A former University of Iowa student accused of attempted murder, theft and fleeing the country will soon face a verdict.

Ali Younes, 22, was charged with attempted murder, first-degree theft and first-degree robbery in 2022. Prosecutors argued that Younes intended to kill Anne Rizzo , a woman he allegedly knocked to the ground and strangled unconscious on the night of April 25, 2022.

Younes waived his right to a jury trial and was prosecuted in front of a judge for the Iowa District Court for Johnson County in early July . The judge then allowed closing arguments to be submitted in writing over the course of the next seven weeks.

The only reason Younes did not kill the woman, prosecutors said in their closing arguments, was that two students were leaving the Art Building West, near

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