Judge orders separate trials for robbery suspects

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - A federal judge has ordered separate trials for three Iowans charged with robbing drug dealers.

One of the defendants, 22-year-old Jamal Dean, is currently serving a 25-year sentence for attempted murder in the shooting last year of a Sioux City police officer.

The Sioux City Journal reports (https://bit.ly/1gULeUC ) that a judge on Friday granted the separate trials requests of Omaha, Neb., attorneys for Dean, 24-year-old Levon Dean Jr., and 33-year-old Sarah Berg. The three were to have been tried together on May 12.

All three are charged with the April 15, 2013, robbery of a drug dealer at a Sioux City motel room. The Dean brothers are also charged with a similar assault and robbery of a second drug dealer a little more than a week later.

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Information from: Sioux City Journal, https://www.siouxcityjournal.com