Reexamination of evidence leads to conviction in 2003 case

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man has been convicted in the 2003 sexual assaults of two teenagers after he was linked to the crime through a re-examination of old laboratory evidence. The U.S. attorney’s office announced Friday in a news release that 43-year-old Myron Lee Brandon, of Pacific Junction, Iowa, was found guilty this week of two counts of kidnapping and two counts of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. The release said that Brandon met the 14- and 15-year-old girls in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, and drove them to a rural road outside Pacific Junction, where he burned them with a cigarette and sexually assaulted them at knifepoint. He was identified as a suspect through a Sex Assault Kit Initiative program.