‘Reopening old wounds’: Two men convicted in 1994 murder of a mom could get out of prison

By Ophelie Jacobson

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    MARSHALL COUNTY, Iowa (KCCI) — Content warning: some content in this article may be disturbing to readers.

Two of the men convicted in the 1994 killing of Iowa mother Rebecca Hauser could get out of prison.

Derek Smith and Burt Smith were 15 years old when they murdered Hauser in rural Marshall County. Investigators say the brothers, and two of their friends, pulled Rebecca Hauser over on a county road while posing as police officers. During the robbery, they shot her, brutally beat her and stabbed her more than 30 times.

Twenty-nine years later, the Smith brothers have a parole hearing set for Sept. 20. They are serving their first-degree murder sentences at the Rockwell City Prison. They were originally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

However, in 2016, a court re-sentenced them to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The state supreme court ruled juvenile sentences without the chance for parole were unconstitutional.

Josh Hauser, 39, is the son of Rebecca Hauser. He was 10 years old when his mother was killed.

He said it feels like old wounds are being reopened once again.

“It’s hard to relive those feelings and go through those same emotions as if it just happened for the first time,” Josh Hauser said in a phone interview with KCCI Tuesday.

Josh Hauser said the grief he feels is generational and that he will never forget what happened to his mother.

“I feel like the roles of victim have been reversed, at least in the public’s eye maybe,” Josh Hauser said. “Now we’re being treated as secondary, and it feels like the guys that did that to my mother are being more victimized now than we are.”

Josh Hauser said it’s unfair that, if these men are released, they will likely live a longer life in society than his mom did.

“I feel like I have been cheated out of the sentencing that was initially put in play,” Josh Hauser said. “I feel like any sense of closure that I had with my mother’s murder has been stripped of — stripped of my family and this is something they will have to live with continually for the rest of our lives and my children’s lives.”

Jayson Speaks was also convicted in Hauser’s murder. Speaks was granted work release in 2020 and is currently serving that in Cedar Rapids.

Blake Privitt pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was granted parole in 2017 and is living at a community-based corrections facility in Fairfield. Privitt is set to be released in 2029.

Josh Hauser said he isn’t sure yet whether he will be at the parole hearing for the Smith brothers.

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