T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Defense attorney Ted Fisher prepares to make his closing statement during the Trequan Cosgrove first-degree murder trial on Thursday. The bench trial was held in the Marshall County Courthouse and is overseen by Judge John Flynn.

The prosecution and defense gave closing arguments during the Trequan Cosgrove first-degree murder bench trial yesterday inside the Marshall County Courthouse.

Assistant Iowa Attorney General Ryan Baldridge told Judge John Flynn that it is not the state’s duty to prove motive. However, he said Cosgrove, 26, of Marshalltown, was mad, upset and embarrassed because his manhood was called into question on Aug. 31, 2024 — the day Ezra Seymour, 23, was killed.

Baldridge said there was a party at Cosgrove’s residence, which he shared with girlfriend Jaimee Alcaraz-Gutierrez, 27. Seymour invited himself into the party, urinated on the floor of the home and refused to leave after Cosgrove told him to. After being escorted out of the house by a female, Baldridge said that is when Cosgrove felt he was made to look like a fool and turned a white Cadillac into a dangerous weapon.

Baldridge supplied a detailed timeline to the court, starting with Cosgrove leaving in his car from The Depot before 3:30 a.m. He then drove to his house on North 12th Avenue. The attorney general played a Snapchat during the party, which showed Seymour standing in the house, arms crossed, shortly after 5 a.m.

Around 5:30 a.m., Seymour was kicked out of the house and seen in a video walking south next to North 12th Avenue.

Baldridge said he refers to the next series of actions as the “murder trip.” At 5:39 a.m., Cosgrove got into his Cadillac and slowly backed it out of the driveway. At 5:45 a.m., there was a phone call between Cosgrove and Alcaraz-Gutierrez, and one minute later, she was seen in a video opening the garage door of their home, providing a hiding location for the Cadillac which pulled in at 5:47 a.m.

At around 5:45 a.m., officers with the Marshalltown Police Department found the body of Seymour in the street with fatal injuries. Showing an aerial photo of the scene, Baldridge pointed out the lack of skid marks, indicating there was no effort to stop or slow down. The Cadillac sustained damage consistent with hitting a pedestrian. Seymour’s hair was found in the crack in the windshield.

On Sept. 1, Baldridge said Cosgrove sent a text stating “I’m going to jail,” which indicated that he knew he would be arrested because what he did was wrong. On Wednesday, MPD Capt. Sadie Weekley told the court about internet searches found the same day on Alcaraz-Gutierrez’s phone about a 2012 Marshalltown vehicular homicide case.

In his closing statement, defense attorney Ted Fisher challenged the timeline, stating that a minute is very long, and asked Flynn if the court would mind a little bit of theatrics. Fisher turned on a stopwatch and for a minute, talked about slowly backing the car out of the driveway while interspersing thoughts of running the guy over who challenged his manhood.

Fisher also pointed out the video clip of Seymour walking by North 12th Avenue, noting that the subject is wearing different clothes. In the Snapchat video and in the MPD bodycam footage, Seymour’s clothes are all black. The subject in the walking video appeared to be wearing light colored clothes.

He said the absence of skid marks does not prove anything, as no testing was done on the condition of the brakes or the tires of the Cadillac. Fisher said the lack of evidence shows what happened to Seymour, while tragic, was an accident.

Alcaraz-Gutierrez has been charged with accessory after the fact, and that jury trial is scheduled to begin March 27.

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.