Iowa man released in 2013 killing faces new murder charge

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man who saw his 2013 murder conviction overturned faces a new murder charge for a stabbing death at a Johnston fast food restaurant earlier this week. The Des Moines Register reports that 55-year-old Spencer Antowyn Pierce, of Des Moines, was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder and burglary in the Monday fatal stabbing of 20-year-old Jermaine Whitaker Moses at a Johnston Sonic Drive-In. Police say Pierce attacked Moses and another man when they arrived for work at the restaurant. Pierce was convicted of first-degree murder and drug counts in 2013, along with his girlfriend, in the shooting death of 35-year-old Steve Harmon. But the Iowa Court of Appeals overturned his murder conviction in 2015, ruling there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of murder.