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Medical school dean's wife sentenced to 10 years for killing him in Cedar Rapids
Defiance woman guilty of killing husband
Dixie Shanahan marries again, dead husband still in bedroom
Ex-wife accused of fatally stabbing former husband in Davenport despite restraining orders against her in three states
Todd Dvorak, Associated Press Writer
© 2003 Associated Press
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa — The widow of a former University of Iowa medical school dean was sentenced Monday to a maximum of 10 years in prison for fatally stabbing him in the heart during an argument.
Phyllis Nelson, 55, was convicted last month of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Dr. Richard Nelson, 54. She could be eligible for parole in 22 months.
Before she was sentenced, Nelson thanked the judge and her attorney William Kutmus and said it was difficult to imagine feeling more grief than she does now.
“There is nothing that could make me feel more sad...than the death of my husband,” said Nelson, who claimed at trial she acted out of self defense. “My children are fatherless.”
Nelson initially was charged with first-degree murder for stabbing her husband as the two argued at his Cedar Rapids apartment over his affair with a former secretary. The two were in the process of getting a divorce.
Kutmus argued that Phyllis Nelson grabbed the paring knife after her husband became enraged and that he was stabbed accidentally as the couple collided at the kitchen door.
Nelson, executive dean of the university's school of medicine, came to the University of Iowa in 1987 as associate professor of pediatrics. Before that, he held posts at Northwestern, Harvard and the University of Minnesota. He was known for his work on behalf of children with developmental disabilities.
© 2004 Abstracted from stories in TheIowaChannel.com
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
April 30, 2004, Harlan
— The Defiance, Iowa, woman accused of killing her husband and leaving his body in a bedroom of their home for nearly a year is guilty of second-degree murder, a Harlan jury decided Friday just before 10:30 AM.
The jury deliberated for 8 hours before announcing the verdict.
Mandatory sentencing requirements in Iowa call for a 50-year sentence, with 35 years before Dixie Shanahan could be eligible for parole. Under Iowa law the jury is told not to consider the punishment as part of its consideration of the verdict.
It is not yet clear what will happen to Shanahan's three children, although her lawyer said Dixie's recent marriage to Jeff Duty could play a role.
Acquaintances of Scott Shanahan (picture on the left), the husband Dixie is accused of shooting and hiding his body in the family's home for nearly a year, testified that he was a violent and angry person who beat his wife and his mother.
Chuck Brightwell said Dixie Shanahan often covered up the beatings by wearing sunglasses, as well as long-sleeved shirts and pants, even in the middle of summer.
Charlotte Wise, who was Dixie's supervisor at a nursing home in Harlan, said she often noticed her with bruises or a black eye. Wise said she once offered Dixie Shanahan a place to stay, but Dixie told her that Scott would find Wise and retaliate in some way.
Shanahan testified that after the shooting in 2002, she closed the bedroom door and never went into the room again. Scott's body was found a year later. His body was found on October 20, 2003.
Dixie Shanahan said at the time of the shooting, she had been beaten repeatedly for three days by her husband, who was angry that she refused to have an abortion.
Shanahan said she watched him load a shotgun as she lay on the ground in pain.
She said he pointed the gun at her and told her, “This day isn't over yet. I will kill you.”
She said she went into the bedroom to get to a telephone. When he came toward her, she grabbed the gun and shot him in the head. Shanahan said she shut the door, put a towel under it and didn't return to the room after that day.
Prosecutors said the Defiance woman could have escaped her abusive husband — but she waited to kill him when his inheritance ran out.
In opening statements, Assistant Attorney General Charles Thoman said the case is “about choices.”
When his mother died in 1994, Scott Shanahan inherited the house in Defiance and about $150,000. Thoman said the bank account was empty when he died.
Dixie Shanahan married Jeffrey Duty, 43, of Ida Grove, at the Crawford County Courthouse April 9. Duty testified that he never asked why the bedroom was off limits. Duty said he thought “a bunch of abuse must have happened back there.”
July 11, 2008 (AP) — Police in Iowa say a woman traveled halfway across the country to stab her ex-husband in a shopping mall in Davenport.
Debi Olson of Sarasota, Florida, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 52-year-old Mauricio Droguett (muh-REE'-see-oh droh-GEHT') yesterday. He had been working for a traveling circus that had set up in the parking lot of a mall.
Police say Ms. Olson has confessed to investigators.
One of Droguett's circus co-workers reportedly subdued Debi Olson until police arrived.
Droguett had gotten restraining orders against his ex-wife in at least three states, but it's not clear if Iowa was 1 of them.
Police call it a “very strong case of anger.”
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