The renewed change of venue motion filed April 18 by defense attorneys in the first degree murder trial of Brandon Kasemeier, the 41-year-old man from Waukon charged in the January 21, 2024 death of his estranged wife, Jami Kasemeier, has been denied, marking the second time in the past five months a change of venue motion has been denied in the case.
Kasemeier’s defense team of Raya Dimitrova and Erin Carr of Carr Law Firm, P.L.C., Des Moines had originally filed a motion for a change of venue December 6, 2024 based on pre-trial publicity. That initial motion was denied in January of this year with the understanding that the change of venue motion could be renewed after Iowa First Judicial District Judge Alan Heavens gave approval to a request for the gathering of more information through the surveying of a previous Allamakee County jury pool by a private investigator hired by Kasemeier’s defense team.