A former Burlington, Iowa man denied in his attempt to withdraw his guilty plea in the beating case of late Mercer County farmer Fred Rooth. The decision handed down by Judge Frank Fuhr concerning 59 year old Brian Tully, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in December of 2017 after entering a guilty plea to a Class X felony of home invasion. Tully was accused of striking the 83-year old Rooth over the head with a metal desk lamp at Rooth’s rural Joy farmhouse in May of 2017. Rooth would never return home after the attack and eventually died at Genesis Senior Living in Aledo in July of 2018. In Tully’s handwritten motion, he took issue with former Public Defender Dan Dalton’s handling of his case, but Judge Fuhr said in his ruling that nothing in the record substantiates that Mr. Dalton “was in any way ineffective as counsel.” Judge Fuhr added Tully “simply has buyer’s remorse as to the terms of the agreement he entered into at his original plea negotiations.” Tully remains in custody at the Lawrence Correctional Center.