Ritenour attorneys claim confession by state witness, request new trial.

Alicia Ritenour

OSKALOOSA- Defense attorneys for Alicia Ritenour have filed a motion for a new trial in her case based upon newly discovered evidence. The newly discovered evidence: an alleged confession to the murder by Jacob Rausch, who was living with Alicia Ritenour at the time of her daughter Ava’s death, and was a witness for the prosecution in Ritenour’s trial.

Documents obtained by Oskaloosa News indicate that the motion was filed on November 24, 2015 after Michael Adams, Ritenour’s trial attorney, stated he became aware that an individual named Jennifer Lobberecht stated to a third person that someone other than Ritneour had killed her daughter Ava. Adams states that he was eventually able to make contact with Lobberecht, when he requested that she provide a written statement of “everything she knew about the [redacted] homicide case.” Adams received a six-page statement on November 19, 2015.

At the time the statement was authored, Lobberecht was incarcerated in the Mahaska County Jail. She had previously been arrested on November 6, 2015 and charged with failure to affix a drug tax stamp, first-offense possession of a controlled substance, carry weapons, unlawful possession of a prescription drug, and trespass.

In her statement, Lobberecht states that Jacob Rausch confessed to her that he had killed Ava Ritenour. Lobberecht states that the confession happened at her apartment in late October 2014, roughly two weeks before Alicia Ritenour’s trial. Lobberecht claims that Rausch said he and another girl killed Ava Ritenour and tried to “pin” the murder on Logan Cavan and Alicia Ritenour. According to Lobberecht’s statement, Rausch further stated that he and another girl “drugged” Cavan and Ritenour, killed Ritenour’s daughter, and then hid the murder weapon in a neighbor’s apartment. Lobberecht also states that Rausch later threatened her not to tell anyone about the alleged confession.

Towards the end of her statement, Lobberecht requests for leniency from law enforcement regarding the charges she was facing at the time she authored the statement.

“I will do anything at this point just to walk free to be with my family that has no idea I know the truth of [redacted],” Lobberecht wrote. “If you want any other info, I’ve got plenty to go around, but as a mother of 3 please let me out soon so I can be home for my 3 to have Thanksgiving and Christmas please,” Lobberecht also wrote. “I’ll give you anything to speed up the process,” Lobberecht said in concluding her statement.

Lobberecht ultimately pled guilty to two of the charges she was initially charged with; first-offense possession of a controlled substance, and carrying weapons. She was ultimately sentenced to a suspended prison/jail sentence on both counts and received probation for both charges. On April 11, 2016, Lobberecht was arrested again for violation of her probation. A probation revocation hearing is set for July 18 at 11 a.m.

On December 12, 2015, Assistant Attorney General Susan Krisko, who was the chief prosecutor at Ritenour’s trial, responded to Ritenour’s request for a new trial. Krisko states that Lobberecht was looking for a lesser sentence to the charges she was facing at the time when she made the statement regarding the alleged confession. She further stated that the woman whom Rausch allegedly killed Ava Ritenour with was “never seen in the home the night or morning of the murder by any of the four witnesses (including the defendant herself).” Krisko requested that a hearing be set on Ritenour’s motion for a new trial and that Judge Gookin deny Ritenour’s request for a new trial.

Ritenour’s defense attorneys initially asked for a limited remand and stay of appellate proceedings so that jurisdiction could be returned to the District Court to hear the motion for a new trial. However, on December 8, 2015, the Iowa Supreme Court denied Ritenour’s request for limited remand. As a result of the decision, District Court Judge Myron Gookin granted a request from her attorneys to stay the motion for a new trial until the resolution of her initial appeal of her conviction.

On Wednesday, a divided panel of judges for the Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed her conviction. Proceedings have not yet concluded for her appeal, however, as she could request further review from the Iowa Supreme Court. If Ritenour requests further review from the Iowa Supreme Court and the high court denies it, her appeal will be concluded and a hearing relating to her pending motion for a new trial will likely be set in District Court. If Ritenour requests further review from the Supreme Court and the high court grants it, any action on her pending motion for a new trial would take place after the court rules on her appeal.