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Life sentence for deadly Iowa jail escape

Wesley Correa-Carmenaty

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — The Latest on the sentencing of a man who killed a sheriff’s deputy and wounded another while escaping from a western Iowa jail (all times local):

11:10 a.m.

A man who pleaded guilty to murder and 11 other counts for killing a western Iowa sheriff’s deputy and wounding another during a jail escape has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

A Pottawattamie County District judge issued the sentence Tuesday after 24-year-old Wesley Correa-Carmenaty entered guilty pleas to first-degree murder, attempted murder, escape, kidnapping and other crimes. His trial was set to begin Tuesday, but his attorney informed authorities last week that Correa-Carmenaty would change his plea.

Authorities say Correa-Carmenaty had just been sentenced on May 1 to 45 years in prison in an unrelated murder case when he grabbed one of the deputies’ guns while being transferred to the county jail. He shot them both and used the jail van to escape.

He was recaptured that day in Omaha, Nebraska, after carjacking a woman at gunpoint.

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10:20 a.m.

A judge has accepted the guilty pleas of a man charged with killing a sheriff’s deputy and wounding another while escaping from an Iowa jail.

Twenty-four-year-old Wesley Correa-Carmenaty entered the guilty pleas Tuesday to murder, attempted murder, escape, kidnapping and other crimes. His trial was set to begin Tuesday, but his attorney informed authorities last week that Correa-Carmenaty would change his plea in Pottawattamie County District Court in Council Bluffs.

Authorities say Correa-Carmenaty had just been sentenced on May 1 to 45 years in prison in an unrelated murder case when he grabbed one of the deputies’ guns while being transferred to the county jail. He shot them both and used the jail van to escape.

He was recaptured that day in Omaha, Nebraska, after carjacking a woman at gunpoint.

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