NEWTON — It will be at least another couple of weeks before a Charles City man convicted of murdering a rural Newton man is sentenced.

54-year-old Randy Linderman was found guilty by a Jasper County jury of first-degree murder back in November. Linderman was accused of murdering Jose Berber on March 6th of 2017 in rural Jasper County. A family member found Berber’s body inside his rural Newton home, with an autopsy determining that Berber died of blunt force trauma.

Linderman was scheduled to be sentenced today in Jasper County District Court, but another continuance was granted on Friday by Judge Richard Clogg, with Clogg setting June 3rd as the new date for a sentencing hearing. It’s the fifth delay since his conviction.

Linderman’s attorney Christine Branstad back in late March filed a motion for a new trial, and had filed a motion for a continuance last week, which prosecutors did not resist.

When sentenced, Linderman is facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the opportunity for parole.