Iowa City, Ia (AP) — An Iowa inmate charged with fatally beating two prison employees with a hammer had threatened to assault staff at another prison a year earlier using a different maintenance tool.
Disciplinary records show Michael Dutcher testified that he picked up a mop wringer and threatened to use it as a weapon to attack correctional officers at the state prison in Oakdale. Dutcher’s threat came during an outburst in which a judge said he engaged in “very dangerous actions” that included charging into several officers on a stairway.
Dutcher and inmate Thomas Woodard are charged with murder in the March 23 slayings of Anamosa State Penitentiary nurse Lorena Schulte and correctional officer Robert McFarland, during a failed escape attempt.
