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Traer woman and her lover carried out plot to kill her husband, collect insurance, prosecutor says
Karina Cooper is on trial for first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of her husband, Ryan Cooper, in 2021
Jul. 2, 2025 7:14 pm, Updated: Sep. 4, 2025 11:11 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Karina Cooper carried out a “deliberate and calculated” plan, with the help of her “lover” to kill her husband, Ryan Cooper, on June 18, 2021, a prosecutor said Wednesday during his opening statement in her first-degree murder trial.
Assistant Iowa Attorney General Israel Kodiaga told the jury they will see text messages between Karina Sue Cooper, now 48, of Traer, and Huston W. Danker, 27, of Shellsburg, as they plotted to “murder her husband” and conceal the evidence.
“Remember those casings. No ifs, ands or buts,” Danker wrote in message to Karina, Kodiaga said. Then, Karina replied, “Absolutely. 100 percent.”
Karina and Danker also had conversations about having a family and Karina undergoing IVF treatment. Another message showed Karina saying she “hates” Ryan and wished he had an “accident.”
The jury will see more of the text messages, including some that were deleted.
Kodiaga said Karina and Danker “engaged in a secret affair” after she started cutting his hair. Karina had a salon where the romance with the younger man started, he said.
As their relationship escalated, they started making plans to “eliminate” Ryan Cooper. Karina needed money, and she would have nothing if she left Ryan. He was a farmer and everything he had was tied to his family’s business. But Karina did have something to “gain if Ryan dropped dead” because he had a $500,000 life insurance policy, Kodiaga said.
Karina Cooper is charged with first-degree murder. Danker also is charged with first-degree murder, but he is being tried separately. Karina’s trial was moved to Linn County because of pretrial publicity. Danker’s trial will remain in Tama County District Court. It is scheduled to begin Aug. 12.
The prosecution will continue its case Thursday. The trial will go into next week.
Defendant told police an intruder broke into the house
The story Karina told police had holes bigger than “Swiss cheese,” said Kodiaga, who pointed at Karina to emphasize points during his opening.
She said someone broke into the house and she awakened to loud noises. Then she found Ryan, bleeding, on the recliner. He’d been shot twice in the face.
However, there were no signs of a break-in or struggle, Kodiaga said. No one else in the house -- including Karina and their three children, who were home -- was injured.
Later, as police “dig” into her story, they found out she resented her husband and wanted him dead, Kodiaga said. Months before he died, she made comments to friends that she wanted to shoot Ryan in the face.
The gun wasn’t found at the crime scene. Investigators later found the murder weapon, which belonged to Danker. He had given his guns to a friend and asked him to keep them, Kodiaga said.
One of the .22 caliber shell casings that was fired at Ryan Cooper, striking his face at close range, was found on the floor.
Defense attorney Nichole Watt, who is representing Karina, said in her brief opening that Danker killed Ryan. She said Danker had Karina “living in a dream world.”
It was Danker who solicited and manipulated Karina, Watt said. Karina couldn’t have children because her “tubes were tied.”
“Karina was in too deep,” Watt said.
But she didn’t want her husband dead. She didn’t take off with any money. It’s in a trust for their children, Watt said.
She asked the jury to keep an open mind and not “rush to judgment.”
Sheriff’s deputy was first to respond after 911 call
Tama County Sheriff’s Deputy Kyle Fangman testified he was dispatched to the Coopers’ home at 4:39 a.m. and arrived at 4:42 a.m. to find Karina “lying on top” of her husband, who was in the recliner. She was covered in blood and kept screaming to call an ambulance, but Ryan was already dead.
Karina was sitting on Ryan’s lap with her face against his chest — “kind of curled up against him,” Fangman said.
Fangman first met Ryan’s brother, Aaron Cooper, inside the house and he said his brother was dead. Aaron said he received a series of calls from Karina, saying someone broke in and shot Ryan. Aaron said he couldn’t get much out of Karina because she was screaming and crying.
Fangman had the children go into a bedroom, away from the crime scene, and then tried to talk to Karina, but she continued to scream and cry.
Fangman said Ryan had injuries to the left side of his face and there was a large pool of blood on the left side of the recliner. There was a “swipe” mark in the blood, as if someone walked through it. The blood on Ryan and the floor was already “clotting” or drying, he said.
The wall and door behind the recliner had blood spatter on them.
There was no signs of a break in, Fangman said. No forced entry of doors and windows and no evidence of an intruder or struggle.
After Fangman talked to the Coopers’ oldest son, C.C., he learned the swipe marks were from C.C. slipping in the blood when he went over to check on his dad. C.C. told Fangman he’d heard footsteps and a “thud” but couldn’t recall hearing gunshots.
The boy told Fangman of the intruder, “if you find him, shoot him in the head.”
Karina’s phone was found on the right side of the recliner and the flashlight was on, Fangman said. The living room area was dark when he arrived. He noticed her phone was receiving messages of condolences from people when he picked it up.
Fangman identified graphic crime scene photos of Ryan in the recliner, blood on the floor and walls.
Victim’s brother, son testify about day of the shooting
Aaron Cooper, Ryan’s brother and a volunteer firefighter, testified all the farmland, equipment and properties -- which included his home and Ryan’s -- were owned by Cooper Farms LLC, the family business.
Karina called him that morning, saying an intruder broke in their house. She was “hysterical” and screaming, Aaron said. She didn’t mention his brother. Aaron took his 9 mm gun and called 911 on his way to his brother’s house, which was about a mile or so away.
Aaron said his “threat level” went down when Ryan’s oldest son let him in the house. He also saw Karina lying on Ryan in the recliner. His nephew looked confused and didn’t say anything to him, Aaron said.
He checked on Ryan and couldn’t find a pulse. He said Ryan’s leg was cold to the touch and the blood on his ears and face was already drying, Aaron said. The blood on the floor also was “darkening, not like ‘fresh’ blood would look,” he said.
Aaron said Karina has never told him what happened. She did call him about two weeks after the shooting to tell him police found a shell casing in the house. She wanted to know what that meant. He testified he thought the conversation was “odd.”
C.C., now 15 and a sophomore in high school, testified he usually slept on the sofa next to his dad’s recliner in the living room, but was sleeping in his bedroom upstairs the morning his dad was fatally shot. His mom asked him a few days before to stop sleeping downstairs, the teen said.
C.C. said he was afraid to sleep alone in his room upstairs. His brother also slept upstairs, but in a separate bedroom. He has three siblings.
C.C. said he knew Huston Danker because he had come over a few times to their house, mostly to see his mom. They would sit out on the patio and talk.
One time, his mom and dad got into an argument, possibly about Danker, and C.C. said he was worried his parents would divorce. The argument was serious and his dad had to leave at one point. He went outside for a while. C.C. couldn’t recall when this happened.
C.C. also said he saw text messages from Danker to his mother.
On cross, C.C. said their house was being renovated around the time he was sleeping downstairs on the sofa.
On redirect, he said he had been sleeping on the sofa for about a year.
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