Articles Tagged: Murder

Michael Hodges Jr., who knew his assailant, slain in October 2023

Appeals court overturns first-degree murder conviction of Duval Walker Jr., who fatally shot Cameron Barnes on March 17, 2023 in a Marion bar. The court granted a new trial to Walker based on a juror having “actual bias” because he had knowledge of Walker’s previous conviction, which a judge had excluded from evidence at trial to avoid any prejudiced against Walker.

An 18-year-old Cedar Rapids man was sentenced to life with a mandatory minimum to serve before being eligible for parole in the targeted and ambushed attack of 16-year-old Michael McCune in 2023. Dante Irvin conspired with three other teens to fatally shoot McCune in the deadly attack.

Kianna McCune, mother of 16 year-old Michael McCune, who was ambushed and fatally shot in 2023, asked Wednesday — for the fifth time — for for justice during a sentencing for the fourth teen convicted in her son’s murder.

The Coralville man who investigators say was lying in wait to attack his wife, stabbing her to death in their home on Jan. 16, was employed for about a week with University of Iowa Health Care before leaving the position four days before the slaying. His wife, Amber Martin, had worked as a supervisor medical laboratory scientist in the university’s Pathology Department since September.

The Coralville Police Department has released the identity of a woman who died Friday after being stabbed in the 2800 block of Spring Rose Circle.

A Coralville man has been arrested in connection to a fatal Friday stabbing.

Wife of slain Anamosa correctional officer can move forward in her gross negligence claims against the Iowa Department of Corrections and prison officials, according to an Iowa Supreme Court ruling.

Christopher Maxwell is in custody at the Linn County Jail, pending extradition back to Illinois.

He’s accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — an Iowa native and University of Iowa graduate — on a New York City street one year ago.

Megan Hoffman told Logan Kimpton he could have been the “hero of this story” if only he had told police his two friends planned to kidnap, assault and strangle her 22-year-old daughter in February 2024. Instead, he backed out of the plan to save himself.

A Linn County jury convicted Luke Truesdell of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder.

The heartbroken father of Melody Hoffman, who was murdered in February 2024, told her killer, 19-year-old Dakota Van Patten, that he doesn’t deserve to be called human. He is a “monster,” who will be forgotten.

Lon Brown, father of Brent Brown, one of the four people bludgeoned with a metal pipe last year, testified that when Luke Truesdell entered his house after having been in the outbuilding on Brown’s property, where the bodies were found, he was “dazed and mumbling.”

Surveillance video showed the two couples bludgeoned with a metal pipe in June of 2024 were attacked separately. The video was played during day four of the trial for Luke Truesdell, who is charged with four counts of first-degree murder.