Last week the Iowa Court of Appeals declined to overturn the conviction of an Iowan sentenced to five years in prison for shooting at an ag plane in Palo Alto County, Iowa. John Metzger, 56, was found guilty of “going armed with intent” in March 2016. The shooting incident occurred July 31, 2015. An ag pilot was spraying a field in Fairfield Township, Iowa, when a bullet hit the right wing flap of the plane. The pilot was not injured and was able to land the plane safely.
Metzger had a long-running beef with an aerial application operation based in his hometown of Whittemore, Iowa. Per the Appeals Court’s case document, for at least 12 years, Metzger claimed he felt harassed by planes from Steier Ag Aviation Service flying so low over his farm that they would “shake the house.” Around 2005 or 2006, Metzger telephoned Elmer Steier, the company’s founder, to complain an ag plane had flown too close to Metzger’s buildings. Steier recalled Metzger saying he was so upset that if an airplane flew close to his building site, he would “shoot them down.” Steier took Metzger’s threat seriously and told his pilots to steer clear of Metzger’s property.
Continuing from the court document:
But Metzger’s aggravation returned bright and early on July 31, 2015. He awoke at 6:40 that morning when [he claimed] his “house start[ed] shaking.” He ran out his front door while still wearing his bed clothes, looked up, and “saw the plane.” He recalls leaving his house at 7:10 a.m. and driving to the Steier’s airfield. Metzger testified he was “hoping to see what plane it was and write down the numbers” but he “couldn’t make out the numbers” because he “was too far away” and “didn’t have binoculars.” ...
Meanwhile, pilot Derrick Frideres started his shift at Steier Ag Aviation just before 7:00 that morning. His job was to apply insecticide to kill aphids in customers’ fields by flying a yellow and white Cessna Model 188 aerial spray plane.... Just before 8:30 a.m., Frideres saw a “pewter or tan car sitting at the intersection by the east end of the runway.” The pilot thought it was “odd” to see the car parked in that location....
The pilot saw the driver looking up through the windshield before the car finally moved about one-quarter mile, pulling into a “field drive.” At that point, Frideres returned to his work and lost sight of car. A few minutes later, Frideres was “coming up over the trees” at the end of the field when he heard a loud “metallic pop.” The pilot thought something hit the plane. After hearing the popping noise, Frideres saw the tan car driving down the road. He then finished spraying the field and landed the Cessna.
After landing at Steier’s airfield, Frideres met with the company’s current owner, Dennis Meyer. The pilot said: “Denny, I think somebody shot my plane.” Meyer and Frideres located a hole in the right wing flap. Meyer testified the damage was “awfully close to the fuel cell on the airplane and would have been awfully close to the cabin where the pilot was sitting.”
The authorities focused their investigation on Metzger because of his prior threat against the aerial applicator. Metzger admitted to parking and watching the ag pilot for “quite a while,” but he denied shooting at Frideres’s plane.
Metzger told investigators he transported his .22 caliber Marlin rifle and 12-gauge shotgun in the backseat of his car on occasion to shoot at skunks. Asked why he was at the field watching the pilot at all, Metzger replied to an FBI agent: “Because this has been going on for 12 years.… That’s why I was following him around, to see if he was gonna do that again.”
Investigators seized the Marlin rifle and three other long guns from the closet of Metzger’s house while executing a search warrant. The state charged Metzger with four felony counts: terrorism, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, stalking with a dangerous weapon, and going armed with intent. Metzger was acquitted of the first three counts in district court, leaving only the charge of “going armed with intent,” a class “D” felony, for the jury to decide. Upon the jury’s guilty verdict, Meltzer was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $750.
Metzger contended in his appeal that the State’s proof was insufficient to convict him, alleging the State relied on nothing more than “suspicion, speculation and conjecture.”
The Iowa Court of Appeals disagreed. In declining to “disturb the jury’s verdict,” the Court of Appeals stated: “When taken as a whole, the circumstantial evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the State, was sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Metzger committed the offense of going armed with intent.”
