Buelow Again Appealing His Murder Conviction

A Dubuque man convicted twice of stabbing a woman is again appealing his conviction. 30 year old Fontae Buelow, of Dubuque was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison for fatally stabbing 21 year old Samantha Link of Peosta on March 31st, 2017. Buelow’s attorneys recently filed an initial brief appealing the conviction, arguing there was insufficient evidence presented at trial. Buelow was first found guilty of second-degree murder in a 2018 trial. But in 2020, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a state Court of Appeals ruling vacating Buelow’s prior conviction on that charge, granting him a new trial. The appeals court ruled that records on Link’s mental health struggles should not have been excluded as evidence in the initial trial.