Articles Tagged: kidnapping

The U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District had nearly twice as many trials in 2024 and is ranked second for cases filed among the other 25 federal districts of its size. The district includes Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Fort Dodge and Sioux City.

A judge on Friday sentenced McKinley Louisma to life in prison without parole for the kidnapping, torture and strangulation of Melody Hoffman, 20, of Marion, on Feb. 17. Melody’s mother said her daughter would want her to forgive Louisma but she couldn’t.

A North Liberty man was arrested Tuesday in Linn County on charges that he assaulted a woman in Center Point and attempted to sexually abuse her. He was sentenced this week to 100 years in two other rapes, and faces trial in Johnson County for another rape.

Four members of a rural Iowa family are accused of abducting and abusing an 18-year-old relative who had been handcuffed to a bed and beaten so badly that he had brain bleeding and multiple broken ribs, and who was so malnourished that he weighed just 70 pounds when he showed up at a hospital earlier this year, court documents say.

Linn County prosecutor says investigation leading to three arrests in the kidnapping and fatal assault of 20-year-old Marion woman is the ‘swiftest’ during his tenure. He attributes it to the dedication and work ethic of the multiple law enforcement agencies investigating the slaying.

Family and friends gathered in Marion Thursday night for a candlelight vigil to commemorate the life of Melody Hoffman, a 20-year-old Marion woman who police say was kidnapped and murdered over the weekend.

Data from her iPhone and Apple Watch indicated she was at Morgan Creek Park Saturday night when her heartbeat intensified before it either stopped or the watch was deactivated.

A Storm Lake man, who kidnapped his wife by gunpoint and led police on a foot pursuit through an Iowa City parking ramp last year, pleaded to guilty Wednesday and faces 40 years in prison. His trial was set to start next Tuesday.

A Georgia man was arrested Tuesday after he dropped off a woman authorities say he had assaulted at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics emergency department and then led UI police on a car chase

A Storm Lake man accused of kidnapping his wife by gunpoint and planning to take her to Chicago last December was convicted Sept. 26 for assaulting another inmate in the Johnson County Jail in July. His trial for kidnapping is set for Oct. 24.

Henry Earl Dinkins, 51, was found guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of Breasia Terrell, who was missing for eight months before her remains were found in a pond.

Lamont’e O’Neal, 20, is in custody in Cook County, Ill., on unrelated charges and will be extradited later to face charges in Johnson County, police said.

A man from Mystic, Iowa was arrested in Cedar Rapids Friday on charges that he held his girlfriend and their infant son captive in a room with a knife.

A proposed bill would prevent earned or good time credit from being applied to mandatory mininums for habitual, repeat and violent offenders.

A man was charged with kidnapping Monday after a stand-off with police in an Iowa City parking garage, which ended when the man shot himself, according to police.