In the winter of 2010, the life of 24-year-old Kelsey Sue Stahl, a White female, was tragically cut short in her Clinton, Iowa, apartment. A 2005 graduate of Clinton High School, Kelsey was working as a Certified Nursing Assistant at Eagle Point Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Friends and family would later recall a noticeable change in her behavior and in her relationship with her live-in boyfriend, Jason Dwaine Tate, in the months leading up to her death.
On the evening of December
21, 2010, a single gunshot from a. 38 caliber revolver ended Kelsey's life. The bullet struck her in the neck. Tate, her boyfriend, would later claim the shooting was a tragic accident. He told authorities that he had found the gun in a dumpster and, believing it to be unloaded, pulled the trigger to show Kelsey, uttering the words, "Baby, it's not loaded." The gun, however, was loaded.
Following the shooting, Tate's actions were not those of a man in a state of panic over an accident. Instead of rendering aid to the bleeding Kelsey, he attempted to dispose of the gun. He then changed his bloodied pants, locked the apartment door, and fled in Kelsey's car. His flight took him to an ex-girlfriend's house in Illinois, where he reportedly confessed that he was "on the run for murder." He was apprehended there a short time later.
Jason Dwaine Tate was charged with first-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm. During his trial, he maintained that the shooting was accidental. However, the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. The court determined that there was sufficient evidence to prove that Tate had acted willfully and deliberately, with premeditation and malice aforethought, specifically intending to cause Kelsey Stahl's death. Tate later appealed his conviction, but the verdict was affirmed. He is currently serving a life sentence.
