Sioux City man pleads not guilty to murder of woman

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — A Sioux City man charged with first-degree murder has pleaded not guilty.

According to court documents, Edmund Pendleton, 38, was arraigned on Sept. 9. He is charged with first-degree murder and felon in possession of a firearm.

On Aug. 25 at about 1:11 a.m., a man called 911 saying that a woman, later identified as Danielle Dolan, 46, of Sioux City, had shot herself while in a bedroom in a house on the 300 block of 19th Street. First responders arrived and found Dolan with a gunshot wound to her head and a gun in her left hand, unresponsive. She was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.

However, at the time of the incident, a female resident of the home said she heard a gunshot and an “evil ‘witch’ laugh” from Pendleton upstairs, documents state. Pendleton then came downstairs looking for another male resident of the home. That resident was the man who would later call 911.

The man told police that the gun found in Dolan’s hand was the same he had given Pendleton to protect the house.

The State Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and determined that Dolan’s cause of death was a homicide based on the bullet’s trajectory. They also determined that the gun was more than two-to-three feet away when she was shot.

Court documents state that Pendleton was not at the residence when police first arrived. He was later arrested on Aug. 29 .

Pendleton’s jury trial is set to begin Nov. 19, 2024 at 9:30 a.m.

Wesley Thoene contributed to this report.

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