Tony Arterberry convicted in girlfriend Rhonda Howard's brutal murder

Before Rhonda Howard died, prosecutors say, she was assaulted, choked, beaten with a shower rod torn from her bathroom wall, and finally bludgeoned to death with cans of vegetables that broke open her skull.

The culprit, prosecutors alleged, was her on-and-off boyfriend, Tony Arterberry. On Thursday, after a three-week trial, jurors convicted Arterberry, 58, of first-degree murder, burglary and robbery in Howard's death.

Investigators brought a wide array of forensic and circumstantial evidence. Just four days before the 56-year-old woman was killed in May, she called police to report her boyfriend had kicked down the door of her Des Moines home, choked her and threatened to kill her, leading to separate charges. She also told her children in the following days that she was afraid of Arterberry.

"He told her exactly what he was going to do, and he did exactly what he said he was going to do," prosecutor Michael Salvner told jurors during opening statements.

And at the crime scene, amid numerous signs of struggle, investigators found Arterberry's DNA under Howard's fingernails, a cigarette butt with his DNA next to her head where her body lay on the basement steps, his DNA on a beer can in her garbage can, DNA from both of them on a bloody sock, and his fingerprints on the broken shower rod that appeared to match some of her injuries.

Although Arterberry also spoke with investigators after his arrest, prosecutors could not use those statements at trial after a judge found Des Moines police repeatedly violated his Miranda rights. The court did allow testimony about Howard's conversations with her children before she died, despite defense protests that such statements were hearsay.

Previously:Police violated Des Moines murder suspect's rights, judge rules in tossing interviews

Arterberry's attorneys argued that investigators jumped to conclusions and settled on him before any investigation took place.

"You will hear a lot about what law enforcement did not do, because they got tunnel vision once they arrested Mr. Arterberry," defense attorney Gina Messamer told jurors, calling it a case of "arrest first, ask questions later."

"You will hear no evidence tying Mr. Arterberry to the murder weapon. No defensive injuries. He doesn’t have any scratches. There’s nothing to show anyone fought against him," Messamer said. "... I think you’ll probably come away from the evidence with the conclusion Mr. Arterberry is no criminal mastermind. There’s no way he could pull this off without any evidence tying to him."

After hearing all the evidence, though, the jury found it sufficient to convict him. The case was submitted to them on Wednesday, and they returned Thursday with verdicts of guilty on all counts, including the robbery charge related to Howard's cell phone and other items taken from her home.

Court records show he is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 21. The mandatory sentence for first-degree murder is life without parole. A separate trial on charges related to Arterberry's alleged assault on Howard four days before her death is scheduled for January.

Arterberry, through his attorneys, indicated he plans to appeal.

"While we accept the jury's verdict, our client maintains his innocence," defense attorney Lucas Taylor said via email. "We believe an appellate court will grant him a new trial based on a number of legal and evidentiary grounds."

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.