Articles Tagged: Murder

A judge on Friday sentenced McKinley Louisma to life in prison without parole for the kidnapping, torture and strangulation of Melody Hoffman, 20, of Marion, on Feb. 17. Melody’s mother said her daughter would want her to forgive Louisma but she couldn’t.

A Cedar Rapids landlord found his first-floor tenant, Dorothy J. Rose, 43, lying face down in her apartment on Nov. 28, 2006. Police found Rose had been strangled with an electrical cord and another item. The murder remains unsolved but is being reviewed again by cold case investigators.

A judge, in two separate pretrial hearings Friday, said trials for Huston Danker and Karina Cooper, both accused of killing Cooper’s husband in 2021, will go forward. Danker will be tried Jan. 21 in Johnson County and Cooper on Feb. 25 in Linn County.

A Johnson County jury Tuesday found Renard Winfield Jr., of Gary, Ind., guilty of first-degree murder in what prosecutors called a revenge plot where Winfield posed as a woman to lure Tommy Curry, of Iowa City, to his death. The jury deliberated nearly four hours on Tuesday.

Renard Winfield Jr., of Gary, Ind., told police during an interview, he didn’t know or kill Tommy Curry, 31, of Iowa City, in April of 2021. He also denied being in Iowa at the time, even though investigators had evidence he was in Iowa City on April 28, when Curry was fatally shot.

Iowa City police investigators testify about numerious pieces of evidence, including cell phone data, surveillance videos and a video made by Renard Winfield, which they say showed he lured Tommy Curry to his death.

An Iowa City police officer testified Thursday some of the ammunition used to kill an Iowa City man is not typically found at crime scenes. Five bullets were “unique and more powerful,“ and able to penetrate metal.

A prosecutor says the fatal shooting of Tommy Curry in 2021 is about revenge -- “a dish best served cold.” Renard Winfield Jr., 32, of Gary, Ind., is accused of posing as a woman on a dating app to lure Curry, of Iowa City, to his death.

A Linn County jury, deliberating for less than two hours Thursday, convicted a Hiawatha man in the February kidnapping, torturing and stranglulation death of 20-year-old Melody Hoffman of Marion.

The autopsy of Melody Hoffman, 20, of Marion, showed blunt force injuries all over her body, along with five stab wounds and numerous cutting marks on her back. A medical examiner also said Hoffman may have been pregnant at the time of her strangulation or recently had a miscarriage, which could be a possible motive for the Hiawatha man on trial for kidnapping and murder.

McKinley Louisma, in a police interview, said his co-conspirator held a gun to his head and started beating a Marion woman and then strangled her.

McKinley Louisma’s phone also shows messages exchanged with victim

Marion police investigators testify about traffic camers and cell tower locations used to track Hiawath man and his co-conspirator accused of kidnapping and killing Marion woman on in February.

The mother of a 20-year-old Marion woman who was kidnapped and killed on Feb. 17 testified Tuesday she always tracked her daughter’s phone and other electronics because Melody Hoffman had an intellectual disability that made it more difficult for her to understand social situations because she was trusting of everybody.

The murder trial for McKinley Louisma, accused of kidnapping and killing Melody Hoffman, 20, of Marion, started Monday in Linn County. The prosecutor told the jury her slaying was “depraved and dehumanizing.”