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State of Iowa
v.
Tacoa Talley
Appellee
State of Iowa
Appellant
Tacoa Talley
Attorney for the Appellee
Louis S. Sloven, Assistant Attorney General
Attorney for the Appellant
Vidhya K. Reddy, Assistant Appellate Defender
Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Opinion
Opinion Number:
Date Published:
Summary
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Benton County, Chad Kepros, Judge. AFFIRMED. Heard by Greer, P.J., and Ahlers and Badding, JJ. Opinion by Greer, P.J. Special Concurrence by Ahlers, J. (12 pages)
Tacoa Talley was tried by jury and convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Jodie Bevans. Talley appeals three decisions made by the district court: the admission of “enhanced” audio from a Snapchat video, the transcript of the social media video, and the submission of disputed language in a jury instruction. OPINION HOLDS: We find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the challenged evidence and did not err in submitting the pertinent jury instruction. As a result, this court affirms Talley’s conviction. SPECIAL CONCURRENCE ASSERTS: While I agree with the majority that the challenged jury instruction is a correct statement of the law, I write separately to suggest some improvement could be made to the stock instruction to provide more clarity.
