Federal murder charge filed in Meskwaki double homicide

Federal authorities are seeking a murder charge against a Meskwaki man accused of using a machete to kill his parents on the Tama County settlement last month.

Gordon Lasley Jr., 25, will make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids Monday afternoon on the federal murder charge. He is accused of killing his parents, Gordon Lasley Sr. and Kim Lasley, at their home on the settlement. He was pulled over driving his mother's car a few hours after the alleged killings.

Lasley told one of his brothers and his girlfriend that he killed his parents, the federal complaint filed Friday states. A motive for the killings has not been disclosed.

Lasley, a member of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi, has been in the Tama County Jail on two state charges of first-degree murder. Authorities have said state charges would be dropped if federal charges were pursued.

The federal complaint filed Friday does not specify which degree of murder charge  Lasley would face. Conviction on a federal first-degree murder is punishable by death or life in prison, while second degree murder carries a life sentence.