CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – A judge denied a Cedar Rapids man’s request for a new trial and instead, sentenced him to life in prison Friday.
In February, a jury found 25-year-old Denzel Wilson guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Kenyauta Vesey-Keith. The shooting happened in 2023, outside of a bar called “Poppa and Tommyz” in the 1300 block of 1st Avenue southeast in Cedar Rapids.
During Wilson’s trial, prosecutors argued the shooting was the result of tensions between gangs, after Vesey-Keith was acquitted of murder in 2018 for a deadly shooting that had happened in 2016. The jury deliberated for less than four hours, returning a verdict of guilty on the charge of first degree murder, but said Wilson was not guilty of going armed with intent…