Alleged perpetrator has been deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial multiple times
KCJJ Staff
02/22/19
An inmate at a Coralville prison facility faces another charge after being accused of assaulting a nurse.
Few details have been released about the incident, including what led up to the assault and the extent of the nurse’s injuries. But, according to an arrest report, Mark Gear, 50, intentionally assaulted the nurse at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center a little after noon on Jan. 29.
The alleged victim and IMCC staff both reported the incident to police.
Gear is charged with Assault on Persons in Certain Occupations with Intent to Cause Injury, a class D felony carrying up to five years in prison. It is unlikely that charge will go to trial, as a judge has already suggested the case be handled in the same manner as multiple previous assault on police and medical personnel charges filed against Gear, when he was deemed incompetent to stand trial. In a 2018 case, he was deemed “not restorable to competency,” even after undergoing treatment.
Gear was sentenced to the IMCC after agreeing to plead guilty to an Attempted Murder charge in Marshall County in 2003.