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Family of Ryan Cooper mourn loss of ‘father, farmer and friend’ as wife Karina begins life sentence
Karina Cooper was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her involvement in her husband’s death.
Sep. 19, 2025 6:08 pm
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TOLEDO — The family of Ryan Cooper, a Tama County father fatally shot in 2021, pledged Friday to “never stop saying Ryan’s name” in their ongoing effort to honor his legacy four years after his death.
Michelle Wilson — Ryan Cooper’s sister — told a judge that her brother’s death was undoubtedly the result of the “evil, vile … and narcissistic actions” of his wife Karina Cooper, who this July was convicted of first-degree murder for her role in her husband’s death.
Rather than exert more energy or attention in Karina Cooper’s direction, however, Wilson said she wanted to use her time in court to reiterate her family’s dedication to remembering Ryan and uplifting the positive impact he left behind.
“We will never stop saying Ryan’s name. We will never stop celebrating Ryan’s life, and we will never stop supporting Ryan’s greatest and most beautiful legacy: his children,” Wilson said in a victim impact statement. “Ryan will forever be remembered.”
Karina Cooper, 48, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a mandatory sentence for first-degree murder under state code. Her “lover” and co-conspirator Huston W. Danker faces sentencing in Tama County next month after pleading guilty to the same charge.
According to a criminal complaint and testimony during her trial, the pair worked together to kill Ryan Cooper, who was fatally shot while sleeping at his Traer home on June 18, 2021. He was 42 when he died.
Evidence presented at Karina Cooper’s trial showed that she and Danker, now 28, were having an affair and carried out the plot to kill Ryan so they could start a new life together with Ryan’s life insurance policy.
A visibly upset Cooper declined to make a statement at Friday’s sentencing hearing. However, she testified at trial that Danker shot Ryan without her help, and she didn’t tell police out of fear for herself and her children.
Who was Ryan Cooper?
Speaking in court, Ryan’s friends and family remembered him as a “man of few words” who was always ready to help a neighbor in need. He grew up on his family’s farm in rural Tama County, and from a young age, Wilson said it was clear her brother would pursue the family business.
“From the time he was old enough to walk, he was kicking around in cowboy boots and farming from the living room floor with his extensive set of red Case IH die-cast farm implements,” she recalled. “That kid was no doubt going to be a farmer.”
After graduating high school, he joined the family operation in earnest and worked on the farm until his death. He also spent time as a truck driver and cattle producer, but his family said his favorite title was “Dad.”
Ryan had four children, the three youngest of whom he shared with Karina Cooper. In a victim impact statement, his sister-in-law Heather Cooper said she can still picture Ryan walking on the family farm with his two youngest sons in tow.
“It was a full circle family business, something to be proud of. And Ryan would have told you he could not wait to show his boys how it was done. (He was) counting down the years until he could finally throw them up in the tractor and say ‘Get it done,’” Heather said.
Heather said Ryan’s children now live with her and her husband, Aaron, and that they intend to raise them alongside their own children with all the love and support that Ryan would have offered himself had he not been killed.
Family says there can be ‘no justice’ for Ryan’s death
A group of Linn County jurors found Karina Cooper guilty of first-degree murder in July following six days of testimony and more than three hours of deliberation. The case was moved to Linn County from Tama County because of pretrial publicity.
Digital forensic evidence presented at trial showed many texts and Snapchats indicating a romantic and sexual relationship between Karina and Danker. Other messages included Karina saying she “hated” her husband and showed the pair making plans to kill him and conceal the evidence.
In messages exchanged the day of Ryan’s death, Danker wrote to Karina “Remember those casings. No ifs, ands or buts,” to which Karina replied “Absolutely. 100 percent.”
Assistant Iowa Attorney General Mike Ringle told jurors that there were two possible scenarios — one in which Karina was the shooter, and the other in which Danker shot Ryan with Karina’s help. Regardless, he said both pointed toward first-degree murder.
Sixth Judicial District Chief Judge Lars Anderson reiterated that point Friday in his order denying Karina Cooper’s lawyers’ request for a new trial. In doing so, he said the weight of the evidence presented at trial supported the jury’s verdict and that sentencing could proceed as planned.
“This was a senseless crime,” Anderson told Karina Cooper during sentencing. “Your actions, whether you were the one who shot Mr. Cooper or whether … aiding and abetting Huston Danker resulted in his death, you deprived your children of not only a father, but of a mother” given this life sentence.
In reflecting on the ruling, Wilson said in her impact statement that no sentence could truly make up for her brother’s death but that it could help the family put the trial behind them.
“Ryan was sentenced to death by this murderer. Those of us left on earth were sentenced to life without Ryan,” she said. “There is no justice. There will be no forgiveness. What I hope for now is simply closure.”
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