At every family Christmas, there will be a present under the tree for Danielle Frasier's grand-nephew labeled "from Uncle Dakota."
Frasier's son, 23-year-old Dakota Toepfer, never got a chance to hold his infant nephew before he was shot to death May 7. The gunman, Joshua Taylor, 21, was charged with murder and pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to serve up to 20 years in prison with a mandatory minimum of five years, as well as pay $150,000 in restitution, as required under Iowa law.
Court records have contained few details about the circumstances of the shooting, but Toepfer's family said he intervened in an argument to protect his sister-in-law, Makayla Grasty, and was wearing nothing but his boxers when Taylor opened fire, shooting him seven times in the front and back.
In his victim impact statement at Tuesday's sentencing, Lakota Malone, Grasty's husband and Toepfer's brother, called Taylor a "coward" and accused him of "hiding behind your gun" when nobody was threatening his safety.
Frasier said the sentence is less than the family think Taylor deserves, but that they agreed to the plea deal in part because they feared Taylor might argue his actions were justified under Iowa's stand-your-ground law. Now, she said, her family has to learn how to grieve, and how to heal.
Taylor's defense attorneys did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Toepfer had struggled with addiction and done stints in prison and lived homeless in Missouri before returning to Iowa in January, Frasier said. He had gotten sober, had a good job in construction and was saving money for a new truck.
"This was the best place he'd ever been in, was right before he was killed," Frasier said.
Malone in his statement said that "for the first time in his life, everything was falling into place" for Toepfer, who he called "one of the nicest, coolest, understanding dudes in the world."
"He had everything going for him, and you took it all away," he told Taylor.
Frasier said Taylor's sentence doesn't feel like justice, but that she's glad he will serve some time instead of having the chance to get off entirely.
"At least he got something out of it," she said. "He's not walking free to go out and kill another person."
That leaves her family to mourn and try to move on. In addition to Christmas, she said, they plan to celebrate Toepfer's birthday each year, support each other and keep his memory alive. At this point, though, she said, she doesn't know what healing will look like.
"I have two kids that haven't even had a chance to grieve. They don't know how to grieve their brother," she said. "... I watched my nieces and nephews. They're just the same way: they don't know how to deal with it."
One thing Frasier said she plans to do is tell her son's story and advocate for changes to the stand-your-ground law that she believes made it harder to prosecute his killer.
"That way things can get changed that need to change," she said.
Toepfer's family said he intervened in an argument to protect his sister-in-law, Makayla Grasty, and was wearing nothing but his boxers when Taylor opened fire, shooting him seven times in the front and back.
I understand the family's concerns, but I would have pushed for murder charges if that was my family member. Unfortunately, I also see their point when the state has SYG laws. They were in a tough position and took the surer thing.