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At age 84, a former Iowa emergency manager who was incarcerated for murder passes away

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Coralville, Iowa – The deceased was a former public official who was serving a 50-year term for killing his lover in 2011.

On January 22, at 2:15 a.m., Thomas Lee Hansen passed away at the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center. He was eighty-four.

In 2013, Hansen, the former Emergency Management Coordinator for Johnson County, was found guilty of killing Sharon Gerot.

In May 2011, she was mowing the lawn outside their house when Hansen shot her.

Hansen claimed at his trial that he had just been attempting to frighten her because they were fighting and that it had been an accident.

Hansen requested a new trial, claiming that the jury had been misinstructed and that there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate malice. Additionally, he contended that the evidence had been handled incorrectly.

His conviction was upheld by the Iowa Court of Appeals, which disagreed.

He was sentenced on February 1, 2013. At the time, he was 72 years old.

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