Appeal of Nebraska man serving life for killing son rejected

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) _ The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected the latest appeal of a man who pleaded guilty to killing his 4-year-old son, but who now says a discredited crime scene investigator planted evidence to frame him.

The state’s high court said Friday that a lower court was right to dismiss 40-year-old Ivan Henk’s post-conviction motion last year.

Henk had argued that former Douglas County CSI director Dave Kofoed planted blood evidence in a garbage bin to implicate him in the 2003 death of Henk’s son, Brendan Gonzalez, whose body has never been found. Kofoed was convicted in 2010 of evidence tampering in an unrelated murder case.

Henk argued that without the blood evidence, he would not have admitted guilt and would not be serving a life sentence. But the Supreme Court said “there was ample evidence that Henk would have accepted the plea offer, regardless of the blood evidence from the dumpster.”