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Traer woman testifies affair was ‘fantasy,’ she didn’t help lover kill her husband
They only had sex once, rest of relationship only existed in texts, chats
Jul. 10, 2025 4:36 pm, Updated: Jul. 11, 2025 7:15 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Karina Cooper, who is on trial for fatally shooting her husband in June 2021, testified Thursday her affair with a much younger Shellsburg man was mostly an “online relationship,” which led to sex just once.
It started with her flirting with Huston Danker when she would cut his hair at her barbershop, but then they started an “online fantasy” relationship, talking about sex and being with each other, Karina said.
“It was like going to a chat room,” Karina testified. “Like playing a video game where you steal cars and shoot at (someone).”
When she and Danker had sex in February of 2021, she was “disgusted” afterward and became scared of losing her husband Ryan and their family, she said, tearing up.
Karina Sue Cooper, 48, is charged with first-degree murder.
Danker, 27, of Shellsburg, also is charged with first-degree murder. He will go to trial Aug. 12 in Johnson County District Court.
The defense rested after Karina’s testimony. Closings arguments will be 9 a.m. Friday and then the jury will begin deliberations. The prosecution wrapped up Wednesday. The trial was moved from Tama County to Linn County.
According to the prosecution’s theory, Karina and Danker wanted to be together. They planned to kill Ryan Cooper for his life insurance policy of $500,000 and $20,000 because Karina didn’t have any money and all of Ryan’s assets were owned by Cooper Farms — his family’s farming business.
A state medical examiner testified Wednesday that Ryan, who was sleeping in a recliner in the living room of their Traer farm house on June 17, 2021, was shot twice on the left side of the face with a .22 caliber rifle.
Both injuries were “independently” fatal — meaning either could cause death. The bullets penetrated his skull and brain, according to the autopsy.
Danker threatened her
In her testimony, during which she cried off and on, Karina said she became scared of Danker and she never told police Danker was the killer because she “panicked” and he was threatening her and her children.
In September 2021, Karina said Danker was watching her and would send her Snapchats saying he knew where she was and what she was wearing or doing. He accused her of sleeping with others and reminded her that his father knew “powerful and dangerous” people.
Karina was also scared of Danker because he was jealous of Ryan and their marriage, which he conveyed in texts and Snapchats. Danker acted as if he were her husband, Karina said.
When asked about the texts and Snapchats the prosecution says are evidence of Karina and Danker plotting Ryan’s killing and their illicit affair, Karina described them as fantasy because Danker was giving her “attention” that her husband, at the time, wasn’t.
She didn’t want her husband dead, she said. Some of the texts or chats of her saying she wanted an accident to happen to Ryan or that she hated him was her “sick sense of humor” or her just being frustrated and saying “nasty” things, she testified.
Karina explained her internet search history, which included “common type of handgun bullets” and which bullets are used in different situations, was because she was enrolled in an online hunter’s safety course.
She needed that information for a test. She wasn’t trying to conceal her searches by using a private browser, she said.
During her testimony, Karina said more than once she didn’t take Danker seriously when he mentioned killing Ryan because he had a reputation for telling “tall tales,” but later she said she was scared of him.
Karina said there were more texts or chats — which were apparently deleted and the prosecution did not have — that contained those threats made by Danker.
In explaining a text sent by Danker about an hour before Karina called 911, at 4:30 a.m. June 18, 2021 — in which Danker told her to get all the shell “casings” and she answered “Absolutely. 100 percent” — Karina said he had made similar jokes before. She said she also was tired and “halfway” read his messages that morning.
Nichole Watt, Karina’s lawyer, asked if she “orchestrated” killing her husband with their three kids in the home or participated in his death. Karina, tearing up, denied it.
Karina said she awoke to a “crashing” noise early on June 18 and thought the shower caddy had fallen again, as she told police during more than one interview. When she went downstairs she found Ryan in his recliner and there was a large pool of blood. She shook his foot but he didn’t respond. After locking herself and the children in a bedroom, she called Ryan’s brother, Aaron Cooper.
She thought someone might be the house and she trusted Aaron and because he is a first responder, she said.
Karina testified she spent some of the life insurance money she received after Ryan was killed to pay off her vehicle and Ryan’s truck, about $23,000, as well as other debts including credit cards and housing expenses for her and the children.
Her lawyer also showed an investment account set up by Karina, which stated she has more than $368,000 of the life insurance money, which is in the three children’s names. Because they are minors, Karina appointed her brother to be the custodian or manager of the money.
Cross examination
On cross, when Assistant Iowa Attorney General Israel Kodiaga asked questions about the texts and chats Karina exchanged with Danker, she stopped crying and denied she had planned to be with Danker.
Kodiaga read some of the texts and chats, or made Karina read them. She tried to dispute some of them, but continued reading them.
Karina agreed she sent texts referring to Ryan as a “sperm donor,” professing her love for Danker, and talking about having a baby with him.
Kodiaga said Karina sent sexual texts to Danker after Ryan was killed, so she must not have been “terrified” of him at that time.
Karina admitted to sending the text.
In another text message, Karina wrote to Danker that she couldn’t wait another summer to be with him. Kodiaga asked wasn’t Ryan killed on the “eve” of summer?
Karina said “Correct.”
Kodiaga asked if, in messages sent by Karina to Danker hours before Ryan was killed, didn’t she refer to herself as Danker’s wife, and also mention touching his private parts, and Karina agreed she had.
He also noted that she didn’t tell investigators, in more than one interview, that Danker shot Ryan and she was terrified of him.
She admitted she did not.
Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com
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