(NEAR EARLY, IA) New details about the 21-year-old man accused of stabbing his mother several times, and kidnapping a Storm Lake woman are emerging. Kirk Riley Levin made his first court appearance today in Sac City, handcuffed and escorted into the courtroom with his public attorney.
This type of life is nothing new to Levin, he's been in prison for the last couple of years on a 3rd degree burglary charge. He's now being held on a $1.2 million dollar bond, and if convicted the judge told him he could face life in prison.
But now, we have new details about what happened just hours after he was released.
A new year normally means a new beginning. And for Kirk Riley Levin, that saying was especially true. He had been released from prison on January 1st, 2013. Officially, a free man.
But instead of turning a corner in his life, Levin headed down Highway 20 in the early morning hours of Thursday, January 3rd.
His destination? Storm Lake, Iowa.
Once he got there, police say he asked Jessica Vega, a friend, for a ride back to his mom's house. Once she agreed, he tied her up and jumped in the driver's seat.
Levin was heading west down highway 20 just a few miles away from Early, Iowa. He turned down Ira Avenue, but he didn't get very far, because his car hit an icy patch in the road and ran off into the ditch. That's when a local farmer stopped to help out.
"I pulled in, alongside the vehicle, and rolled down the passenger window and asked the gentlemen, there if he needed help and he said no," says Gary Schramm, a local farmer and hometown hero.
That's when things began to escalate.
"At about that point, a girl had come out of the car screaming that he had taken her, and that he was going to hurt her, please don't leave her alone with him, and I told her I wouldn't. I asked her to get into the vehicle," says Schramm.
He says, that's when Levin took off.
"To him, it was like, oh it's over with, and I think the only left for him to do was to run," he says.
Vega was reunited with her family a short time later and Schramm recalls just how frightened she was.
"I think she still was scared, till her dad came and then I finally think she had some peace, and knew that she was safe," says Schramm.
Police later found Levin's mother, 45-year-old Marilyn Schmitt, in an upstairs bedroom of her home. An autopsy showed she died from multiple stab wounds.
"Had the farmer not stopped and asked, we believe as investigators that we would have at least two murder victims," says Ken McClure, Sac County Sheriff.
Levin is being charged with first degree murder, third degree kidnapping, Assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and assault while participating in a felony. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 18th, but there's a chance the district court will pick up his case by then.
Hleigh@siouxlandnews.com
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