POLK COUNTY, Iowa — An Indianola man was sentenced on Friday for the kidnapping and attempted murder of an ex-girlfriend in 2023.
According to the Polk County Attorney’s Office, in December 2023 Jordan Blake Mangum and his then partner Jessica Ann Marie Wheeler drove the victim’s home on Des Moines’ southeast side where they tied her up with duct tape, forced her into a vehicle, and took her to Mangum’s home in Indianola. Later Mangum moved the victim to an unknown location, where the attorney’s office said he and his accomplice strangled the victim, ran her over with the vehicle multiple times, and slit her throat before dropping her off outside a Clarke County hospital.
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The attorney’s office said that two weeks before the kidnapping occurred, Mangum had been charged with domestic abuse – second offense after assaulting the same victim to pressure her into dropping the case against him.
During a plea hearing in June Mangum pled guilty to several charges, including attempted murder and third-degree kidnapping, and told the court that he had assaulted the victim with a knife and put her in a half nelson, but that Wheeler had run the victim over with the vehicle and wanted her dead…