The David Moffitt Iowa murder case involves a Pleasant Hill man convicted of first-degree murder and first-degree burglary for the May 2014 shooting of Justin Michael, a 30-year-old Wells Fargo employee who was killed in his Grimes home while asleep next to his fiancée. A Polk County jury rejected Moffitt’s insanity defense on July 1, 2015, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His conviction was affirmed on direct appeal in 2017, and the Iowa Court of Appeals upheld the denial of his postconviction relief petition on May 7, 2025.
Who David Moffitt Is and Why He Killed Justin Michael
Moffitt dated Angie Ver Huel for roughly three months in the spring of 2013. She ended the relationship that June and began seeing Justin Michael. About two months later, Moffitt took a job at Wells Fargo on the same team as Michael. After Michael announced his engagement to Ver Huel at work in September 2013, Moffitt was sent home, and he had left the company by January 2014.1FindLaw. Moffitt v. State of Iowa
Prosecutors later described the engagement as the trigger for “months of boiling anger.” A search of Moffitt’s home turned up notes documenting activity at Michael’s house and the routines of his neighbors.2Des Moines Register. Boyfriend Murder Trial Investigators also recovered internet searches on how to commit murder and on local police response times.3Drake University News. Mallory Weiser
Moffitt had a history of depression and was taking Wellbutrin and Trazodone during this period. He told a therapist in January 2014 that he was experiencing homicidal thoughts and was briefly prescribed an antipsychotic. He stopped attending therapy but continued the medications sporadically.4Des Moines Register. David Moffitt Murder Iowa
The Planning and the Shooting
In 2014, Moffitt bought a Hi-Point rifle, a red-dot scope, and ammunition from a seller in Sigourney, Iowa, using the name Andrew Wegener, another of Ver Huel’s former boyfriends. He also made a fake ID card bearing Wegener’s name and his own photograph. Prosecutors argued the setup was designed to frame Wegener for the killing.2Des Moines Register. Boyfriend Murder Trial
At about 3:00 a.m. on May 8, 2014, Moffitt broke into Michael’s home at 409 SE Jacob Street in Grimes. Dressed in dark clothing, he entered the bedroom where Michael and Ver Huel were asleep. Ver Huel later said she saw a figure shine a red laser-type light in the room just before the shooting.5Iowa Courts. State v. Moffitt Court Document Moffitt shot Michael four times in the neck, face, and temple. Ver Huel was not physically injured.4Des Moines Register. David Moffitt Murder Iowa He moved a DVD player before leaving, in what prosecutors said was an attempt to stage the scene as a burglary.
How Moffitt Was Caught
About an hour after the shooting, Moffitt crashed his red Ford Taurus into a telephone pole near Highway 141 and 102nd Street, roughly five and a half miles from Michael’s home. He was wearing only shorts when officers arrived. A breath test showed no alcohol, and after citations for the accident, a cab took him back to Pleasant Hill.1FindLaw. Moffitt v. State of Iowa
When investigators returned to the crash site in connection with the Grimes shooting, they found a shoebox near the abandoned car. It held a map of Grimes, ammunition that matched the shell casings at the crime scene, a laser pointer, a Kindle, and a receipt made out to Andrew Wegener.2Des Moines Register. Boyfriend Murder Trial Combined with the surveillance notes and fake ID recovered from his home, the evidence led to his arrest. Moffitt was charged on May 9, 2014, with first-degree murder and first-degree burglary in Polk County.4Des Moines Register. David Moffitt Murder Iowa
The Trial and the Insanity Defense
Testimony began on June 23, 2015, in Polk County District Court. Assistant Polk County Attorneys Steve Foritano and Bret Lucas prosecuted the case. J. Keith Rigg represented Moffitt.3Drake University News. Mallory Weiser
The defense did not dispute that Moffitt killed Michael. It pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, which under Iowa law required proof that Moffitt could not appreciate the nature of his actions or could not tell right from wrong when he fired the shots.6Des Moines Register. David Moffitt Jury Verdict New York psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin testified that side effects of Moffitt’s antidepressants caused manic episodes and left him “completely out of touch with reality.” Rigg told jurors that detailed planning does not rule out legal insanity: “If somebody is delusional, obsessive, psychotic, whatever you want to label it, if they’re in their own world and they’ve left ours, that doesn’t mean that they can’t plan things.”7Des Moines Register. Moffitt Murder Case Goes to Jury
Prosecutors used the same planning against him. They walked jurors through the months of surveillance, the rifle purchased under Wegener’s name, the fake ID, the staged scene, and the internet searches. Foritano argued that Moffitt “clearly understood his actions and their consequences.”6Des Moines Register. David Moffitt Jury Verdict
On July 1, 2015, the jury rejected the insanity defense and found Moffitt guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree burglary.8KCCI. Jury Announced Verdict in David Moffitt Trial On July 28, 2015, the court imposed the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder in Iowa: life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ver Huel read a victim impact statement at the hearing, and Moffitt told the court he was sorry for what he had done.9WHO 13. Moffitt Sentenced to Life in Prison
Where the Case Stands Now
The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed Moffitt’s conviction on direct appeal on January 11, 2017.1FindLaw. Moffitt v. State of Iowa
In May 2018, Moffitt filed a petition for postconviction relief, arguing that his trial attorney was ineffective for not pursuing defenses of diminished responsibility and intoxication. A successful diminished-responsibility argument could at best have reduced the conviction to second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory minimum of 35 years in Iowa. The Polk County District Court denied the petition. It found the evidence of premeditation “overwhelming” and noted that Moffitt’s own expert largely conceded the point. The court also pointed out that the first-degree burglary conviction independently triggered the felony-murder rule, so a diminished-responsibility defense could not have avoided a first-degree murder conviction in any event.1FindLaw. Moffitt v. State of Iowa
On May 7, 2025, the Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed that denial. The court held that the intoxication claim was not preserved because Moffitt had not developed it or secured a ruling on it at the trial level. On the diminished-responsibility claim, the court found that counsel’s decision to forgo the defense was a reasonable strategic choice given the strength of the state’s evidence of planning and intent. The court credited a prosecution expert who concluded Moffitt “clearly planned the killing ahead of time and had the ability to form the intent to kill.”10Radio Iowa. Appeals Court Upholds Urbandale Man’s Murder Conviction11Iowa Courts. Moffitt v. State of Iowa, Case No. 21-1490
Moffitt remains in prison serving his life sentence. No further appeals beyond the May 2025 ruling have been reported.