Luke Truesdell looks into the gallery as he sits with his attorney Adrian Haughton as the jury is polled by a raise of hands during his first-degree murder trial in Linn County District Court in Cedar Rapids on Monday. The jury convicted Truesdell on three counts of first-degree murder in the fatal assaults of Brent Brown, 34, and his girlfriend, Keonna Ryan, 26, of Cedar Rapids, and Amanda Parker, 33, of Vinton, and found him guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder in the death of Romondus Cooper, 44, of Cedar Rapids. Truesdell attacked the four victims with a metal pipe June 5, 2024 in an outbuilding on a property north of Marion. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

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CEDAR RAPIDS — Family members and friends of the four people bludgeoned with a metal pipe last year shed tears and quietly said “thank you” as the judge announced the guilty verdicts for Luke Truesdell on Monday.

The Linn County jury convicted Truesdell, 35, of Marion, on three counts of first-degree murder in the fatal assaults of Brent Brown, 34, and his girlfriend, Keonna Ryan, 26, of Cedar Rapids, and Amanda Parker, 33, of Vinton, and found him guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder in the death of Parker’s boyfriend, Romondus Cooper, 44, of Cedar Rapids.

Family members of Brent Brown stand at the conclusion of Luke Truesdell’s first-degree murder trial in Linn County District Court in Cedar Rapids on Monday. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

The jury deliberated half a day last Thursday, all day Friday and more than two hours Monday following the six-day trial.

The four victims were found June 5, 2024 in an outbuilding at 3699 Otter Rd., north of Marion. The property is owned by Brent Brown’s father, Lon Brown. Both couples were living on the property at the time.

A state medical examiner, during the trial, said Brent Brown, Ryan, Cooper and Parker all died as a result of blunt force injuries to the head. Each of them had “high velocity” injuries.

Dr. Rory Deol, associate state medical examiner, said each victim received at least two or more “blows,” which caused death. He couldn’t be certain on those because one impact or blow could have caused multiple injuries.

According to the toxicology reports, Parker tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamines; Cooper tested positive for meth; Brent tested positive for meth; and Ryan tested positive for meth and amphetamines. However, Deol said the drugs did not contribute to their deaths.

Deol also said some of the injuries were embedded with a “black material,” which could have been the black coating on a metal pipe investigators said was the murder weapon.

A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Luke Truesdell is led from the courtroom after being found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder after the verdict in his trial in Linn County District Court in Cedar Rapids on Monday. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Closings

First Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter, during her closing argument Thursday, called what happened on June 5, 2024 a “mass murder in Marion,” when Cooper, Parker, Ryan and Brent Brown were “executed” and died from blunt force injuries, aberrated lacerations and skull fractures, which are “high velocity” injuries, the kind someone suffers in a vehicle crash.

“But there was no vehicle. There was only Luke Truesdell and a metal pipe,” Slaughter said.

First Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter takes out the alleged murder weapon as she makes the prosecution’s closing statement during the first-degree murder trial of Luke Truesdell in Linn County District Court in Cedar Rapids on Nov. 13. Slaughter tapped the metal pipe on the floor as she made a point in her statement. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Slaughter took the jury through portions of surveillance video taken from the property, which showed what happened before the deadly attack.

Brent Brown and Ryan were out in the yard planting flowers and Cooper and Parker arrived later on a motorcycle. Cooper had picked up Parker from work, Slaughter said.

The video showed Cooper and Parker going toward the outbuilding and Luke following, as his father, Larry Truesdell, went to remove a motor from an old boat that Lon Brown told Larry he could take.

Lon Brown, who owned the property, testified Wednesday that he and Larry were friends.

Cooper went to the outbuilding and Parker came out to get a drink, but then went back inside.

“Never to be seen alive again, but that’s not the last time we hear from her (Parker),” Slaughter said.

