Iowa court denies review over Minn. teen’s trials

Published 12:40 pm Saturday, May 7, 2011

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court will not review a motion seeking to combine the trials of a Minnesota teenager charged with killing two convenience store clerks in northern Iowa.

The court denied the review Friday. The order is posted on the state’s online court system.

Seventeen-year-old Michael Swanson, of St. Louis Park, is charged as an adult with murder and robbery in Kossuth and Humboldt counties. He’s accused of killing a clerk in Algona on Nov. 15, then driving to Humboldt and killing another clerk.

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Swanson’s lawyer, Charles Kenville, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, asked the high court to review a lower court decision against combining the trials.

Kenville said he had no comment on the Supreme Court’s decision.