DES MOINES, Iowa — The second-degree murder trial continues against Zachary Gaskill for the 2016 death of local architect Kirk Blunck.
Blunck was found in the stairwell of an East Village building, the Teachout building, on Jan. 24, 2016, after an encounter with Gaskill.
Throughout the second day of trial, there was a consistent line of questioning coming from both the prosecution and defense, both hoping to shed light on Blunck's character.
The defense tried to show an aggressive side to Blunck, but his wife testified that he was anything but aggressive.
"My dad called him 'Easy Eddy' because he was always pretty lowkey, mellow, soft spoken," wife Doreen Blunck said. "He was never violent, he was not a loud person, he hated loud noises."
A former bartender at the Locust Tap, a bar owned by Blunck, saw Blunck the day he passed away. The defense questioned how much he was drinking that day.
"I just don't recall seeing Kirk act in a way that plenty of bar patrons do when they are ordering drinks, slurring their words, falling down, things like that, I've never observed anything like that," former bartender Leslie Nesbit said.
Toxicology reports show that Blunck's BAC at the time of his death was a .176.
Court documents show inconsistencies between Gaskill's stories about what happened the day Blunck died.
Two ex-girlfriends of Gaskill testified, sharing the stories he told them about the incident. One woman he began dating in 2017, one year after Blunck died, testified what Gaskill directly told her.
"One version was he was going to the restroom at the Up-Down [DSM] bar and when he went to the restroom, he actually accidentally went into Kirk Blunck's apartment," said Allison Ruby, Gaskill's ex-girlfriend. "Kirk Blunck started to attack him, so he said that he was defending himself and then it was either him or Kirk who would die. The other version was he said he saw Kirk touching other women inappropriately at the bar and he went and followed him, and that's when the altercation happened."
Another ex-girlfriend from 2020 shared what she heard, and how Gaskill was nervous about going to prison over this incident.
“He was at a bar, and he went upstairs to use the restroom or find a restroom," said Megan Wolf, Gaskill's ex-girlfriend. "He ended up in front of a door and then Kirk came out of the door with a knife and then he ended up over the balcony, Kirk did."
Gaskill is facing up to 50 years in prison. The court will reconvene Thursday morning to continue with the state's witnesses.