(Spencer)– A man convicted in a 1997 gang killing in northwest Iowa wants a new trial.
Juan Humberto Castillo-Alvarez was found guilty by a judge in January in the slaying of a Spencer teenager in a drug case.
He was convicted of second-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony in the death of 15-year-old Gregory “Sky” Erickson.
Castillo-Alvarez faces up to 85 years in prison.
His attorney has filed a motion in Clay County District Court for a new trial.
Erickson was a police informant when he was kidnapped. He was taken to an abandoned farmhouse near Petersburg, Minnesota where he was tortured and shot to death.
Nine others have been convicted in the case.
Castillo-Alvarez was extradited to Iowa in 2006 after being returned to the U.S. from Mexico.
(From the Associated Press.).
