Illinois man serving life for killing Independence police officer in 1956 dies in prison

FORT MADISON — An 84-year-old Illinois man serving a life sentence for killing Independence police Officer Harold Pearce in 1956 died this week due to natural causes at the Iowa State Penitentiary.

Warren John Nutter, from Freeport, Ill., died at 11:01 a.m. Wednesday in a hospice room of the prison, where he had been housed due to chronic illness.

Nutter, who began serving his sentence Feb. 10, 1956, was the longest serving inmate in Iowa, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections.

According to an Iowa Supreme Court ruling, Nutter, 18 at the time, obtained a used car from a car lot Jan. 5, 1956, on the pretense of taking it out for a test drive but never intending to buy it. He, along with two other boys, picked up two girls they knew, and, without telling the girls, started out for California.

They drove west on Highway 20 to Earlville, where they broke into a gas station and stole gasoline, candy, cash and shotgun shells, according to the ruling that upheld Nutter’s conviction.

They drove through Independence, at about 75 mph, and after a chase were stopped by police. They were searched and taken to the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office for questioning.

The three boys were in the back office with an officer, and the girls were in the front with another officer. Nutter asked to go to the restroom, where he climbed out a window, went to his car and retrieved a shotgun and shells from under the back seat.

Nutter loaded the gun and went back to the sheriff’s office. Officer Pearce was seated at a desk with his back toward Nutter. Nutter placed the cocked shotgun on a counter facing Pearce and told him to take out his gun with his left hand and put it on the desk.

Pearce instead got up with his gun drawn and approached the counter, where Nutter was standing. Nutter shot Pearce in the chest.

Nutter tried to reload the shotgun, but it stuck.

An officer in the backroom came into the front office and pointed his gun at Nutter, telling Nutter to throw down his gun. The officer stepped back into the other room, and Nutter went over to Pearce and took Pearce’s revolver from under the officer’s arm, where it had fallen when he was shot.

Nutter forced the other officer to let the other teens go. Nutter was found a short time later walking along Highway 150, south of Independence, with Pearce’s handgun.

Nutter was originally sentenced to death by hanging for first-degree murder. The sentence was later changed to life in prison. At the time, he was the youngest defendant to receive a death sentence in Iowa.

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