CEDAR RAPIDS – After six days of emotional testimony, digital forensics, and conflicting accounts, closing arguments concluded on Friday, July 11, 2025, in Karina Sue Cooper’s first-degree murder trial. Right at 5 p.m. and within hours of final statements, a jury found her guilty of ...
CEDAR RAPIDS – Closing arguments are expected today in the first degree murder trial of Karina Cooper, bringing to a close a little more than six days of emotional and often intense courtroom proceedings. Cooper, 48, of Traer is charged with first-degree murder in the 2021 shooting death ...
CEDAR RAPIDS — Emotions ran high inside the Linn County Courthouse on Wednesday, July 2, as the first degree murder trial of Karina Cooper, a rural Traer resident accused of killing her husband Ryan on June 18, 2021, began with opening arguments from the prosecution and defense. Aaron ...
TOLEDO — A Tama man who was arrested on drug charges in response to a noise complaint at a residence on June 9 is now facing additional charges over an alleged threat of terrorism and harassment related to his conduct both during the execution of a search warrant and while he was in custody ...
TOLEDO – Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Karina Sue Cooper’s first-degree murder trial will proceed as scheduled beginning July 1 in Linn County. On Friday, June 20, Karina Cooper, 47, and her attorneys Aaron Hawbaker and Nichole Watt both with the Waterloo Public Defender’s ...
TOLEDO — Judge Mark Fisher dismissed allegations of prosecutorial and juror misconduct leveled by the defense and proceeded to issue former Elberon Public Library Director Bailey Jenkins a five-year suspended prison sentence during a hearing at the Tama County Courthouse in Toledo on ...
Alongside the Tama and Toledo police departments, the Tama County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a report of a swatting call believed to have originated from the video game Fortnite in Tama last Wednesday morning. According to a press release from the Tama County Sheriff’s Office, ...
TOLEDO – The saga of the former Elberon Public Library director who has been convicted on two felony charges stemming from events that unfolded at the facility on her final day of work there took another strange turn during last Thursday morning’s sentencing hearing as defense attorney ...
MESKWAKI SETTLEMENT — The 10-year anniversary of Rita Papakee’s disappearance on Jan. 16, 2015 has come and passed, and although that date brought some attention back to the case of the Meskwaki Settlement woman who was 41 when she went missing, members of her family are still frustrated ...
CEDAR RAPIDS — Jacob Samuel Yang, age 36, from Tama, pled guilty last Thursday in federal court in Cedar Rapids to distributing child pornography and possessing child pornography. In a plea agreement, Yang admitted that in March 2024, he sent child pornography to other people. He stored ...