(Sioux City)– The case of a northwest Iowa man who pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges in the accidental shooting death of a teenager is headed back to a federal appeals court.
That’s after the U-S Attorney’s Office appealed a lower court’s ruling dismissing a charge against Lathan Barnett of Sheldon.
Barnett pleaded guilty to four counts in the 2002 death of 17-year-old Shelley Gonnerman, also of Sheldon.
Barnett was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Last year, the eighth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back for resentencing.
Last month, U-S District Court Mark Bennett ruled the most serious of the four charges would be dismissed, and he granted Barnett’s request to withdraw his guilty plea to the charge.
The U-S Attorney’s Office is appealing that ruling.
(Story from the Associated Press.).
