witness statement regarding the words of someone else.

“It’s our position that should the court allow hearsay statements … (the convictions) should be admissible as if they testified,” he said. “The question is, is she a credible witness? Of all the things that fall within prior convictions, only perjury would be more on point.”

Rounds also objected to the court’s suggested placement for victim advocates at trial — the jury box — saying their emotional reactions, nodding and sympathetic looks during certain testimony in an elevated position would taint the jury.

“They might as well hold up a sign saying ‘believe this person,'” he said.

The jury trial is the first one in Hamilton County in nearly a year since the Iowa Supreme Court ordered a moratorium during the pandemic. Soon, 16 jurors will be seated exactly six feet apart from others, taking up the majority of the small courtroom in benches that would normally be reserved for spectators.

A jury pool of 44 people was brought in Tuesday. Attorneys dipped sparingly into the reserve of those seated in the overflow room as some jurors were excused for various reasons.

Attorneys got about half way through voir dire questioning, the process by which they can ask the pool questions that will help them tailor a jury to their liking. The defense and state are each allotted an equal number of strikes from the jury pool candidates they feel may not be receptive to their arguments.

Some lines of questioning from Assistant Attorney General Keisha Cretsinger may foreshadow the weeks ahead:

Whether jurors would be suspicious of a witness acting nervous on the stand.

Whether jurors support “Blue Lives Matter”.

How much credence a juror might give to testimony from law enforcement officers.

Whether jurors feel it’s possible to prove a case with only circumstantial evidence or without a substantial amount of physical evidence.

Whether jurors thought it was possible to prove someone’s intent.

Voir dire jury selection will continue today.

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