State v. Sumpter

LARSON, Justice.

This defendant, Jerry Bert Sumpter, Jr., was already serving two consecutive life sentences for the 1984 kidnapping and sexual abuse of Janet Levis when, in 1987, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 1980 death of Susan K. Vickers.

Prior to the sentencing for the second-degree murder, the presentence investigator received “victim impact statements” from two aunts and an uncle of Susan Vickers. See Iowa Code § 910A.5A (1987). These statements were included in the presen-tence investigation report, and the court presumably considered them in sentencing Sumpter. The…