Greene provides little insight on what drove him to kill 2 police officers

Scott Michael Greene provided little insight into what drove him to kill two central Iowa police officers in early morning ambush shootings last year even as he admitted to the crimes inside a Polk County courtroom Friday morning.

Greene pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, telling a judge in two short sentences that he fired the bullets Nov. 2, 2016, that killed Urbandale police Officer Justin Martin and Des Moines police Sgt. Anthony “Tony” Beminio. 

The confession capped six months of heartache for three families and two police departments, but offered little closure and left unanswered questions that still swirl around the murders.

“I don’t think any of us came to this hearing today knowing walking away that we’d have relief or closure and this would be over, because I don’t think any of us will ever get there," Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert said. 

He sat in the third row of the courtroom throughout the 48-minute hearing.

“I don’t feel a sense of relief,” he said. “I know my co-workers don’t. I don’t feel a sense of closure. I’m not at the point of forgiveness … This will live on with us for the rest of our careers and the rest of our lives.”

Greene's guilty plea came during a 9:30 a.m. status conference – usually an uneventful hearing where attorneys and judges discuss scheduling of pretrial litigation and routine matters. Court-appointed defense attorney Matthew Sheeley announced at the outset of the hearing that Greene, 46, intended to change his plea from the “not guilty” plea he entered in December.

Greene indicated several weeks ago that he wanted to plead guilty at the Friday hearing, but word of the dramatic change-of-heart was not made public and did not show up in court filings, Polk County Attorney John Sarcone told reporters.

Sgt. Paul Parizek, the public information officer for the Des Moines department, said the news from the county attorney sounded too good to be true at first.

“We certainly didn’t have any trust or faith in Scott Greene,” Parizek said. “His actions were evil. His attitude has been defiant, insulting. Until we saw it happening, we weren’t ready to cash our chips in and say that he was pleading guilty.”

The courtroom was so full of members from both departments and the Martin, Beminio and Greene families that a dozen officers had to sit in the jury box behind journalists. and a court attendant retrieved metal chairs for seating.

Greene stood before Judge Karen Romano in a pink jail uniform, often giving one-word answers to standard questions asked of a defendant entering a guilty plea. Greene told the judge that he receives Paxil and another medication to treat depression, but said they weren't clouding his judgment nor affecting his decision to make the plea. “I’m fully aware of what’s happening,” he said.

“I took a rifle and I shot an Urbandale police officer at the corner of 70th and Aurora,” he said when Romano asked him to tell her about killing Martin, 24.

“And you agree that that officer died as a result of you shooting him,” Romano asked.

“From what I’ve been told, yes,” Greene replied.

Greene gave a similar one-sentence response to the question about shooting Beminio, 38. “Very similar to the first … I turned right next to the officer and I took the same rifle and I killed him,” he said.

Romano sentenced Greene to serve two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, describing the shootings as “nothing short of an execution.” Greene was also ordered to pay a total of $300,000 in restitution to the officers’ families. He will be transferred from the Polk County Jail to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville before going to another prison.

“It was a horrendous and evil act that was committed that has clearly devastated the families of these victims, and quite frankly it’s also devastated your family and your children,” Romano said in handing down the sentences. “The victims of these offenses were men who took an oath to uphold the law to serve and protect their communities, and what you did brought home the worst nightmare for each of those families and for every family of a sworn peace officer.”

Greene said nothing when asked if he wanted to speak before receiving the sentence.

Martin was sitting in his police vehicle around 1 a.m. on Nov. 2 when Greene ambushed him, shooting him with armor-piercing bullets from an M4 carbine-style rifle. He shot and killed Beminio with the rifle minutes later two miles away before fleeing in his pickup truck. Greene surrendered hours later to a conservation officer in Dallas County.  

Beminio, who began his career in law enforcement in 2001 in Indianola, was an 11-year veteran of the Des Moines Police Department. He was a detective and school resource officer and in 2015 was promoted to sergeant.

"If God can handcraft a perfect police officer, inside and out, it would look just like Tony," Wingert said at his funeral last year.

Martin attended Simpson College in Indianola and graduated in 2015 with a degree in criminal justice. He was looking for jobs in the Des Moines area and thought he might have to move home when he received a call from the Urbandale Police Department, his father said shortly after his death.

“He was the one, if somebody at school was saying something, he would stop them,” Randy Martin said. “That’s who he was. He was a big enough kid and nice enough that they listened to him.”

Members of both officers’ families declined to discuss the plea and sentence with journalists on Friday.

Exactly what triggered Greene remains unknown, but the shootings capped a turbulent month for the father of three.

In October, he was escorted out of an Urbandale High School football game where his daughter was cheerleading after a confrontation in the stands. He captured the incident on video and posted it to YouTube.

Greene attended a court hearing Nov. 1 in which his mother, Patricia Greene, told a judge that he had become so volatile that she wanted him out of the Urbandale home where they both lived. Patricia Greene declined to comment Friday when reached by a reporter, but told a judge at the hearing last fall that she had spent $7,250 on depression treatments for her son since her husband’s death in 2010.

“It’s like my house is just a battlefield,” Patricia Greene said, according to a transcript obtained by the Register.

Members of Greene’s family left the courtroom Friday shortly after the hearing ended and declined to speak with reporters.

At a press conference, Sarcone said that Greene simply did not like police officers. He noted Greene’s documented struggles with mental illness, but dismissed it as a justification for the killings. “He planned this out completely,” Sarcone said.

Search warrant documents that became public in January revealed that investigators found 151 rounds of ammunition inside Greene’s dark blue Ford F-150 pickup truck, as well as a Glock 9mm pistol.

Sarcone shared with journalists pictures of a “hit list” that Greene scrawled on the wall of his cell that included Sarcone's name, both officers Greene shot and deputies that he had altercations with at the jail. The list had check marks next to the names Beminio and Martin. On another part of the wall, Greene wrote “Greene-2, UPD, DMPD-0.”

Sheeley, one of Greene’s defense attorneys, said at the hearing that he believed several defenses could be used if the case went to trial, including an insanity defense that would require proving Greene didn’t realize the consequences of his actions. Sheeley said the defense team consulted with experts that were expected to testify at the trial scheduled for September.

Greene told Romano that he’d spoken with his attorneys about all those options, but still wanted to proceed with the guilty plea and sentencing.

Jill Martin, a cousin to the Urbandale officer, read a victim impact statement at the hearing while holding a picture of her cousin that was taken in September. “You took a great man from us in Justin,” she said. “His very job and passion was to protect you and your family.”

A Polk County crisis worker read a statement on behalf of Beminio’s wife, Zoe Beminio. She described him as a “loving father” who made every effort to be involved in their lives while juggling the demands of a stressful job.  

“Although our family feels broken, we know the actions by this individual will not define us,” the letter read. “As a family we will pick up the shattered pieces and continue to push forward as we know this is what Tony would want. Memories of his extraordinary life will lift us and carry us and will inspire us in the time to come.”

Before the sentence was handed down, Sarcone urged that Greene should serve both consecutively as an acknowledgment of the two lives he took. The prosecutor said he attended church earlier in the morning and offered a quote from the Gospel of John to the courtroom.

“One of the readings today says, ‘No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for one’s friends,’” he said. “Kind of appropriate for today. These two men laid down their lives for their communities. I think we have to recognize that.”

— Reporters Kelly McGowan and Jason Clayworth contributed to this story.