Lang
12/12/20
Legal proceedings have been suspended against an Iowa City attempted murder suspect pending a competency evaluation. That’s according to judge Andrew Chappell, who issued his ruling in the case of 34-year-old transient Trell Grant on Thursday.
Grant is accused of robbing and stabbing a clerk at Delimart on Lower Muscatine Road just before midnight on August 21st. Arrest records indicate Grant entered the store, walked behind the counter and quickly and repeatedly stabbed the clerk with a knife until the clerk opened the cash register drawer. Grant then fled the scene with money from the register, leaving his bag behind.
The victim was transported to an area hospital for treatment of multiple stab wounds and required immediate surgery.
Grant was taken into custody later that day at the Town & Campus Apartments on Arthur Street. He’s charged with Attempted Murder and 1st Degree Robbery.
Grant was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to a 3rd Degree Theft charge last July after he stole hundreds of packs of cigarettes from that same Delimart during the overnight hours of June 7th and 8th. Arrest records from the case indicate a Delimart clerk was present during the theft, but did nothing to stop it. It is unknown if that clerk is the same one Grant stabbed, although police say Grant and the clerk he stabbed had a previous history.
Grant has also been trespassed over a dozen times from businesses on Muscatine Avenue, 1st Avenue and Lower Muscatine Road for aggressively panhandling and banging on car windows asking for money.
If convicted on the Attempted Murder and Robbery charges, Grant faces a maximum of 50 years in prison. His next court date has not yet been set.
The earlier theft charge carries a maximum sentence of five years behind bars.