Slaughter pointed out that it was a windy day, but the audio in the surveillance video picked up her scream, which Brent and Ryan heard. They stopped what they were doing and went toward the building to check it out. As they got to the building, Luke was coming out, but then Luke did an “about face” and followed them inside. The four never exited the building.

Slaughter asked the jury to watch the surveillance video, which she admitted was shadowy and difficult to see, as Linn County Sheriff Lt. Todd Egli described during his testimony. A close-up view showed Luke’s head going toward the boat, where Larry was working, then Larry went to the outbuilding, she said.

Lon Brown testified Wednesday that later, inside the house, Larry was in Luke’s face telling him something, but Lon couldn’t hear. Lon said Luke was “dazed and mumbling” to himself, so Slaughter said Larry was doing “damage control” because he knew what his son had done.

Luke told law enforcement he went in the outbuilding and saw a body lying on the floor and walked out, but then admitted he “hit them,” confirming each of them when asked.

Slaughter said Luke also told law enforcement he used a metal “bar” and then told law enforcement where to find it — to the right of one of the garage doors in the outbuilding.

The DNA found on the metal pipe belonged to Cooper, Ryan and a mixture of two, but no profile could be determined. The other profile was Luke Truesdell, Slaughter said.

Ryan’s hair also was found on the bloody side of the pipe and Luke’s DNA was found on the non-bloody end, where someone would hold the pipe to “swing” it.

Defense

Patrick McMullen, lawyer for Luke Truesdell, in his closing, painted a different picture — one of reasonable doubt based on the evidence and investigation. He continued to suggest Luke’s father — Larry Truesdell — could be the real killer, as the defense did throughout the trial.

McMullen said while this “mass murder,” was happening, Larry was taking a cigarette break, according to the surveillance video. He wasn’t rendering aid. He was walking in a circle, smoking.

Defense attorney Patrick McMullen makes the defense’s closing statement in the first-degree murder trial of his client Luke Truesdell in Linn County District Court in Cedar Rapids on Nov. 13. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

The prosecution said Luke was in a daze, but could he have been “dumbfounded — absolutely in shock seeing dead bodies?” McMullen asked. Larry seemed worried about his own actions, he said.

McMullen, more than once, asked the jurors to hold the prosecution to its burden and not jump to the same conclusions they did or what law enforcement — specifically, Linn County Sheriff Lt. Todd Egli — did.

“Egli hears what he wants to hear,” when he talked to Luke, McMullen said.

Egli only picked out certain statements by Luke Truesdell to say those make sense or make a confession, McMullen said. Luke’s statements were taken out of context, he said.

When Luke told Egli he “feels amazing,” it was taken out of context, McMullen said. He said the prosecution wanted the jury to believe Luke was relieved after killing the two couples, but right before that statement, Luke was talking about his grandmother having been murdered and was telling Egli about his childhood trauma. Luke wasn’t talking about the murders, McMullen said.

He encouraged the jury to go back and listen to Luke’s statements.

The surveillance video didn’t show Luke entering the outbuilding, only walking toward it, McMullen said. He may have gone to a camper beside the building or back in the tree line, which isn’t visible in the video.

“If the state can’t prove Luke was in the shed, they can’t prove Larry stayed at the boat, he said.

McMullen also argued that the DNA on the pipe could have been left on it a few weeks earlier, the last time Luke was at the property.

The defense attorney also asked why there was so little blood on Luke even though there was blood spatter all over the outbuilding. How could Luke not have blood on him, McMullen asked.

Slaughter, on rebuttal, asked the jurors to use their reason and common sense. The prosecution’s case isn’t based on one piece of evidence, she said. Look at all the evidence taken together. The surveillance videos are only part of the evidence to give “perspective and positions.”

Luke never said his dad killed them, Slaughter said. He said he “hit them” with a metal pipe and told them where to find it. It would have been like “finding a needle in a haystack” without that information. The outbuilding that was packed full of equipment and items, only leaving small pathways to walk through.

Trish Mehaffey covers state and federal courts for The Gazette

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com

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