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Murder Trial Postponed for Hiawatha Woman

By Greg Bebermeyer

03/19/2014

Janice Summerford

(KNZA )--The jury trial for a Hiawatha woman charged in the beating death of a 4-year-old boy last March has been postponed for a second time.

28-year-old Janice Summerford had been scheduled to go on trial beginning April 1st on charges including first-degree murder and abuse of a child. However, Brown County District Judge Jim Patton recently granted a motion by Summerford’s court-appointed attorney for a continuance.

William O’Keefe requested the continuance to allow time for an expert witness in women’s abuse issues to conduct a detailed examination of his client and prepare a report.

Judge Patton rescheduled the jury trial for September 29th. It’s scheduled for five days.

Summerford pleaded not guilty last October to six counts.

The child’s father, Lee Davis IV, of Hiawatha, is currently behind bars serving a nearly 20-year prison sentence after being convicted on an amended charge of second-degree murder and felony child abuse.

Authorities say Summerford was Davis’ live-in girlfriend and the child’s primary caregiver.

She was arrested last April following an investigation by the Brown County Sheriff’s Department and remains in the Brown County Jail on one-million dollars bond.

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Comments

chunkymonkey (04/04/2014 1:17 PM)

Why is it that they keep allowing more time when they know no new evidence will come up. The poor little boy they beat to death will not come back to the rest of his family and neither one of these people should ever be allowed to go home to their family especially their other children. The laws for CHILD ABUSERS need to be changed. These CHILD ABUSERS are Terrorists and should be treated as so. Terrorist do not get all their rights neither should these people or those like them.